Jangam, Jangama.--A Sivite order of wandering religious mendicants. The
Jangams are the priests or gurus of the Sivite sect of Lingayats. They
numbered 3500 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911,
and frequent the Maratha country. The Jangam is said to be so
called because he wears a movable emblem of Siva (jana gama, to
come and go) in contradistinction to the Sthawar or fixed emblems
found in temples. The Jangams discard many of the modern phases of
Hinduism. They reject the poems in honour of Vishnu, Rama and Krishna,
such as the Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana; they also deny the authority
of Brahmans, the efficacy of pilgrimage and self-mortification, and
the restrictions of caste; while they revere principally the Vedas and
the teaching of the great Sivite reformer Shankar Acharya. [177] Like
other religious orders, the Jangams have now become a caste, and are
divided into two groups of celibate and married members. The Gharbaris
(married members) celebrate their weddings in the usual Maratha
fashion, except that they perform no hom or fire sacrifice. They
permit the remarriage of widows. The Jangams wear ochre-coloured or
badami clothes and long necklaces of seeds called rudraksha [178]
beads, which resemble a nutmeg in size, in colour and nearly in shape;
they besmear their forehead, arms and various other parts of the body
with cowdung ashes. They wear the lingam or phallic sign of Siva
either about the neck or loins in a little casket of gold, silver,
copper or brass. As the lingam is supposed to represent the god and
to be eternal, they are buried and not burnt after death, because
the lingam must be buried with them and must not be destroyed in the
fire. If any Jangam loses the lingam he or she must not eat or drink
until it has been replaced by the guru or spiritual preceptor. It
must be worshipped thrice a day, and ashes and bel [179] leaves are
offered to it, besides food when the owner is about to partake of this
himself. The Jangams worship no deity other than Siva or Mahadeo, and
their great festival is the Shivratri. Some of them make pilgrimages
to Pachmarhi, to the Mahadeo hills. Most of them subsist by begging
and singing songs in praise of Mahadeo. Grant-Duff gives the Jangam as
one of the twenty-four village servants in a Maratha village, perhaps
as the priest of the local shrine of Siva, or as the caste priest
of the Lingayats, who are numerous in some Districts of Bombay. He
carries a wallet over the shoulder and a conch-shell and bell in the
hand. On approaching the door of a house he rings his bell to bring
out the occupant, and having received alms proceeds on his way,
blowing his conch-shell, which is supposed to be a propitious act
for the alms-giver, and to ensure his safe passage to heaven. The
wallet is meant to hold the grain given to him, and on returning
home he never empties it completely, but leaves a little grain in
it as its own share. The Jangams are strict vegetarians, and take
food only from the hands of Lingayats. They bless their food before
eating it and always finish it completely, and afterwards wash the
dish with water and drink down the water. When a child is born, the
priest is sent for and his feet are washed with water in a brass
tray. The water is then rubbed over the bodies of those present,
and a few drops sprinkled on the walls of the house as a ceremony
of purification. The priest's great toes are then washed in a cup
of water, and he dips the lingam he wears into this, and then sips
a few drops of the water, each person present doing the same. This
is called karuna or sanctification. He then dips a new lingam into
the holy water, and ties it round the child's neck for a minute or
two, afterwards handing it to the mother to be kept till the child
is old enough to wear it. The dead are buried in a sitting posture,
the lingam being placed in the palm of the hand. On the third day a
clay image of Mahadeo is carried to the grave, and food and flowers
are offered to it, as well as any intoxicants to which the deceased
person may have been addicted. The following notice of the Jangams
more than a century ago may be quoted from the Abbé Dubois, though the
custom described does not, so far as is known, prevail at present,
at least in the Central Provinces: [180] "The gurus or priests of
Siva, who are known in the Western Provinces by the name of Jangams,
are for the most part celibates. They have a custom which is peculiar
to themselves, and curious enough to be worth remarking. When a guru
travels about his district he lodges with some member of the sect,
and the members contend among themselves for the honour of receiving
him. When he has selected the house he wishes to stay in, the master
and all the other male inmates are obliged, out of respect for him,
to leave it and go and stay elsewhere. The holy man remains there day
and night with only the women of the house, whom he keeps to wait on
him and cook for him, without creating any scandal or exciting the
jealousy of the husbands. All the same, some scandal-mongers have
remarked that the Jangams always take care to choose a house where
the women are young." The Jangams are not given to austerities,
and go about well clad.