Forest Religion

In most parts of the country, ‘Maa’ invokes Goddess Shakti/Durga and her many forms. Here, strangely, Maa Bonbibi does not refer to a Hindu deity. On the contrary, she is a Muslim goddess who protects everyone irrespective of their community. Hers is the presiding “forest religion” in the mangrove delta, deeply embedded in the social and cultural mores of the villagers and passed down from generation to generation. For the islanders, Bonbibi goes against the distinctions of caste, class and religion. This is the reason why those who work in the forest as fishers and crab-collectors stress the fact that they have to consider all jatis – whether Brahmin or Malo, rich or poor, Hindu or Muslim, or even human or animal – ‘equal’. Tigers and humans ‘share the same food’, they explain, because they both depend on the forest – tigers eat fish and crabs like the villagers, and like them, tigers are greedy for wood. These facts not only make tigers equal to humans but it also ‘ties’ them to humans. “The forest and the tiger bind us together. A Muslim may pray five times in a mosque, and Hindus perform aarti in the temple, but when it is time to go into the forest we are all together in our prayers to Maa Bonbibi and her mount Raja Dakshinrai. A night in the forest is enough to teach you that,” says Kanai Mondal, a honey collector from Shaterkona village on Bali Island, South 24 Parganas district. “This tradition has deep roots in the principles of conservation,” says Pradeep Vyas, Director, Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve. “Known by many names and forms -- Bonbibi, Bonodurga or Byaghro Devi (tiger deity) -- she is a personification of the forest. The faith of the villagers in worshipping her and Raja Dakshinrai before entering the forest is a reaffirmation of their commitment to forest and tiger conservation.”

In Hindu-dominated villages, the goddess appears as a bejewelled female atop a tiger or crocodile, with a child in her lap. Her Muslim avatar is more militant, with braided hair, wearing a cap, dressed in ghagra and pyjama (instead of a sari), and with shoes. Thatched shrines bearing icons of the goddess, accompanied by her brother Shah Jongli and mounted on the Supreme Tiger God Raja Dakshinrai, dot villages along the rivers. Chants of “Maa Bonbibi Allah, Allah” mingle effortlessly with “Maa Bonodevi Durga, Durga” as woodcutters, honey collectors and fishermen pay obeisance before venturing out into tiger territory. Muslims tuck in their beards and sit arm-in-arm with the Hindus before the idols; Hindus, in turn, have no qualms about praying to a Muslim deity.