Bathou

Bathou — reverently Bwrai Bathou or Bathoubwrai, the Elder — is the supreme god of the Bodo people of Assam, and Bathouism is the name of their traditional religion. In Bodo the name is understood as “five principles”, from ba, five, and thou, deep: the five elements of air, fire, earth, water and sky that structure the faith's view of the world. Bathoubwrai is held to be omnipresent, omniscient and the creator of all things.

The sijou altar

The visible centre of Bathou worship is the sijou plant, a species of Euphorbia, revered as the living embodiment of Bathoubwrai. It is planted at the family altar, the sijousali, traditionally at the north-eastern corner of the courtyard, and ringed with a bamboo fence whose eighteen pairs of strips and five fastenings carry symbolic meaning in the tradition. Worship at the altar faces east, with offerings of lamps and incense, and honours alongside Bathou the goddess Mainao, protector of the rice fields.

The tradition today

Traditional Bathou ritual was led by priests known as douri and by the doudini, the female shaman whose possession-dances animate the Kherai, the religion's great festival; Garja is another of its major rites. The modern era has brought organisation and reform: the All Bathou Religious Union, founded in 1992, has standardised worship for many adherents and instituted its own appointed priesthood. Bathouism remains the living faith of a substantial part of the Bodo community, practised alongside the newer religions that have spread among them.