| It is said that
this deity which is nothing but a round stone with two metallic eyes was set up about
eleven hundred years before. The Dharmaraj here is also known as Buro Dharma. The Dom
Purohits of Dharmaraj or Dharma Thakur are known as Dharma Pandits. The village Mainapur
about 14-mile south-east of Bishnupur, a subdivisional headquarters of Bankura, is a
typical example of non-Aryan religious beliefs cult of the Aryans. This is a village where Brahminism has little hold. The
predominant element of the population comes from the Scheduled Castes. Yatra Siddhi Dharma
Thakur is the presiding deity and there is a small tank known as Hakanda Dighi, the water
of which is taken to be as pure as the water of the river Ganga.
There are any number of smaller Dharma Thakurs known by
different names such as Bankura Roy, Khudi Roy, Sital Narayan, and Chand Roy. Either
earthen tortoises or stone pieces represent all these Dharma Thakurs. At one time they
were all separately worshipped but now all these smaller deities are collected in the
temple of Yatra Siddhi Dharma Raj. |
