Jakh Botera

What it is

The Jakh Botera are a company of seventy-two folk deities in Kutch, a district of Gujarat in western India. Local speech also names them Jakhdada, Jakkha Bautera, or the seventy-two Yaksha, and at least one of the company is a woman, Sayari or Sairi. They are pictured as warriors on horseback. Shrines holding rows of these mounted images are known in Kutch as thada, and the largest stands on the hillock of Kakadbhit. Devotion to them is spread across the district. Worshippers treat the Jakhs as superhuman riders, fair to look at, who answer appeals; hills near their sites are said to be named for the quaking that marked their coming.

Where it comes from

Where the Jakhs came from is not settled. The word is Yaksha worn down in local speech, Yaksha being the name of fair-skinned demigods who ride horses. Many in Kutch hold that the Jakhs were Hindu, and some writers count them as people of the past whose story has grown. Since traces of them lie only along the coast, it is argued that they arrived by sea, which would rule out the Aryans, who came overland. The English historian Rushbrook Williams, in The Black Hills of Kutch, proposed Zoroastrians escaping Persia and wrecking on the shore. Others have placed them among Byzantine or Assyrian people, or tied them to Nestorians and Jacobites connected with the Sassanid kings of Persia.

How it is done

Worship centres on images rather than on a fixed rite. Rows of horsemen, usually seventy-two, stand in a shrine or on a railed platform, and in one account they face south. The main gathering takes place at the foot of Kakadbhit, where pilgrims come for two or three days. Shrines are raised by followers: the Sanghar community and other devotees have built them in Kutch and further afield. In the old story, seven devotees served the god Jakh on a hilltop and prayed for favours, and a queen is said to have reached them by an underground passage from the palace.

Tools and materials

The central objects are the idols: a Jakh shown as a warrior on horseback, arranged in groups, generally of seventy-two, in varied sizes and shapes. The building that houses them is called a thada locally. One old story mentions a railed platform at Punvaranogadh where images of the riders were set up. Another turns on a magic amulet worn by Punvar, said to have turned aside the arrows of the Jakhs until Sayari, taking the form of a mosquito, bit his arm and made him draw it off.

What it is for

People approach the Jakhs for help in trouble. In one legend a childless queen asked the devotees to pray for a son, and the answer was held back until a sacrifice was offered in the palace. In another, a community suffering under a ruler called on the Jakhs, who came and took the fort. A third account remembers them as riders who healed the sick and aided the poor, and as messengers of God. Devotion is expressed in pilgrimage and in the upkeep of their shrines.

Who does it

The legend names seven devotees, known for their virtues and miracles, who settled on a high hill near Punvaranogadh and served the god Jakh. Later the cult was carried by the Sanghar community, whose customs are described as a mixture of Hindu practice and devotion to the riders. Temples have been founded by a saint, Mekan Dada, and by Deshalji II, ruler of Cutch State. In the eighteenth century that ruler set the poet Hamirji Gadhvi to gather the full set of names, which he is said to have received on Lanki hill.

Peoples and places

The Jakhs belong to Kutch district in Gujarat, India. Their following is concentrated there, and pilgrims at the main fair are described as mostly Kutch Hindus. The Sanghar community keeps them with particular care and, by one account, gave them their name. Shrines stand across Kutch and beyond it, raised by followers. The main temple is on the Kakadbhit hillock beside the highway, a few kilometres from Manjal and about thirty-five kilometres from Bhuj, where a shrine called Jakhjarna marks a spot linked to their appearing.

What people believe

Behind the worship is a world of demigods who can be summoned and can punish. The Jakhs are held to be superhuman, fair and handsome, riders who answer those who call on them. In the Punvar story they arrive after a devotee prays on Lakhadiya hill, and an earthquake shakes the hills. They curse the town, which is said to have lain desolate ever since. The tale also assumes that a god, Jakh, can grant or withhold a child, and that a sacrifice may be needed first.

When it is done

The chief fair falls on the second Monday of Bhadrapad, the month running through September and October, and lasts two or three days at the foot of Kakadbhit. Thousands of pilgrims attend, and it is counted among the largest fairs of Kutch. A second, smaller fair called Nana Yakshno Melo is held each year near Bhuj. Images of the riders, grouped by the seventy-two, remain in their shrines through the rest of the year.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Researchers have not fixed who the Jakhs were. Their beginnings are called obscure, though some treatments accept them as historical figures. The English historian Rushbrook Williams read them as Zoroastrians shipwrecked while fleeing Persia. Others have suggested Byzantine or Assyrian roots, or a link through Nestorians and Jacobites to the Sassanid court. The coastal setting of their traces is used to argue for arrival by sea. Popular Kutch opinion, by contrast, treats them as Hindu, and Sanghar custom is described as a blend of Hindu belief.

Compare and confuse

Jakh is a worn-down form of Yaksha, the name of the older horse-riding demigods, and the same group travels under several names: Jakhdada, Jakkha Bautera, the seventy-two Yaksha, Bohter Yaksha. According to the Sanghar account, that community gave the riders the Yaksha name out of respect for men who came to their rescue. Their shrines go by the local word thada.

Today

Worship continues. Temples have been built across Kutch and beyond by followers, among them the Sanghar community, and the shrine at Kakadbhit receives pilgrims each autumn. The fair there is described as one of the largest in Kutch, drawing thousands, with a second gathering near Bhuj. Rulers and a saint are remembered as founders of shrines, and the names of the seventy-two are preserved in a poem tied to the legend.

Questions people ask about Jakh Botera

Good reading and sources

• Jakh Botera on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data