No business without Bhimsen

By Dhurba K Deep

Bhimsen, one of the great heroes of Mahabharata, is very popular in Nepal. He is known for his strength and bravery. Mahabharata tells us how he has always pushed himself in front to fight the wicked away and protect the weak. It is said that one of his arms alone had the strength of hundreds of elephants. In paintings and sculptures he is shown lifting a horse in the air and pressing an elephant under his knee while a huge cobra and lion are watching him in awe.

This type of his image is quite popular among the trader’s community of Nepal. His traditional image or painting seems to decorate many walls of old styled shops in Nepal. Red-faced Bhimsen with round angry eyes and thick black moustache really looks very fierce and frightening. The attitude of his anger is said to symbolize his determination to kill Dushashan, his archenemy who had insulted his most innocent wife Draupadi by trying to denude her in public.

This is the main reason why the statue of this Hindu Hercules in Nepal is ichnographically sculptured in an attitude of killing Dushashan.

One of the liveliest statues of Bhimsen can be seen in Patan Bhimsen temple at Patan Durbar Square. This gorgeous temple was built by king Shreenivas Malla in the early 18th century A.D. Kathmandu also has one somehow similar to the one mentioned above but it is not that impressive and elegant. There are three main temples dedicated to Bhimsen in the Kathmandu valley. One is in Patan one in Bhadgaon and one in Kathmandu. Another very famous one is in Dolakha in Eastern Nepal. Besides this there are also many other small shrines and temples of Bheemsena are scattered here and there in this country. All this speaks a lot about the popularity of Bhimsen in Nepal.

Nepalese traders have great respect for Bhimsen.

There are several guthis (a sort of trust), devoted to the regular service of this popular deity. During the time of Mahabharata and the Puranas Bhimsen was respected only as a great hero but interestingly enough in Nepal he is worshipped as a god of commerce and trade than in any other form. He is also worshipped more as a protector by simple-minded people and as a destroyer of enemies by warriors. He is said to be very hungry at very close intervals because of the hard work he has to do for his devotees. According to a local folklore animals are sacrificed to him as a gesture of thanksgiving for strenuous public tasks he has to complete very often.

Now we discuss a bit about how Bhimsen came to be worshipped as a god of commerce and trade in Nepalese business community. As we all know Nepal is a mountainous country where in good old days the only commercial routes were connected with India and China which were the difficult mountain trails. The Nepalese traders who wanted to do their business with the neighbouring countries had to walk across the Himalayas and pass through dense dark jungles for months, which was quite a challenge.

Only the brave and bold businessmen could undertake such tasks. In other words, leaving Nepal for business trip across the Himalayas in those days was like going to the war in wilderness. As such a businessman always had to travel in-groups. This was done for the sake of their own protection. This is somehow very similar to the Himalayan expedition, which includes hundreds of porters carrying the expedition gears.

The old time traders obviously for some religious reasons never used the beast of burden for the commercial purpose. They always preferred to pick up the porters instead. The main reason for this was that they always needed a well-organized party of very strong people whom they could also use as an army to fight away the mountain robbers and wild animals whom they very often had to face on their trade routes.

And another important thing they always sought after was the grace of Bhimsen, the great folk hero who was very soon recognized as a god of commerce and trade. There are lots of legends woven around Bhimsen, which describes his adventures and bravery.

As many believe to this day this Hindu Hercules is always there for help in a disguised form whenever his devotees are in trouble.

A very popular story about him says: once a farmer was helplessly brooding over his fieldwork, which he had not been able to finish yet. He was all alone and could not get anybody for help. It was at this time that Bhimsen appeared before him in the disguised form of a very poor peasant and dramatically told the farmer that he was terribly hungry and asked him if he could kindly give him something to eat.

The farmer immediately gave him all the food he had brought for his afternoon meal. The hungry beggar gulped it down in no time. The beggar further asked the farmer if he could give him some more. At this farmer said he could give some more if he could kindly wait for few more minutes.

The beggar said he would. Then the farmer rushed back home to get more food. But no sooner he left the field than the beggar turned Bhimsen plunged into the field and finished all the works left undone by the farmer in a second which would have taken ten strong people to do. The farmer was back to the field with the food but Bhimsen was no longer there.

However the farmer soon realized what had happened in his field when he was gone away for a while. He became very happy that he gave a very warm treatment to the beggar for which he was immediately rewarded.

Heritage tour

By Razen Manandhar

Atko Narayan Temple

Those who take the zone of World Heritage Site of Hanumandhoka as only a cluster of temples in front of the royal palace actually miss quite a lot of the grand complex or religious monuments existing in harmony with the orthodox human settlement around it. One such temple lies around 200 metres down the square that bears aesthetic as well as social importance and has been a nexus to the cultural life of the local people.

The 416 years old temple of Birinchi Keshav Narayan but popular as Atko (also called Adko, Atak or Atuk) Narayan is taken as a savior of women in labour pains. You can free your daughter-in-laws from sever pain by only offering some drops of mustard on the Vishnu’s image inside the temple — so they believe. If the temple is closed, you can put the oil on the main door too.. In the same way the locals believe the idol of Lord Vishnu prophets any ominous event to take place in the country.

The government has not yet explored any concrete evidence of the history of its origin.. An ancient chronicle states that the temple was built under the guidance of King Siddhi Narshimha Malla’s wife Rani Ganga Maharani in Nepal Era 706 (that is 1586 AD) as a replica of the famous Changu Narayan of Bhaktapur. "It was difficult for the public to pilgrim four Narayans at four corners of the valley. One night, the Maharani was ordered by the Lord himself in her dream that she could have a temple of Changu Narayan built at Atko, near Kathmandu Durbar Square," tells the temple priest Narayan Rajopadhyaya. The temple was found renovated in 1857 AD in historical evidences.

The three-tiered pagoda has two tile roofs while the upper tier is made of copper plates. The main chamber is circulated by carved wooden pillars. The roofs are supported by wooden struts from all directions, which is a common characteristics of pagodas in the Kathmandu Valley. The specialty of the struts of Atko Narayan Temple is that they bear engraved images of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. And on the four corners, there are heavy stone legendary lions, each with a parrot’s beak and long mustache, in pouncing position.

The dark chamber of the temple contains a small but beautifully carved stone image of standing Lord Vishnu with the usual conk shell, disc, mace and a lotus in his four hands.

The Atko Narayan is not the single shrine in the courtyard. A grand statue of Garuda is kneeling in front of the temple and a recent addition is placed on a stone pillar. There are other deities in small niches around the temple. Among other, one, of the Shivha, Parvati and other family member seem to be quite old.

On the other hand, despite it has been neglected by the government bodies for decades, it is fortunate to have caring neighbours. The local merchants have done quite exemplary things to renovate the temple and adore it with more offerings time to time. The daily rituals were observed by the donations from the locals.

The temple was renovated time to time by the locals but it later could not find any such religious people to save it from further decaying. The finial or the pinnacle of the temple had some problem and rain water started to leak into the inner part of the temple resulting in heavy loss of the monument. The locals were helpless and tried the temple’s luck at government bodies and some other institutions as well. Finally, they decided to renovate the temple at their own initiation. They formed a Atko Narayan Temple Renovation Committee. According to the committee chairman Bharat Lal Shrestha, the renovation project would cost from 800,000 to Rs 1,000,000.

"Apart form the locals, Kathmandu Metropolitan City’ provided technical assistance and also a sum of nearly 577,000 rupees."

Though the temple is in the Protected Monument Zone and situated some 300 metres away from District Police Office, it is far away from protection. Among others, its torana with artistic image of Vishnu was stolen around a year ago. After that, the locals had to seal the temple entrances with iron rellings and several padlocks that mars the beauty of the temple. A week or two ago, five artistic wooden struts were stolen from the temple, shocking the locals and the volunteers working on the renovation of the temple.

The government nationalised its four ropani of land property but the priest is supposed to get only a hundred rupees per month for its daily rituals. The locals, specially the chairman Shrestha voluntarily contributes materials for it.

"I’m not sure whether my son will take over this responsibility or not," Rajopadhyaya says.

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