Bhimsen
Baiga · deity · Baiga traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bhimsen is the Baiga rain-giver, a deity whose favour is essential for the crops to grow and whom the tribe petitions in the season of sowing. His name and figure derive from Bhimasena, the mighty Pandava of the Mahabharata, but in the tribal cults of Central India Bhimsen has become a distinct god of rain, storm and fertility, worshipped by the Baiga alongside the Gond and other neighbours. He is commonly represented by an unhewn stone or rude image rather than an anthropomorphic idol.
Domains
- rain
- fertility
Powers
- sends the rains that ripen the crops
Epithets
- Bhimsen — the mighty one, giver of rainR. V. Russell & Hira Lal, Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces, vol. II (1916). (secondary)
Sources
- Bhimsen is the rain-giving deity of the Baiga, whose favour is sought for the growth of the crops.: Stephen Fuchs, 'Baiga', Encyclopedia of World Cultures, vol. III (1992). (secondary); Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (London: John Murray, 1939). (primary)