Worship
Gogaji is popular as a Devta who protects his followers from snakes and other evils. Almost every village in Rajasthan has a Than (sacred place,generally a small temple) dedicated to him.
His shrine, referred as medi, consists of a one-room building with a minaret on each corner and a grave(Mazar) inside, marked by a Nishan( A symbol, a sign), which is made up of a long bamboo with peacock plumes, a coconut, some colored threads and some handpankhas with a blue flag on the top.
On the 9th of Bhadra, the people worship his symbol, a black snake painted on a wall. Worshippers take a fly-flap, known as chhari, round the village. Devotees pay their respect to it and offer churma. The Balmikis sing devotional songs known as ‘Pir ke Solle’ in his honour to the accompaniment of deroos. Beating of deroos is the exclusive priviege of the Balmiki community; others may sing, dance or offer charhawa. It is believed that the spirit of Gugga temporarily takes abode in the devotee dancer who lashes himself with a bunch of iron chains.
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Famous quotes containing the word worship:
“Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.”
—William Golding (b. 1911)
“If worship have kept me, I had not gone.
If wit might have me saved, I needed not fear.”
—Sir Thomas More (1478–1535)
“You don’t know what you might be if you would look beyond the ball, the opera, the fashion-plate—and right over the heads of the perfumed, mustached bipeds who call themselves men and worship at your feet.”
—Mattie Chappelle, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Revolution (April 28, 1870)