THE BHIL HEROES

A great pre-historian, Hindi scholar, linguist and over all Bhil scholar Dr. Nemichand Jain mentions in his two famous books ' Bhili ka Bhasha Sahitya-Adhyayana' and 'BHILI.: Bhasha Sahitya aur Sankriti' about one of the versions of Ramayana in Gujarati called Bhilodi Ramayana. It is composed accoriding to the oral tadition of the Bhils and of the region that it was composed by one of the great Bhil heroes, called Valmiki. Valmiki from the region of Nishad Desh clearly appears to have been a Bhil poet ,not only a rogue but also a scholar who later in his conversion days, composed Valmiki Ramayana. Similarly Eklavya who was more expert that the Pandwas especially Arjuna,,in the military skill of archery in those days, to defeat and dampen him the great Guru Dronacharya in his great wisdomasked for the thumb of right hand in return of his gurudakshina (tuition fee) and ever since the Bhils do not use the thumb of the right hand for the archery. Eklavya was a local prince and a Bhil hero. In Ramayana and Mahabharata and Puranas we find many Nishad or the Bhil heroes.Tulsi Das in his Ramcharitra Manas says that the Nishad king Guha went to welcome Rama with his council of ministers near present Shrungverpur when God Rama was approaching towards forest for vanvas and Shabari was 'parangat' (expert/specialised) in shastras (sacred books). Rana Punja Bhil the right hand of Maharana Pratap, the great hero of the Rajputana when deserted totally by his fellow Rajputs was attended and supported by the Rana Punja Bhil in the great war against the Mugals in Haldighat not only during the war but later in his las days as a defeated and deserted hero by the great patriotic Bhils. When the army of Akbar attacked Agra a Bhil chief of the opposite army faced the Mogul army. And today we are fmiliar with the Great patriot and Tribal hero of India Sant Tantia Bhil. Such national heroes of the Great Bhil tribe are over a hundred in the written and the oral tradition of the Bhils of Charans, Dholis(Bhil Bards), Ravalyas(Bhil Historians) and vartaryas(story tellers). A famous tribal historian of Rajasthan, Hariram Meena has been doing a valueable research along this line. The two tribal journals 'Aravali Udghosh'and 'Mangargh Sandesh' are aslo making significant contribution in this field.

In the oral tradition of the Bhils and in the life of the Bhils heroes the innate and uncorrupt values of the Bhils is exhibited in a sacredway, against the corrupted values which are percolating in tribal areas today in the social, cultural and political encounters with other castes, The Central Government and state governments of India, must promote the innate, sublime, and sacred values of the Bhils in the Bhilanchal regions,by the written and oral tradition of India, the life and values for which these great Bhil heroes stood firmly and did not support the invading Muslims and the British like many castes and other groups did contrary in the political history of India. Not only this, India should not promote only non tribal heroes who belong to the minority population of India, but should represent 80% of the national heroes from the 80% population of India who are SC, ST & and OBC folks. It today great discrimination, injustice and damage to the human rights is being done to the Great Bhil heroes, the Bhil community and these SC, ST & OBC who are originally80% indigenous peoples of India.

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