"When we venture into the jungle to hunt crabs or to gather honey, she is our sole line of defence. Families who live as forest dwellers in the Indian Sundarbans, like us, worship her," said Sandhya Mandal, a resident of Rajat Jubilee village in West Bengal's Sundarbans. Sandhya's family, like most others in the region, depend on the jungle for their livelihood – and on Ma Bonbibi to keep them safe.
The biggest mangrove forest in the world, an estimated 12 million inhabitants of Sundarbans, live by the Bengali saying, "Jole kumir dangaye bagh ( tiger on the land, crocodile in the water)."
Under these conditions, the forest dwellers believe that prayers to Bonbibi, a legendary figure, 'magically' safeguards their life in the Sundarbans.
Folklore suggests that Bonbibi became well-known in the mangrove forest when Islam first appeared in the region in the early 15th century. Some contend that she was originally a Hindu deity who eventually evolved into a Muslim Sufi figure.
Every year, on the first of Magh month (as per Bengali calendar), forest dwellers construct temporary thaans or temples along the riverbanks and forests to worship their beloved Bonbibi.
(Ritayan Mukherjee is an independent photographer from Kolkata. He is working on a long-term project that documents the lives of pastoral and nomadic communities in India. Ritayan has several publications and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards (RNG Awards) in his portfolio.)
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