Note 128 — Volume II. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Bishnoi—(worshippers of Vishnu).—Usually, as at the last Census, classed as a sub-tribe of Banyas, but really a distinct religious sect. They are strongest in the Meerut and Rohilkhand Divisions, and as they are emigrants from the Panjâb, Mr. Maclagan’s interesting account128 of them may be quoted:—“The founder of the sect was Jhâmbaji, who lived towards the end of the fifteenth Century. The following is the account given by the people regarding him. At Pinpâsar, a village south of Bikâner, in the Jodhpur territory, there lived a Râjput Panwâr, named Laut, who had attained the age of sixty years and had no son. One day a neighbour going out to sow his field met Laut, and deeming it a bad omen to meet a childless man, turned back from his purpose. This cut Laut to the quick, and he went out to the jungle and bewailed his childlessness till evening, when a faqîr appeared to him and told him that in nine months he should have a son, and after showing his miraculous power by drawing milk from a calf, vanished from his sight. At the time named a child miraculously appeared in Laut’s house, and was miraculously suckled by his wife Hansa. This happened in Sambat 1508 (A.D. 1451). For seven years the boy, who was an incarnation (avatâra) of Vishnu, played with his fellows, and then for twenty-seven years he tended cattle, but all this time he spoke no word. His miraculous powers were shown in various ways, such as producing sweets from nothing for the delectation of his companions, and he became gradually known as Achamba (“the Wonder”), whence his name of Jhâmba, by which he is generally known. After thirty-four years a Brâhman was sent for to get him to speak, and on confessing his failure, Jhâmbaji again showed his power by lighting a lamp by simply snapping his fingers, and uttered his first word. He then adopted the life of a teacher, and went to reside on a sandhill, some thirty miles south of Bikâner, where, after fifty-one years, he died and was buried, instead of being burnt like an ordinary Hindu.