The Desert Dwellers of Rajasthan
Bishnoi and Bhil people

continued (page 3 of 5)

Numerous traditions and rules of social conduct have been combined with the original principles that guide Bishnoi lives. The most significant of which arose in the original Jhamba village soon after the death of the prophet. Each year, the people chose a man they called shaand, or breeder: a strong young man in his early twenties, handsome, intelligent and a prototypical specimen of their race. His duty was to breed with the women to improve the genetic stock of the entire ethnic group. Instead of wearing traditional mojari leather shoes, the shaand was known by his wooden karau. It was a great honor to be chosen by the shaand, who would leave his karau outside the home as a sign that no other men were welcome. Although being chosen as the shaand was glorious, it was a short-lived honor with an abrupt end: every year, a new shaand was chosen and the outgoing one was sacrificed. This tradition ended in the1920’s, doomed by both modernization and the increasing desertion by shaands in the last weeks of their tenure.

Although the shaands are gone, the traditional annual celebration in honor of Lord Jhambheshwar is still observed on the first night of the new moon in the month of Chetry, two weeks after the Holy Indian National Festival. Thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the remote desert village to drink the salty water from the sacred source, believing it will cleanse them of all their sins.

Other Bishnoi beliefs have their roots in more modern traditions. Most Bishnoi people, converted Hindus, still believe in reincarnation and their main objects of veneration are the gentle antelope, revered as returned dead ancestors. Antelope are frequently seen in large numbers near Bishnoi millet plantations and irrigated land—a scenario that has become the crux of an oddly symbiotic and contentious relationship with their neighboring ethnic group, the Bhil.