Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c19.3

c19.3

Dharma cult is a local cult of Western Bengal and is prevalent even in the present days in some districts. The fact that the Dharma cult originated and spread only in some parts of Western Bengal is proved beyond doubt by the local references found in the ritualistic works and the Dharma-maṅgalas; and the sacred places and rivers mentioned in these works have already been localised in different parts of West Bengal, known as Rāḍha.¹ The stone-images of Dharma-ṭhākura are still found in West Bengal and are still worshipped in the temples of Dharma. Again, all the poets of the Dharma-maṅgala literature, whose works have been discovered up till now, belong to the districts of West Bengal. Moreover, in connection with the salutations, found in the opening chapter of some of the Dharma-maṅgalas, to the different gods and goddesses worshipped in the temples of the different localities all over Bengal, we find that Dharma-ṭhākura, in all his names and forms, belong only to the villages of West Bengal.¹ It is also clear from the references that are found in the texts that this cult of Dharma was current among the low-class people like the Hāḍis, Domas, Bāgdis, Fishermen, Carpenters and the like. Archeological investigations have revealed that ideas and practices similar to those of the Dharma cult are to be found also in some parts of Orissa, particularly in Mayurbhanja and its vicinities.² From a comparative study of the thoughts, beliefs and practices of the crypto-Buddhistic cults of Orissa (as Mr. N. N. Bose calls them) and the various forms of the Dharma cult found in the South-Western part of Bengal, it will appear that they are essentially the same in so far as all of them represent only a mixture of later Buddhistic ideas and practices with the popular Hindu beliefs and practices including the beliefs and practices of the Non-Aryan aborigines.