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{{Short description|Hindu god}}{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
'''Bhaironji''' is a [[Hindu gods|Hindu god]] of the [[underworld]] in [[Rajasthan]], India.<ref name="JGS1"/><ref name="JGS2"/> Some scholars note that he is viewed as form of [[Shiva]] in Rajasthan.<ref name="JGS1"/><ref name="FOS"/>

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at the [[Colorado State University]]<ref>{{cite web |website=Colorado State University |title=Dr. Snodgrass editor of new blog series: Bioculturalism |date=August 3, 2015 |first=Katie |last=Horton |url=https://anthgr.colostate.edu/2015/08/snodgrass-bioculturalism/ |accessdate=October 28, 2020}}</ref>) notes that Bhaironji is seen as "a pan–Indian boss of the underworld".<ref name="JGS1">{{cite journal |journal=Culture and Religion |volume=5 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=71–104 |title=Hail to the Chief?: The politics and poetics of a Rajasthani 'child sacrifice' |first=Jeffrey G. |last=Snodgrass |doi=10.1080/0143830042000200364 |issn=1475-5629 |oclc=54683133 |quote=In this paper, I examine a birth ritual practised by a community of low‐status entertainers from the Indian state of Rajasthan known as Bhats. On the birth of sons, but not daughters, Bhats offer gifts to the Hindu god Bhaironji, a pan‐Indian boss of the underworld. Specifically, they sacrifice a goat, extract its stomach, slice it open so that it forms a gaping slit, and pass their wailing newborn through the dripping opening seven times. This ritual, which I interpret as a symbolic child sacrifice, would seem to exemplify ‘Sanskritisation’—the low caste copying of elite life‐styles—in the way Bhats imitate dominant Hindu ideals implicit to a kingly tradition of blood sacrifice. However, I contend that this feast is unique in the way that Bhats simultaneously mimic and appropriate, subvert and contest, as well as rework and combine ritual traditions associated with both kings and priests. [..] Bhaironji is a Rajasthani equivalent of the pan‐Indian Bhairava 'The Destroyer', a 'fierce' or 'terrible' form of Shiva spoken of in ancient Vedic scriptures. For this deity in a pan–Indian context, see White (1991).}}</ref>

==Bhaironji and Balaji==
Bhaironji, along with Pretraj, is believed to be an assistant deity of Balaji. They are viewed as the foremost prosecutors of Balaji and believed to provide legal assistance to him during the trials of the [[Bhoot (ghost)|Bhuts]] who have possessed people, at Balaji's temple in Rajasthan.<ref name="FOS">{{cite book |title=Changing Patterns of Family and Kinship in South Asia: Proceedings of an International Symposium on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of India's Independence Held at the University of Helsinki 6 May 1998 |volume=84 |journal=Studia Orientalia |year=1998 |page=136–141 |publisher=Finnish Oriental Society |author=Suomen Itämainen Seura [Finnish Oriental Society] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jkBZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Bhaironji%22 |isbn=978-9519380384}}</ref>

==Rituals by devotess==
Snodgrass states that upon the birth of a male child, the ''[[Bhats]]'' in India offer "gifts" to Bhaironji, especially a [[Animal sacrifice in Hinduism|ritual sacrifice of goat]]. He relates this practice to [[Sanskritisation]] and observes,
{{quote|Specifically, they sacrifice a goat, extract its stomach, slice it open so that it forms a gaping slit, and pass their wailing newborn through the dripping opening seven times. This ritual, which I interpret as a symbolic child sacrifice, would seem to exemplify ‘Sanskritisation’—the low caste copying of elite life‐styles—in the way Bhats imitate dominant Hindu ideals implicit to a kingly tradition of blood sacrifice. ...this feast is unique in the way that Bhats simultaneously mimic and appropriate, subvert and contest, as well as rework and combine ritual traditions associated with both kings and priests.<ref name="JGS1"/>}}

==Possession==
According to Snodgrass, Bhaironji is believed to sometimes [[spirit possession|possess]] people.<ref name="JGS2">Imitation Is Far More than the Sincerest of Flattery: The Mimetic Power of Spirit Possessionin Rajasthan, India Jeffrey G. Snodgrass Source: Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb., 2002), pp. 32-64</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Religion in Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Regional Hindu gods]]
[[Category:Underworld gods]]

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Bhaironji - Revision history

UpdateBot at 10:13, 16 October 2021