Bhima Bhoi, an early revolutionary poet of India

Bhima Bhoi was a great thinker, philosopher and a revolutionary born in the western part of Odisha in the nineteenth century. Although there is no one opinion on his time of birth, all agree that this great man took leave of this mortal world in the year 1895 in the village Khaliapali of  present Sonepur district which was then a princely state under  the British suzerainty.

In Odia literature Bhima Bhoi is known as a saint poet; it is because he was leading life of a saint after coming under the influence of Mahima Gosain, a great saint of that century who as per certain researchers was born in Boudh state which was another princely state. Mahima Gosain, through high philosophical preaching had many followers and the religion he founded came to be known as Mahima dharma or Alekha (“un written”, if translated to English) dharma. Mahima Gosain had not left behind any book containing his philosophy, religious teachings for his followers.

During his childhood days, once Bhima fell into a pit in a jungle while taking care of the cows of the villagers in Redhakhol and was rescued by this wandering Yogi who gave his blessing to young Bhima who instantly became his disciple. Bhima Bhoi had embodied the entire philosophy of Mahima Gosain in a book with rubric “Stuti Chintamani” in one hundred cantos. This book is a treatise on Mahima order. Besides this book he has composed many short poems in the form of prayer or bhajan (Devotional songs) compiled in a book called ‘Bhahana Mala’. These two immortal books have left land mark in Odia literature.

Bhima Bhoi has been described as a saint poet because he lived like a saint and like his Master, wandered different places of Odisha preaching the message of his Guru. Bhima had his followers too.  Even though he was a tribal born to Kondh tribe, many high caste people, including Brahmins were his disciples. Bhima was illiterate. It is said that he was also blind. He could not therefore read and write. All philosophical, devotional and revolutionary thought, which he dawned in his mind, came out of his mouth in form of a song. His intuitive thought was instinctive and the song he was composing was instantaneous. His immortal words “Mo jibana pachhe narke padi thau, jagata udhhara pau”, which find place in the U.N. Head Quarter office is a voice of piety of the saint poet for the mankind. 

Earlier Vedic seers in a hymn had  invoked ‘Let all live in happiness, let all be free of ailment; let all look at divinity; let not sadness come at any moment.” With this invocation the Vedic Rishis include themselves with the word ‘All’ and for themselves also.  Bhima Bhoi on his part volunteered to take all suffering of the world (both animate and inanimate) upon to himself if in exchange the whole mankind would get salvation. These words speak of a large heart with sublime sympathy for the suffering of the world.

The other aspect of Bhima Bhoi‘s poetry is the voice of revolt he has raised on behalf of the marginalised people. While observing the injustice in the society and exploitation of the strong over the weak, of the haves over have nots, of the upper castes on suppressed castes. In observation of such inequity and sufferings, he could see in his wisdom and inner look that a dark cloud would engulf soon this world; he was searching for a light of hope. Bhima says when exploitation of the strong and the rich would be unbearable and cross the, threshold, people at the receiving end would rise in revolt against the exploiters; such revolt of the suppressed class against inequity and injustice would galvanise. All arrogant rich, so called intellectual, wise and strong will also be exterminated for their sin and vices. Such a voice of revolt is for the first time in Odia literature. Bhima Bhoi’s life was approximately from 1850 to 1895. 

Karl Marx got ‘Das Capital’ out in 1867 when Bhima Bhoi would be a young boy of seventeen years. In Das Capital Marx says, “The expropriators shall be expropriated.” However there is a difference in the approach of Marx and Bhima Bhoi towards the path of revolt. Marx adopts the principle of dialectics which depicts perpetual struggle between thesis and anti thesis ultimately leading to a stage of synthesis which again becomes thesis in the next stage of human history encountering another anti thesis. He has explained it through materialistic interpretation of human history. Bhima Bhoi on the contrary has expressed his absolute faith in the Supreme. He could perceive the Supreme in his Guru Mahima Gosain. As a representative of the mankind, he prayed to the Almighty through his Guru that let the Supreme bring salvation to the world. In a revolt, if there is any deficit in commitment then the revolution becomes weak and unsuccessful. Bhima therefore prays that if there is slightest deficiency in his devotion to God, let the entire suffering befall him but the living world be rescued. While wandering in the princely kingdom of Sonepur, Boudh, Redhakhol and Dhenkanal, he was not afraid of the kings and the rich people. He, in ‘Stuti Chintmani’ says that he is not any king’s subject or indebted to any money lender. Nobody can stop him from the path of the Guru. His most fiery words come in the stanza where he says that sitting on the bank of Mahanadi he touches the river’s water and swear that he would himself commit sin by taking alcohol and would violate the sanctity of a Brahmin woman, if the Supreme would not rescue the world. What a voice against Almighty fighting for the oppressed and marginalised beings. At times one feels that Bhima Bhoi is more a revolutionary poet than a poet of devotion.

By - Sanjib Chandra Hota, B.J. 20, B.J.B. Nagar, Bhubaneswar

.