In this chapter titled ‘Garjontola’ from the ‘The Hungry Tide’ novel, Amitav Ghosh gave the reader at a glance at a glance into something very strange and exotic for them.
He wrote:
“Leon ran forward to the side away from the opening and stopped in front of what appeared to be a small hut built on the stage.
On closer closer, he saw it was no hut at all except the altar or temple of leaves: it reminded him away from His mother’s puja table, except that the picture in it did not represent all Hindu gods he knew.
There was a big-edged woman in sari and beside it a slightly smaller man’s figure.
Crouching among them is a tiger, which can be recognized because of its lines painted.
”
If someone plans to travel deep into the Sundarbans – a large mangrove forest in the southern region of Bangladesh and West West – will not be surprising for them to find ‘bonbibi’ – “big-edged woman figures in Sari” that Ghosh said his novel.
Bonbibi.
‘Bonbibi’ or ‘bandevi’, which literally translates to the ‘Lady of the Forest’, is the spirit of the Sundarbans forest guard.
The population area, Bengal is inhabited by Hindus and Muslims.
Interestingly, no more symbolizes living life together than The Dewi Bonbibi, who is worshiped by both communities in the solid Sundarbans forest.
In addition, because the title ‘Aunt’ is used generally by Muslim women as a family name, which makes it a typical name for Dewi Bengali.
Bonbibiaccording’s mythology with mythology, Bonbibi was believed to as Princess Ibrahim, a fake of Mecca.
When his wife Phulbibi could not stand, Ibrahim married a golden gold.
However, to keep the promise made by Ibrahim to his first wife, he left the Golalabi pregnant in the forest.
He immediately gave birth to two children called Bonbibi and Shah Jangali; Can’t raise both of them, the woman left the girl.
Fortunately, he was raised by deer and growing up.
Then the family was reunited before Bonbibi and his brother went to Medina where they consulted with Fatima (a Holy Woman) about their future.
Hearing the story of Bonbibi, he gave him the possibility of saving forest people whenever they were looking for his help.
Thus, Bonbibi and Shah Jangali went to India where they became rulers in Swamplland, inhabited by Devil, Dakkhin Rai, and his mother, Narayani, who attacked the twins.
Bonbibi called Fatima who came to save him and defeated Dakkhin Rai and Narayani.
However, Bonbibi showed generosity and decided that he would only rule on half the ground, leaving the rest to the devil.
After this, Bonbibi began moving from the village to the village to build his government.
Bonbibithe narrative bonbibi narratives are found in several texts called ‘banbibir keramat’ or ‘banned sapanama’.
The latter was published at the end of the 19th century by a Muslim writer named Munshi Mohammed Kheater of Govindapur.
In his introduction, Kheater revealed that legend was not his invention, and he only arranged it to verses at the request of the people.
It was written in Dobhashi Bangla, various languages used by Muslim religious literature and contained several Urdu and Arabic elements.
The current relevance of Bonbibideath is quite unpredictable in Sunderbans.
Thus, the inhabitants (both Hindus and Muslims) have worshiped Bonbibi for centuries to protect themselves from the dangers in the forest.
He was called mostly by honey collectors and grills guess before entering the forest to protect attacks from tigers.
Even today, they came up with candy offering in an effort to receive its protection from the tiger and other forest hazards.
This is because of the extent confidence that King Demon Dakkhin Rai appears in tiger disguise and attacks humans.
Apart from all this, it is important to note that for several reasons, Bonbibi is under threat.
Many Hindu Imams now overcome and worship Dewi as ‘Bondebi’ instead of Bonbibi.
In addition, Muslims are used to worship gods because they go to the forest but many of them are not to the profession like that again.
His right, they did not visit the temple – as in the past.
Pic Credit: Indian Penguin, Wikipedia
