ADILABAD: The belief in divine blessings is so immense that Adivasis who during poosmas worship tiger God and it's deities that are located deep in the forests, are venturing into these spots barefoot without any fear of being attacked by the big cat.
Adivasis revere tiger God as ‘Rajulkpen’ in gondi. Tigers are called ‘Duvval’ and ‘Vagoba’ in Gondi.
Adivasis visit many popular places for tiger God deities that made of wood and perform special puja praying to the God not to cause any harm to their cattle that enter forests for grazing, and human beings.
Now, groups of Adivasis are visiting ‘Dheammal Rajulk’ located in the forest in Utnoor mandal and ‘Puli Kachar’ located on the Adilabad mandal border.
Adivasis strongly believes that the Rajulkpen will give them success in their mission.
They set up ‘Rajulkpen’ on the outskirts of their respective villages where they take their cattle and perform puja on the occasion ‘Akadi’. This marks the commencement of Gussadi-Dandari cultural events.
‘Gondi Samaj Jagruthi’ organisation leader Sedmaki Seetharam said Adivasis symbolically control the tiger deity with an iron chain with the belief that it will not cause any harm to humans and cattle if it was chained.
He said chaining the tiger is popularly known as ‘Sakkali’ in Gondi dialect and added that they had a close association with Rajulkpen.
