Bishnoi, also known as Vishnoi and Prahladpanthi, is a Hindu religious sect, which was founded by Guru Jambheshwar (1451 - 1536) at Samrathal Dhora, a village situated in Dhorimanna block of Barmer district in Rajasthan, in 1485. Guru Jambheshwar, also known as Guru Jambhoji, preached the worship of Hari. He had given 29 principles/commandments and his teachings comprising 120 shabads, are known as Shabadwani.
Sect members refer to themselves as bishnoi, a word they claim is derived from Rajasthani language for twenty (bish) and nine (noi), referring to the 29 priciples of the community.Adherents are also known as Prahladapanthi because of their devotion to Prahlada.
From personal hygiene to maintaining good basic health, from healthy social behaviour to the worshipping of the God, among the 29 principles given by Guru Jambheshwar, 8 principles have been prescribed to preserve bio-diversity.
Among the 29 principles, some priciples which are directly or indirectly, related to the preservation of bio-diversity are:
(i) 8th principle: Use filtered water, milk and cleaned firewood. (The community is directed to see that the firewood they use is devoid of small insects)
(ii) 18th principle: Have merciful on all living beings and love them.
(iii) 19th principle: Don't cut green trees and save the environment.
(iv) 22nd principle: Provide shelters to abandoned animals to avoid them from being slaughtered in abattoires.
(v) 23rd principle: Don't sterilise bulls.
(vi) 24th principle: Don't use or trade opium.
(v) 25th principle: Do not smoke or use tobacco or its products.
(vi) 26th principle: Do not take bhang or hemp.
(vii) 27th principle: Don't drink alcohol/liquor.
(viii) 28th principle: Don't eat meat and always remain pure vegetarian.
(ix) 29th principle: Don't use violet blue colour extracted from indigo plant. (Members of bishnoi community restrain themselves from wearing blue clothes because the dye used for colouring them is obtained from cutting down a large number of shrubs)
KHEJARLI MASSACRE:
Amrita Devi Bishnoi, a member of the sect, along with 362 other bishnois had gone to their deaths in protest of the cutting down of khejri trees in September, 1730.
Soldiers of Maharaja Abhay Singh, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, were willing to cut khejri trees in the village of Khejarli (which was called Jehnad at that time) for wood for construction of a new palace. Noticing their action, Amrita Devi along with her family members & other local people hugged the trees in an attempt to stop them from cutting the trees. The soldiers did indeed kill all of them in order to cut the trees.
STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN BLACK BUCK POACHING CASE:
It was September, 1998, during the shoot of movie, 'Hum Saath Saath Hain', bollywood actor, Salman Khan along with some co-actors, allegedly hunted down two blackbucks (The blackbuck is listed under Appendix III of CITES. In India, hunting of blackbuck is prohibited under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972) in the Kankani village of Rajasthan.
On 2nd October, 1998, the bishnoi villagers registered a complaint against them regarding the poaching of the blackbucks.
Till then to now, it has got around 20 years but this case has not been solved and the bishnoi community is still struggling for the justice and is in a hope to see the accused behind the bars.
WHY THE BISHNOI COMMUNITY IS THIS MUCH DEDICATED TO BLACKBUCKS:
The blackbuck is considered as an avatar of Guru Jambheshwar, the founder of the bishnoi community. The sect is so close to blackbucks & chinkaras, that women often breastfeed and nurture abandoned fawns like their own babies.
As the sun sets at Jajiwal Dhora village, a few kilometres from Jodhpur, the bishnois eagerly wait to feed the blackbucks roaming freely and unafraid.
GRIEF ON THE DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BLACKBUCKS:
After the autopsy of both the blackbucks, bishnois had buried them where they had died. On the 2nd October of every year, bishnois gather at the grave of those blackbucks to have grief.
THE THIRD LIVING PARTNER VISITS THE GRAVE EVERYDAY:
According to the villagers, on the night of the incident, Salman Khan had shot 3 blackbucks, two of them had died and the third had somehow escaped living from there. That very blackbuck visits the grave of its partners everyday and grieves upto hours.