Sachiya Mata
सच्चियाय माता
Kuldevi, family goddess
In Hindu accounts Durga as Mahishasuramardini; in Jain accounts the goddess Chamunda, who took up the Jain faith
At a glance
- Main shrine
- Sachiya Mata Temple, Osian, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan
- Worshipped in
- Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
- Kept by
- Oswal Jain, Rajput (Parmar)
About
Sachiya Mata, also called Osiya Mataji, has her chief temple on a hill at Osian, about 60 km from Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Hindu accounts call her Durga as Mahishasuramardini and the family goddess of the Parmar Rajputs. Jain tradition says she was the fierce goddess Chamunda, won over by the monk Ratnaprabhasuri and made a vegetarian protector of the Oswals. Oswals regard the Osian temples as their mother temples, although few live there now, and not every Oswal family keeps her as its own. The two accounts differ, and this page gives both.
Legend and Origin
Jain account: the Oswals are said to descend from the people of Osian (Upakesha), who became Jains through the monk Acharya Ratnaprabhasuri. As the legend is retold in the modern encyclopedia article on the Oswals, which draws on Handa, Cort and Jain texts, the goddess Chakreshvari urged him to spread the faith in Marwar. The townspeople worshipped Chamunda with animal sacrifice, and a version summarised on the article on the Mahavira temple says she demanded a goat from every householder and a buffalo from every household on each of the nine days of Navratri. The monk restored the life of a king's son (some retellings say son-in-law) and won over the king, named as Utpaladeva or Uppaladeva, and the town. Chamunda was angry at first, and after his sermon she accepted the faith. He named her Sachiya (see the stories below) and made her the protecting deity of the Mahavira temple. The date given for these events, 457 BCE, is traditional and is not historically verified. Hindu account: travel and culture sites say the hill temple was built by the Parmar Rajputs, worshippers of Durga, who called the goddess Sachchi Dhaya, 'the true nourishing mother'. Those sites give 1177 CE (Vikram Samvat 1234, Chaitra) for the temple; other sites say an eighth-century temple of a Parmar king Upendra was rebuilt in the twelfth century by Upaladeva, brother of King Punj, and the Wikipedia article on Osian credits Utpaladeva, brother of Raja Punj and son of Bhimsen of Bhinmal, and places him about 900 to 950 CE in tradition. None of these pages quotes an inscription, so the temple's age is not settled here. Asha Kalia's study of the Osian temples covers the eighth to twelfth centuries in its title.
How the Deity Is Shown
Travel and culture sites describe the main image as Durga in her Mahishasuramardini form, seated on a lion and killing the buffalo demon, in a Nagara-style hill temple with a sanctum and a prayer hall. Hindu sculpture of the Pratihara period (Ganesha, Varaha, Narasimha) is found among the Osian temples. No scholarly description of the image itself was found.
How Families Keep the Worship
Hindu families keep her as the family goddess of the Parmar Rajputs, as the Parmar kul page on this site records; Tod's bardic text gives the Pramara goddess a different name, Sancher Mata. Travel and culture sites say a child's first head-shaving (mundan) is held at the temple and that newly married couples come for a blessing; the Wikipedia article on Osian adds that several Jain clans hold their mundan there. Visitors take off their footwear at the entrance. In Jain tradition she is a samyaktvi, a goddess who has accepted the Jain faith and protects the land and the Oswal clan, and in the Jain account she gave up animal sacrifice. Among Oswal Jain families the Mahavira temple and the Sachiya Mata temple are called mother temples. An ethnographic essay on Jain lineage goddesses (seen only as a search excerpt) says she is not the lineage goddess of every Oswal family, and describes her as a Rajput lineage goddess made suitable for families who were once Rajput and are now Jain. Her worship is also recorded among many other castes of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and north India (Krishna Chaitanya, Arts of India, 1987). The published sources consulted do not set out further family rites, so none are given; the family's own priest and elders will know the practice of their branch.
The Shrine
Sachiya Mata Temple
Osian, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan
The main shrine, on a hill north-east of the Mahavira Jain temple, reached by steps. Osian is about 60 km from Jodhpur, by road and rail from Jodhpur and Pokharan.
Festivals
Navratri
Chaitra and Ashvin, the first nine days of the bright fortnight
A Hindu culture site says the temple gives special emphasis to the Navratri of Chaitra and Ashvin. Her own annual fair, if there is one, was not found in the sources.
Stories and Legends
Ratnaprabhasuri and Chamunda at Osian
In the Jain account, Ratnaprabhasuri and his disciples came to Osian, where the townspeople worshipped Chamunda with animal sacrifice and the monks found it hard to get acceptable alms. Most of the disciples moved on, and he stayed with a few for the rainy-season retreat. When a Mahavira idol was found where a cow let down her milk, the goddess grew angry and asked for sacrifices. His teaching changed her, and she took up the Jain faith as a protector. This is the Jain account of how the Oswals began. Historians treat its date as traditional, and Tod held that the Oswals came from several Rajput tribes.
How she came to be called Sachiya
Two explanations are given. In the Jain account, Ratnaprabhasuri named the goddess Sachiya, from the Sanskrit for 'true', because she had given him true advice, which was to stay in Osian for the rainy-season retreat (Chaturmas). In the Hindu account on culture sites, the Parmars who built the temple called her Sachchi Dhaya, the true nourishing mother, and Sachiya is a short form of that.
Families who keep Sachiya Mata
Kuls, lineages and surnames that sources tie to this deity. Branches within each may keep another.