Dakshin Ray is a Hindu deity or tiger God who is still worshipped in the Sunderban region. However it seems to be a localized God. It is believed that there was only one unfinished poem dedicated to him. However the poem is not completely about him.It contains the incidental fables of the Pir Bara KM Ghazi and of Kaluray the local crocodile-god. The poem is composed by Krisnaram Das. He mentions an earlier work on Dakshin Ray by Madhav Acharya. There is originality in the theme though in some parts it reminds one of the Chandi fable.
The main narrative is about the rivalry that sprang up between Dakshin Ray and Bara KM Ghazi, a Muslim Pir. This was because merchants who go out on sea-voyages used to worship Daksin Ray and not Bara Khan. This was followed by a conflict in which the tiger armies belonging to the rivals were engaged thereby bringing the world to an end. In order to save the world God came down in a form that was half Krishna and half Muhammad. The Ray-mangal is interesting for its sociological implication. The synthesis between
Hinduism and
Islam was characteristic of the seventeenth century. It moulded many social customs and religious observances of two communities. The synthesis was most prominent in the cultural sphere thereby giving birth to popular cults like Satya-Pir and Manik-Pir.
This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to
content@indianetzone.com
