Preserving the Vanishing: Documentation of Ancestral Idol Worship in the Dhivar Community of Bhandara, Gondia, and Nagpur Districts of Maharashtra

Abstract (English)

This ethnographic study examines ancestral worship practices among the Dhivar community of Bhandara, Gondia, and Nagpur districts of Maharashtra, particularly focusing on their distinctive tradition of ancestral idol worship. Traditionally engaged in fishing, water bearing, and pig rearing as primary occupations (Russell and Lal, 1916), this community is currently undergoing significant religious transformation. Many community members are shifting their spiritual practices toward "Parmatma-ek" and "Hanuman Pant" traditions, partly as a communal response to address local alcohol addiction issues. This transition makes the documentation of the Dhivar community's cultural traditions especially urgent, as their traditional practice of ancestral idol worship has significantly diminished and faces potential extinction. Through in-depth interviews with community members, observation of ritual performances, analysis of oral narratives, and examination of the physical attributes of ancestral idols, this research illuminates how material objects function as spiritual mediators between the living and the deceased. Key findings reveal how ancestral idols simultaneously serve practical religious functions while reinforcing cultural significance through the depiction of ornamentation, occupation, and personality of the individual in the ancestral idols. This study contributes to broader theoretical understandings of materiality in religious practice and documents how cultural and traditional belief systems adapt to contemporary social challenges.