The Tale of Bishnoi's

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Today Marwar is a treeless waste of sand and rocks. The only growing things are shrubs, a few tufts of short rough grass and an occasional stunted ber or babul tree. But incredibly you can, even in this desert, come across the odd village with groves of well grown khejdi trees. This cousin of the babul is the kalparvriksha, the tree that fulfills all wishes. A full grown camel can enjoy a midday siesta in its shade, its foliage nourishes goat, sheep, cattle and camel; its pods can be made into a delicious curry, and its thorn guard the farmers' fields against marauding animals.Once upon a time the desert of Marwar had not yet conquered the vast territory over which it holds sway today. Even though the climate was the the same as it so today, the land was covered by thousands upon thousands of khejdi trees, and there was plenty of ber, ker, and sangri. These plains were home to thousands of antelopes, blackbuck, chinkara and nilgai; and on this bounty lived the tribal Bhils.About three thousand years ago, hordes of cattle keepers began to pour into India from West and Central Asia. Some of them spread into Marwar. The Bhils resisted their encroachment, but the invaders had horses and superior weapons and preety soon, took care of the Bhils. In any case the land appeared boundless and the Bhils retreated a little towards the Aravallis. The population of Marwar was on the increase. But as centuries passed, the large herds if cattle began to effect the vegetatio. The seedligs and sapligs were grazed dow and had little chance to grow. Invaders and the trial Bhills found less ad less to sustain themselves. Finally, the thirteenth century AD saw fthe final coquest of the Bhils by the Rathores of Kanauj. The Rajputs now ruled the whole of Marwar. In the year 1451 AD during the reig of Rao Jodhaji, one of the bravest of the Rathore kings, an extraordiary child was born i the village of Pipasar. His father was the headman Thakur Lohat and his mother was Hansadevi. The boy was called Jamali. As a little boy, he was given the task of lookig after his father's herd of cattle ad sheep. It was great fun to take the animals out grazing, lie in the shade of a khejdi tree and watch the herds of blackduck. Jamaji was fascinated by the lithe grace of this handsome antelope, and thought that there was no sight more enthralling than a fight between two well-grow stags. When Jambaji was twenty-five years old, a great disaster overtook the whole regio. The small quantity of rain that used to come regularly ceased altogether. The worst sufferers were the cattle. In the first year of drought, they could eat the bajra straw stored in the houses. The second year was very bad. There was ot a blade of grass left standing anywhere. People hacked at any trees thay could find and fed the animals on the leaves, but even so there was not enough browse for all the hungry aimals. And the drought cotinued for eight cosecutive years.The people had hacked and hacked the last bit of foliage from all the trees, which finally began to dry up. When the stored grain was exhausted people ate khejdi pods and the flour of dried her seeds. When this too was exhausted, they tore the bark off the sangri trees and powered and cooked it. They hunted every one of the starving blackbucks, and finally they abandoed all hope and migrated in masses. Tens of thousands of cattle perished on the way. By now the whole country was barren. There was not a tree in sighy for miles toghter, nor a single cow, or a blackbuck. The only people to hold on were big landlords like Jambaji's father with huge stores of bajra that somehow lasted through the difficult times.Jambaji was much affected by this drought. Many were the nights he spent in wakefulness because of the suffering he saw around him. The dying cattle, the starving children : they haunted him day and night. And finally, at the age of thirty-four, he had a vision. He saw man intoxicated with his own power, destroying the world around him. And he decided to change it all. If life was to flourish again in this desolate land, Jambaji saw man would have to live in a different way, and according to different tenets and beliefs. Jambaji wanted the earth to be covered once again by an abundance of khejdi, ber and sangri trees, he wanted herds of blackbuck to frolic again, and he wanted men to work for this. Jambaji knew the way to achieve this, and he began to broadcast his massage in the year 1485.His message included twenty aine basic tents. Its two major commandments were a prohibition against the cutting down of any green tree or the killing of any animal. Jambaji's message of humanity and respect for all living things was eagerly accepted. His teachings prompted the inhabitants of hundreds of villages to reclothe the earth with its green cover.Jambaji's followers were called Bishnois or 'twenty-niners' (bis=twenty, nou=nine) because they adhered to Jambaji's twenty-nine precepts. They preserved the trees around their villages and protected blackbucks, chinkaras, peafowl and all other birds and animals. Gradually their territory became covered by trees, their cattle had adundant browse, their land recovered its fertility and the Bishnois became a prosperous people.But outside their territory, all continued as before. The land was still being stripped of its green cover and the desert was spreading. The ninth descendant of Jambaji's contemporary Rao Jodhaji now occupied the throne of Jodhpur. In the sixth year of his reign in 1730, this maharaja, Abhay Singh, decided to construct a palace for himself- a beautiful palace made of the famous red sandstone of Jodhpur. This would need a lot of lime. Limestone is, of course, quite abundant in this trast, but it had to be cured, and the lime kilns would need a lot of fuel.It was not an easy job to get so much fuel in the desert. But as luck would have it, there was a large settlement of Bishois just sixtee miles from Jodhpur. These people had accepted Jambaji's precepts nearly two and a half centuries ago and had nursed hundreds of khejdi trees near their village. And there was excellent limestine too near one of their villages-Khejadali. Abhay Singh's Diwan ordered that the lime kilns be started near Khejadali to begin the contruction of the palace.But when the workers got ready to cut the trees for fuel, they found that the Bishnois would not let them touch the trees. Their khejdi trees must left alone, to cut these green trees was a violation of their religion. The workers returned to Jodhpur. The Diwan was enraged. What insolence! He persinally accompanied the workers on horseback to Khejadali village and ordered that the trees be cut.The axes were raised and the whole village gathered. They begged that their religion be not desecrated. They pleaded for the preservation of trees that their ancesrors had nurtured over generation. But the Diwan was determined: the trees must be cut to fuel the lime kilns. He ordered the workers to go ahead. But the Bishnois were determined too, and the most determined among them was a veritable incarnation of Durga - Amritadevi, the wife of Bishnoi Ramkhod. The trees will never be cut down unless you cut us down first, she said, and calling to her three daughters to join her, they clasped four of the trees. The Diwan fumed and ordered that all four of then be cut down with the trees. The axes fell and the brave women were cut to pieces. But Bishnois were not to be cut down with them. The news of this massacre spread rapidly and thousands of Bishnois rushed from their eighty-four surrounding villages to help their brave brothers and sisters. Altogether 363 Bishnois sacrificed their lives to guard their sacred heritage.The Maharaja's men, who had never imagined that things could come to such a pass, were now truly frightened. They rushed back to Jodhpur to report the happenings to Abhay Singh. Abhay Singh saw clearly that the might which had successfully challenged the power of Aurangzeb, could do nothing in the face of such moral courage. He personally, rode to Khejadali to mend matters. He assured the weeping, agonised mass of thousands of Bishnois that from now on he would fully respect their religious principles. A copper plate inscribed with this promise was presented to the Bishnois. Henceforth, the inscription said, no green tree would ever be cut near Bishnois village, nor would any animals be hunted in their vicinity.Two and a half centuries have passed since this episode. Bishnois have now been guarding the trees, giving succour to the wild animals of Rajasthan, Harayana and Madhya Pradesh for nearly five centuries. Everywhere else, the green cover of the Indian subcontinent has been ravaged and continues to be destroyed at an ever accelerating pace. The thousands upon thousands of blackbuck that once roamed the Indian plains have all vanished without a trace. But near the few Bishnois villages the greenery not only persists, but also is ever on the increase and around their villages the blackbuck roam as freely as in Kalidasa's time near the ashram of sage Kanva. Akbar was so amzed to see these herds of fearless blackbull near Bishnois temples that he personally recorded his wonder at witnessing a scene from satyayuga, the age of truth, in this kaliyuga, the corrupt present.The sight is even more astonishing for us today than it was for the emperor Akbar four centuries ago, for the Bishnois continue to hold on to their magnificent obsession to this day. At the village Khejadali where the Bishnois passed the supreme test of fire, there is one ancient Khejadi tree which escaped that massacre. Two years ago, the Bishnois planted 363 more trees around it in memory of their 363 martyrs. And these trees, being nurtured with love as they are growing fast. Every year there is a religious fair at this spot five days before the full moon in the month of Bhadrapada. It is an occasion which every tree lover of India should witness at least once in his lifetime