Rani Kajal

Rani Kajal is one of the most prominent goddesses of the Bhil and closely related Bhilala communities of the Narmada valley. In the Gayana, the Bhilala song of creation transcribed by Amita Baviskar from singers of Anjanwara village, Rani Kajal appears as the queen of the primordial world: when the world-mountain is thrown into disorder she weeps, consults her husband's younger brother Ratukamai, and sends for the bard Malgu Gayan whose singing helps set creation right. She is worshipped as mother and kuldevi, her main temple standing on a hill near Mathvad on the Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh border above the Narmada, and she is also counted among the chief deities painted in the Pithora ritual murals of the region.

Domains

• motherhood
• clan protection

Powers

• to summon bards and gods to repair the damaged primordial world
• to protect the households and clans that keep her as their mother goddess

Epithets

• RānīAmita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. (secondary)

Sources

• Rani Kajal is the great mother and clan goddess of the Bhil and Bhilala peoples, a queenly figure of the Gayana creation song who also appears among the chief deities of the Pithora ritual paintings.: Amita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. (secondary); "Motifs in Pithora Painting," Sahapedia (online encyclopaedia of Indian arts and culture), 2018. (secondary)