Cult of Jakhs in Kutch

SR No.: 269137
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Francoise Mallison
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan
Total Pages: 7
Language: English
Classification: Article & 0_not_categorized
File Size: 90 KB

Page 5

मार्च २०१०
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in front of the niches and two white flags. There was no trace of pūjā going on (on December 12, 1997). Desalji and his successors are supposed to come and celebrate their arrival once a year.
Rushbrook Williams quotes a more rational tale on the presence of the Jakhs, as having been told by the last royal bard?. 71 shipwrecked men and a woman are said to have reached on rafts Jakhau (on the West Coast, Abadāsā tālukā,, an ancient harbour the name of which recalls the evento). With their clear skin and tall stature and speaking a language unknown to Kutchis however far they had travelled, they were supposed to have come from Byzantium. They started to travel over the country and to teach their art of medicine, and other sciences, and were given horses in exchange. Their popularity is said to have provoked the jealousy of the cruel Pumvrao who imprisoned some of them. Their brothers, in order to free them, were able to build a ballistic machine on a nearby hill bombarding a part of the palace and killing the king. The queen is said to have organized a massacre of all the Jakhs in revenge, but the people grateful for their kindnesses are said to have worshipped them as saints and even demigods in hilltop temples.
At Jakhau where many Jakh statues existed, the cult seems in recession. The silting-up of the harbour put an end to the commercial activities of the Bhanuśāli who emigrated to Bombay. Their arable land was taken over by Muslims. A small shrine has however been built twelve years ago between the small town and the Sea; seven Jakhs can be seen there on their horses, small statues, 30 to 50 centimeters high. Incense and coconuts bear witness to the existence of a cult.
But the most lively temple is located at the village bearing the very name Jakh near the Padhargadh ruins (Nakhatrāņā tālukā) and near the ruins of a big Siva temple called Pumvreśvar. The shrine on the top of a hill is accessible via a flight of steps, it is an open terrace partially covered by