Jathere (ਜਠੇਰੇ ) – What It Means To Me – Knowing and Respecting Ones Ancestry

 

Jathere (ਜਠੇਰੇ ) – What It Means To Me – Knowing and Respecting Ones Ancestry

I belong to the Mahey clan (Gotra – ਗੋਤਰਾ) of Punjab pertaining to the ‘untouchable denomination’ of Hindus. I don’t know exactly but I was told that there were Maheys in Jaat community (Sikhs) in Punjab also who are (Shudras) in accordance with the Hindu Varna system. This requires further research and verification, however. I know that both Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab and beyond venerate their ancestors or perform Jathere worship. My family is no exception and tends to go with the main stream of the community and the society not as some special effort or connotation but as obvious and natural corollary to follow the famous saying ‘While in Rome do as Romans do’ being a a small cog in the big wheel. 

For good or bad, I don’t know, it is a matter of some relief or satisfaction for me that at least for the last two generations of my family starting from my grand-parents (Rulda Ram and Nandi) and down to my parents (Sodhi Ram and Preeto) and my brothers and sisters and also our children, at present, are not ritualistic or dogmatic about religious matters consciously or otherwise. We are God fearing people by upbringing and day to day living. I and wife Vidya tend to stand with the family and the community in their thick and thin without giving any consideration to this ‘ism’ or that ‘waad’ for social interaction be it at Home, Gurudwara, Mandir, Vihar,

Sharaad ceremony at our ancestral home

Masjit, Church and so on. We are neither theist nor atheists by thinking and conduct but are more inclined to be agnostic at the back of our minds.  I and my wife Vidya always felt like joining our extended family to stand with them through thick and thin including ‘Jathere’ or ‘Sharaad’ events not that we tend to be ritualistic or superstitious but as a matter of harmony and peace, as we please, in the family. We are not alien or opposed to the concept or thought of veneration or remembrance of elders or ancestors. I thought of this explanation to put the matter in its perspective without getting dogmatic about this social interaction.

With this background, I come to our visit to Mahey Gotra Jathere in a remote Village Ryatpur Jattan in District Nawan Shehar (Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in Punjab along with my brothers, Krishan Lal and Paramjit with our families on May 28, the day of annual congregation (Mela) at the site. My brothers and their families go there every successive year. This year my daughter-in-law Sulekha

was keen to go to pay respects to our elders and in turn I informed my brothers that my son Rupesh and Sulekha would also accompany them. Kishan, knowing well my mind and inclination of generally not doing these rituals, suggested that it would be good if also joined them, if not anything else let it be a family outing. I agreed and joined them. Instead of our cars, we decided to hire a Tempo where all of us could be accommodated for easy logistics. Thanks Kishan, it was a good fun.

 Ryatpur is situated about 5 kms in the interior on Anandpur Sahib Road from Garhshankar. In fact, it was my second visit to our Jathere – the first was in March/April, 1983-84, at the time of the marriage of our sister Maya and we were in India on Home-leave from Sana’a (Yemen) to seek blessing of our ancestors. I don’t remember much as there was nothing much built or erected at the non-descript site at that time except some tid-bits with our co-passengers of the extended family namely; Buja Ram and Dalipa Ram among others on the tractor-trolley which was our transport mode. Buja Ram kept us going with his earthy wit and art of storytelling. There are some interesting anecdotes of the visit with Bujha Ram which I would share separately at some other occasion. Excuse me for saying the truth; I was not much impressed by the Jathere site, management and their functioning. We started early to avoid the rush of the Mela and return back before it gets crowded. But it was not to be. We reached there at around 8 in the morning after about 1.30 hours travel from Bootan Mandi Jalandhar. The temporary parking arrangements in the nearby fields were made but it was chaotic. Hundreds of the Mahey clan was already there on bikes, cars, hired vehicles etc. The bandovast like sound system, drinking water, sitting (squatting) were still underway. The long queues of faithful to venerate their Jathere were already in the making. But there was hardly any pre-planning, it seemed, by the management and nobody was bothered or perturbed visibly. I met many of our known people like; Senior

Executive of BSNL Hemant Mahey, Senior Banker Sita Ram Mahey and my other fellow BootanMandians Bawa Mahey among others with their families. Thousands of thousands were likely to come and the crowd by swelling by the minute. I could feel that this trend of visiting or worshiping Jatheres was getting strong over the years. The reasons for this, to my mind, are increasing economic profile of the community and inherited belief to ‘respect and regard of the Jatheres’ rarely with a sense of conviction but as a ‘Bheddchall’ - camp follower in the given social structures of the main stream of the society or Hindu or Sikh social and spiritual norms. The management, I could guess, was interested only in collecting money and offerings in kind. Let us hope they learn from others of the upper strata of the society and conduct themselves. I was told that on the Mela day on May 28 every year a Mahey Family from Delhi comes and undertake the expenses on the Langar (community meal). There may be many more like them waiting in the wings or doing something or the other to venerate and please their Jatheras. Just to satisfy my curiosity as to how come somebody thought of fixing or locating the Mahey Jatheras to this non-descript place at village Ryatpur, I enquired about this from many but could not find any plausible answer. Nobody could inform that why May 28 was fixed for the annual Mela. I think Jathera culture will remain and would rather get strengthened in the years to come. There is no point in making it an issue, if people get some peace of my in the process, let it be. More so, remembering ones ancestors may not be considered bad by any social norm.

I took help of the ‘Google Baba’ to know more about the Jathere tradition and culture and found this, “What is meant by ancestor worship? - Ancestor worship refers to rituals designed to commemorate and venerate the spirits of one's deceased forebears. While it is often associated with the Confucian notion of filial piety, ancestor worship crosses the boundaries of religious traditions, geographical regions, and socioeconomic groups. In certain societies, the veneration of ancestors whose spirits are frequently held to possess the power to influence the affairs of the living is in vogue. It further explains, “Ancestor worship is a religious practice based on the belief that deceased family members have a continued existence, that the spirits of deceased ancestors will look after the family, take an interest in the affairs of the world, and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living.”

With my personal information and experience gathered during my call of diplomatic duties in various countries, I found that ancestor veneration is also prevalent in many countries of Africa, China, Japan, Vietnam and many countries of Europe. There is no harm in
remembering ones elders and ancestors to invoke their blessings for the good and further well-being. But it does not make any sense and is rather immoral to worship Jatheras, if one tends to ignore, neglect and trouble his or her parents while they are alive. Respect for elders and parents should become a social norm and we all would be at ease and happy. I conclude this with a poetic assertion of Allama Iqbal:

“गुज़र गया अब वोह दौर साकी, कि छुप के पीते थे पीने वाले।

बनेगा सारा जहान मयखाना, हर कोई बादहख़्वार होगा।

तुम्हारी तहज़ीब अपने ख़जर से आपकी खडुदकशी करेगी।

जो शाख़े नाज़ुकपै आशियाना बनेगा, नापाएदार होगा।

ख़ुदाके बन्दे तो हैं हज़ारों, वनोंमें फिरते हैं मारे-मारे।

मैं उसका बन्दा हनूँगा जिसको, ख़ुदा के बन्दों से प्यार होगा।” 

Postscript:- With regard to Jathere and Sharaad, I have no believe in offerings of food and clothes which might go o my ancestors. These are superstitions only without any logical explanation, to my mind. But still sometimes tend to do certain thing which does not conform to your thinking. I narrate a story to support this. Khuswant Singh, a famous writer and columnist and an authority on Sikhism and Sikh scriptures was not a religious person as such. He wrote that he found ‘Guruvani’, many a times, self contradictory or illogical but he always found solace by listening to its recital or singing in the Kirtan (musically sung Guruvani). It explains the unbiased human psyche. No further explanation is called for.