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Language in India [Link] 1930-2940 Vol. 20:7 July 2020

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Myth and Bathou Religion: An Analytical Study
Mrs. Kanery Basumatary, M.A.
Research Scholar, Bodoland University
Kokrajhar,783370, BTC, Assam
nkanery@[Link]
Cell phone. 7002650742

Abstract
Every myth is related with their folk religion. Myths tell about the folk story from the
past times, especially about the human beings, creation about the nature, creation about the
universe, ghosts, etc. it is also a part of the prose narratives. Prose narrative is a part of folk
literature. Bodo have rich in their myths. Bodo myths are directly related with the Bathou
religion. Bathou religion is a traditional religion of the Bodo. They believe that ‘Bathoubwrai’ is
the supreme God of the world. He is the creator of the universe. There are so many myths of the
Bodo like- creation of the Bathou religion, creation of the traditional musical instruments of the
Bodo, creation of the kherai, etc.

Keywords: Bathou religion, myths, kinds of Bodo myths, myths related to the Bathou religion.

Introduction

The Bodos are the single largest tribes of plains of Assam in the north-east India. The
Bodos are mainly agricultural people. Bathou is the ethnic religion of the Bodo people. It has
been practiced from generation to generation without any priest or sacred literature. Traditionally
Bodos has no fixed place for worship like temple or church. A Bathou is a bamboo fenced
surrounding by centering Sijou tree, Jatrasi and Tulsi plant. The followers of Bathou religion
worship Sijou tree as the symbol of Bwrai-Bathou. Bathou-bwrai is the supreme God of the
Bathou religion. The supreme God Bathou-Bwrai is invisible. The Sijou tree is planted in the
centre of the bathou as a symbol of God and in the right side of the Sijou, Tulshi (basil) plant is
planted as a symbol of purity and in the left side jatrashi (justiceassamia clake) plant is planted as
a symbol of Knowledge and wisdom.

Bathou has five elements Ailwng, Agrang, Khwila, Sanja Bwrali and Raj
Kunggri attributed as god of earth, water, air, fire and sky respectively. Comprising these five
elements, Bathou altar presents one supreme God which is called Bathou Bwrai. The Sijou tree
has five knots. Bodo community believes in regeneration of life. Believing these five elements of

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Myth and Bathou Religion: An Analytical Study 95
Bwrai Bathou, the followers of Bathou used to worship as the god of Earth, water, air, fire and
sky.

‘Myth’ is a traditional story which concerning the early history of people or explaining
some natural or social phenomenon, a cultural belief and practice of a group of people involving
supernatural beings and events’. It is an ancient Greek word. Myth is a folklore genre consisting
of narratives or stories that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales of
creations of world, human beings etc. William Russell Bascom defines “Myths are prose
narrative which in the society, in which they are told, are considered to be truthful account of
what happened in the remote past 1”. Maria Leach defines myth is a story presented as having
occurred in a previous age explaining the cosmological and supernatural traits of a people, their
Gods, heroes, cultural traits, religious beliefs etc.2

Myth is a part of prose narratives. Prose narratives are classified into three categories,
viz, i) myths, ii) legends and iii) folk-tales. The Bodos are numerically and sociologically one of
the most important tribes of the North-East India, particularly in Assam. They belongs to the
Indo-mongoloid group and linguistically they belong to the Sino-Tibetan group. Bodos have rich
in their folk-culture. Traditionally they believed the ‘Bathou religion’. ‘Bwrai Bathou’ is the
supreme god of the Bodos. They also believe different Gods and Goddesses. They planted a
‘Sijou’ plant (euphorbia splenden) as the symbol of ‘Bwrai Bathou’. Myths mean ‘gwjam solo’
in Boro terms. There is a slide different between the myths and legends. Myths are supposed to
be more truthful and full of reality than the legends. A legend is not regarded as sacred. It is for
the entertainment only and has not connection with ritual.3 But the legends tell the stories of
activities of the past heroes, chiefs and kings. The story of the legends is related with the
prehistory. In folktales animals can talk like human beings. In folk-tales animal can very clever
than the human beings. But the stories of all these three categories are coming out among the
people from generation to generation without any proper garden. All myths of the Bodo are
generally related with Bathou religion and rites and rituals. It tells us about the creation of the
world, human beings and creation of the nature, Gods and Goddesses, how the Bathou is formed,
about kherai, traditional musical instruments of the Bodo and so many. There are so many myths
believed in the community which have been continuing from generation to generation.

Aims and Objectives

The main aims and objectives of the study about the myth and Bathou religion are:
1) To study to know about the myths of the Bodo.
2) To study how the myths are related with the Bathou religion of the Bodo.

Methodology
Both primary and secondary methods will be applied for the study. Primary method will
include the field visit, interviews with senior citizens, with All Bathou Religion Union (ABRU)
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or other religious organizations related to Bathou religion. Secondary method will include
previous research reports, newspapers, magazine and journal content and all other published
books, etc.

Some Myths of the Bodo Related to the BathouReligion

(a)Myth on conception of the Human beings

Bodos have belief that they have been created by the God Aham Guru on the earth. First
of all, God Ahum Guru created two birds- one male and another one female. The female birds
laid three eggs. Then the Aham Guru said from the heaven that three different lives will come
out from the eggs. The female bird began to sit on the eggs. But the female birds became sad
because thousands of years passed sitting on the eggs and there was no any sign of birth of any
life. The female bird broke an egg and could not see any sign inside the eggs. Then suddenly
came another heavenly voice from Aham Guru not to break the two eggs, otherwise the universe
would be destroyed. Aham Guru advised the female bird to spread the broken pieces of the egg
here and there. There was a belief that from the broken egg, the evils spirits, ghost, various kinds
of insects and birds, plants were born.

After the many years passed, from the two eggs Mwn-sin-sin Bwrai and Burai (male and
female) and Diba Bwrai and Dibi Burai (male and female) were born. After born they desired to
go to heaven. The God Aham Guru allowed them to go to heaven with the warning that during
the journey if any one of them looked back on the earth then he or she would fall down on the
earth. Mwn-sin-sin Bwrai and Burai and Diba Bwrai and Dibi Burai started to go to the heaven
with the help of golden ladder (jangkhla). When they had reached at mid-way, the creatures born
out of one broken egg made noises on the earth to accompany them to the heaven. Hearing the
noise of creatures, Diba Bwrai and Dibi Burai looked back and suddenly fell down on the earth.
Some days later, the creatures fell in scarcity of enough foods. They (creatures) prayed to the
Aham Guru to provide them for enough foods. Then the Aham Guru told – “the children of
Mwn-sin-sin Bwrai and Burai will come to live on the earth, and they will provide enough foods
to the creatures and will become savior of all creatures”. From this myth it was known that Mwn-
sin-sin Bwrai and Burai was the first human being created by Aham Guru. Aham guru was
another name of the Bwrai Bathou.

Besides this myth, there was another myth of creation of human being among the Bodo.
Before creation the earth there was neither the sun nor the moon and stars in the universe. The
Lord Anan Gosai(aham guru) was lying silently in his formless state. One day in a fine moment
(ever-conscious self-existing supreme energy) Anan Gosai desired to take a form and lead a life
form. Suddenly he uttered fourth words loudly. These were ``Laoba-lao-swm (five organs of
knoladge), khaoba- khaoswm (five organs of action), Ada-gwswm (dignified elder brother),

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Dwiao-barsum (jump to deep water).`` With this voice of Anan Gosai the five gyanendriyas (five
principle of knowledge) and five karmendriyas (five working organs) with a great physical form
appeared in the open air. The physical form was appeared in full form as `Sibrai`. Sibrai was the
first visible form of the God. The earth, water, air, fire, and sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the
plants and every creature were created from the mouth of the Sibrai. `Si` means `form` and `brai`
means the oldest man. Sibraifelt lonely. Then he created `Si-burwi`. Mwn-sin-sin was the first
man to born from the Si-brai and Si-burwi.

There was another one myth that human being comes from the monkey. After the
creation of earth, the Bathou sent down his creation ‘Si-bwrai’ to look around the earth.
Accordingly, the Si-burwi also came down to the earth. They noticed that some big size animals
were trying to dominate over some small animals. They noticed the animals like lions and tigers
were attacking over some small animals like monkey. Seeing the dismal condition of the monkey
folk, suddenly the Si-bwrai got sympathy on monkey and offer blessing to the monkey that their
two front legs turn into hands so that they could protect their life from the enemy. From the day
the monkey got blessing from Si-bwrai they became capable of thinking and doing as they like.
Subsequently the monkey started dominating over other animals and transforming man.

(b) Myth on Foundation of the Earth

At the beginning, there was no earth, only water and water around the world. The God
Aham Guru desired to create the earth. God Aham Guru ordered the creatures to bring the soil
from the bottom of the water. But none of them could bring the soil from the water. Then Aham
Guru sent two old barbell fishes. These were called Magur-Maguri in Bodo term. The Magur-
Maguri went to the bottom of the water and collected some soil as much as they could. But on
the way they returned, the gourd of the water attacked Magur-Maguriand and they were beaten to
die. They could not come again alive on the water. Then the God Aham Guru sent birds and the
other creatures to find out the Magur-Maguri. After searching many years, the crow found the
dead Magure-Maguri and informed the God Aham Guru. The Aham Guru created the earth with
the small quantity of the soil sticking to the heads of the Magur-Maguri. There was a belief that
the earth was created with a small quantity of soil, thus the area of land was smaller than the area
of the water. This myth was also known as myths of Magur-Maguri. The dead body of Magur-
Maguri got alive again when they were beaten by Aham Guru with his death-stick and life stick.

Myth on Conception of the Bodo Traditional Musical Instruments

The traditional musical instruments are still used in every social activity of the Bodo.
Every indigenous community has their own musical instruments. At the time of worship, they
use only traditional instruments. The Bodos also have their own musical instruments. There is a
myth among the Bodos how the musical instruments are originated among the Bodos. The

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musical instruments which are used in the religion purpose are-kham (dram), zotha, siphon
(flute) and serja.

(c) Myth on Conception of the Siphung (Flute) –A Musical Instrument of the Bodo
Once upon a time there was a group of cowherds, who used to keep watch cattle in the
field. In the course of watching cattle, they used to spend their time playing different games.
After playing game, all cowherds worshiped the Gods and Goddesses. They selected a leader
(douri) from the cowherds to sacrifices and charm at the worship and some of them prepared for
the worship and some of them sang and danced. They wanted to sacrifice a grasshopper for the
Gods and Goddesses. They catch a grasshopper one by one every day. One day an appointed
cowherd could not catch the grasshopper. Then the leader said that he (who could not bring the
grasshopper) should pray to the God and Goddesses by sacrificing his drop of blood. All of them
prayed to the Gods and Goddesses and enjoyed by singing song and dance. Suddenly an old man
appeared before the cowherds. The old man also joined with the dance. Then he asked the
cowherds to bring a piece of reed (a kind of tall grass growing in marshy lands) and a crab. They
bring a piece of reed and a crab following his order. Then the old man made a small hole on one
side of the reed and on the other side the old man placed the crab. The crab made another five
holes on the reed with its legs. After that the old man asked the leader of the cowherd to blow
with his lips. When he blew on the reed a sweet and melodious sound came out of it. The old
man disappeared after playing this melodious tune. Thus, the piece of the reed turned into the
`Siphong` (flute). Thus, Siphung has come into existence in Bodo Society. Siphong has been
traditional musical instrument of the Bodo. In this myth the old man was the `bwraibathou` the
supreme God of the Bodo they belief.

(d) Myth on Formation of the Serza

‘Serza’ is a four stringed traditional musical instrument of the Bodo which is made from
the Sijou (euphorbia splendent) plant. There is a myth how the Serza came up among the Bodo.

Once upon a time there was an old man named Khoria-bwrai. He had two sons whose
name was Dwnsing and mwnsing. He was a cultivator. One day early in the morning the old man
wanted to go in the field to plough. He heard that a cock is crowing in a strange sound. The cock
said as ``one who eat my head he will be the king``. The cock repeated it again and again. The
old man surprised, and he wanted to prove it. So, the old man killed the cock and toasted its flesh
in the fire. Then he kept it ready for eating after returning from paddy field telling his wife to
keep the toasted head and legs and wings for him separately. Then he left to the paddy field for
ploughing. At that time two sons Dwnsing and Mwnsing came back at home and looked for
some food to eat at kitchen. They saw toasted head, legs and wings of the cock and eat all
without asking their mother. Dwnsing ate the head part and Mansing consumed other parts of the
cock. When their mother came to know that her son had eaten all fleshes, she advised them to go

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away from home to safe two sons from to be hit by angry father. After coming back to home
when father asked for the roasted flesh to eat, his wife told the matter what was happening in the
home. The angry father having no other option, cut down his wife and went out to search
children. Dwnsing and Mwnsing had passed seven days and night in the forest because they
could not come back in the home due to fear of their father. They became very hungry and
thirsty and tired. The elder brother Dwnsing went on searching water to drink leaving his
younger brother to stay under a big tree. But elder brother never came back to his younger
brother. The lake from where Dwnsing went to bring water was known as `Bilwbudang`. He
went near the lake. He noticed there a big heron king having three heads spreading his three
heads with long necks towards the three lakes situated at the three different places. He noticed
there also was a big elephant lying just like a small hill between the lakes. When he wanted to
fetch water as the advised of the king heron, the elephant said he will have to ride on his back
and then only he would give him water for his younger brother. As soon as Dwnsing rode on
the back of the elephant and tried to take water, suddenly the elephant got up and walked away
from the lake to the other place. There was a king named ‘Mwikhun raja’ who had dead at the
previous night. So, they searched for new king of their [Link] became king of that place.
In this way the Dwnshing became the king as what the cock said and proved it be truth. After
becoming the king he forgot younger brother Mwnsing who was lying under the big tree. Some
days later Mwnsing dreamt in his dream that his brother Dwnsing became a king. He went up to
search his brother in the jungle. After some days of search operation, he came to know about
location of his elder brother with the help of king heron. When he went to search his elder
brother on the way he met an elephant with the name of king Dwnsing on the forehead. Then
Mwnsing became very happy and wanted to ride on the back of the elephant. But the driver of
the elephant got angry and brought him for the trail before the king Dwnsing. But Dwnsing could
not recognize him. He forgot everything. After long trail the king ordered gourds to give
Mwnsing a shelter along with the cattle at the cattle shed. King also ordered Mwnsing to look
after all the cattle every day from the morning to evening. Remembering his early life Mwnsing
became very sad.

One day he dreamt a dream that when he rested at noon near the ‘Sijou’ tree, along with
the herds of the cattle. In this dream the Sijou tree advised him to cut down the Sijou tree and out
of this tree he should make an instrument of four strains. Then with this instrument he should
sing the song narrating his past life before the others, so he could be relieved of his trouble with
the help of this instrument. He dreamt this kind of dream for three times. He was instructed by
the Sijou tree how to make the musical instrument. Such like ‘Serza’ came among the bodo. He
learnt how to play on the Serja and turned into a melodious song. People came to know about his
miracle creation. With his melodious music he earned natural power to command cloud to rain,
thunder, and river to flow on earth as his wishes. His melodious music could grow new leaves in
the tree.

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 One day king came to known about him. Then he called him. Mwnsing went to the king’s
court and played on the Serza. He narrated about his tragic life history of his own life with the
help of Serza’s tune. Then the king came to know, that he was none other than his younger
brother. Then he donated a half of his own kingdom to his younger brother. They lived happily.
Thus, the Serza a traditional musical instrument came into existence in Bodo society.

(f) Origin of the Kherai

There was a mythical story regarding the origin of Kherai. At the ancient time there was
an old man who had five well grown sons. The old man managed his family as a joint family
very well. But after the five sons’ marriage he faced hardship in maintaining the family. So he
advised all his five sons to go for searching some other places for cultivation far away from their
home. Accordingly, the five sons went in search of fertile land and started farming there leaving
all spouse at home. During that time the old man stayed at home looking after all his daughters-
in-law. The youngest one was very beautiful and proficient in domestic works. Her name was
Mongli. The old man used to take special care on her in her work and movement. He used to
display his love in Mongli more than other daughters-in-law. During this situation, a rumor was
roaming among the elder daughters-in-law that their father-in-law love Mongli. Roaming of such
words made Mongli uncomfortable and embarrassment inside their family. Taking fallacy on the
behavior of the family in her mind, one day early at dawn she fled away from home leaving all
her family in dark. The old man became very embarrassment on the missing of his daughter-in-
law. The old man decided to go for searching her out of his village to bring back at home. In the
course of search operation. he forgot to take care of his health, food, dress. Looking at his
condition people used to call him phagla (mad). As his name was Jara, people used to call him
Jaraphagla. One day Jaraphagla sat under a tree and got asleep. During his asleep he dreamt a
dream that an old man advising him to perform Kherai puja with the help of musical instruments
like Kham(drum), Serza (cerenda), Siphung (flute) and zotha (cybal). Accordingly, Jaraphagla
organized a grand Kherai worship was performed and musical instruments were played.
Surprisingly, a woman appeared and began to dance with the music. The woman was none other
than Mongli. She began to dance and afterward became “Doudini”. Jara-phagla discovered his
daughter-in-law in the course of Kherai worship and the old man who advised in the dream was
Bathou-Bwrai. This is how the “Kherai” was originated.

(g) Myth on the Origin of Customary Laws of Bodos (Bad khanthi)

There had been a system in Bodo society by which the society maintaining the purity,
peaceful and social disorder in their social life. The social system was tied up with this bad(law)
system and it had been continuing from generation to generation. ‘Bad’was a Bodo term with a
meaning charges for social crime (offence) committed by somebody in Bodo society. The guilty
person of the society was called ‘Baduajanai’ in Bodo term. This Bad system was a rule of social

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administration of Bodos and there was an interesting myth on how this generated in Bodo
society.

At the earlier stage, there was a young Bodo youth known as ‘Sandw Baodia’. He was a
very great player of the Serza (fidde). Serza was a Bodo traditional musical instrument. There
were two sisters at that time namely Asagi and Bwisagi. One day Sandw Baodia went in the deep
forest with some wood cutters of the village to bring some firewood. They made a temporary hut
near a stream in the forest for shelter for some days. The woodcutters gave responsibility of
cooking to Sandw Baodiya while they did cut wood in the jungle. During that time Sandw
Baodiya always used to play Serza. One day an incident took place in that hut. Asagi and Baisagi
who went to enquire about the melody of Serza coming from that hut got trapped at that hut
because Sandw Baodia always used to put a trap while he was not present. Asagi and Baisagi
were trapped and they could not escape from there. Sandw Baodia had to touch Asagi and
Bwisagi to release them. There was a belief that if anybody touches the unmarried person there
would be a breach of purity of unmarried girl and so nobody could touch unmarried person at
that time. The news of incident of trapping of Asagi and Bwisagi’ spread among the villagers.
Then the villagers arranged a meeting for taking immediate measures for this offence. A public
meeting was arranged in the village to find out the quilt person, but nothing could be found out
even after a long discussion.

The meeting was held continuously for the one week but there was no solution how to
book the offence as per rule of society. Then they called the Mwn-sin-Sin bwrai. He was the
oldest and wisest person. He came from the heaven with the golden ladder. After twelve years of
analysis, Mwn-sin-sin could bring solution to this case by introducing some social rule of law.
These were called five Bads (Bodo Term) He had introduced five `Bad` system- 1. Agar-bad, 2.
Phongsloth-bad, 3. Daokhi-bad, 4. Khoulwbwd-bad and 5. Khaoali-bad. These were the five
main Bad system of Bodo by which the social control system had been continuing in the Bodo
society.

(h) Myth of How Human Being Became Mortal

There was a beautiful myth among the Bodo how the human being became mortal. This
myth was not only concerned with the life of Bodo but also in general term. After the creation of
the universe Anan- Gosai (God) created the human being and the deities. When the Anan-Gosai
started to give life with the help of immortal water from the stone pot, the Anan-Gosai could not
give the immortal water to the human being from the stone pot because of distressed made by the
Satan and he compelled to give water to the human being with the leaves of Arun and the deities
were given to drink water with the pot of stone. So, the Gods or deities became immortal and
human being became mortal.

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Conclusion
Myths were a part of folk literature. Every folk religion was related with their myths.
From time immemorial Bathou had been worshiped by Bodos. The religion, custom and
traditions, rites and rituals were realized through the teaching of Bathou. The tradition, socio-
culture, rites and rituals of Bodos were bonded or reflected through the worship of Bathou. The
worship process for Bathou was very unique. The worship of Bathou was never done in public
places like temple or Mosque. Worship of Bathou was done in every individual family. It was
hoped that through this Bodos could realize Sibrai, the supreme God. In the worship of Bathou,
Oja (priest) had been playing a very important role in maintaining the Bathou altar. It was
noteworthy to mention that “Kherai” festival related to Bathou religion was performed publicly
as well as in the individual family level also. According to the belief of Bathou followers, Bathou
descended on earth with his human characteristics of five organs of knowledge and five organs
of action. This religion teaches the people how to sacrifice, control the evil thoughts, helping
each other, etc. Religion was the backbone of the culture of the Bodo community. The Bodos
had rich in their myths. Every myth was generally related with the religious rites and festivals
etc. The Bathou followers believed their every myth and it had been continuing from generation
to generation.
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References

1. Bascom Russell William, 1981, Contribution to folkloristic, p.98.

2. Leach Maria, 1949, Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legends, p.778.
3. Brahma Dr. Kameswar, 1992, a study of socio religious beliefs practices and
ceremonies of the bodos, p. 117.

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