Ritpur
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Ritpur
(or Ridhpur). Village in the Morsi taluk of Amraoti Dis- trict, Berar, situated in 21 14' N. and 77 51' E. Population (1901), 2,412. The village is mentioned m the Ain-i-Akbarl as the head- quarters of a fargana. It was a place of importance as the lankhwah jagir of Salabat Khan, governor of Ellichpur, at the end of the eighteenth century. At that time it was enclosed by a stone wall, which has almost entiiely disappeared, and is said to have contained 12,000 inhabitants, many of whom fled owing to the oppression of Bisan Chand, talukddr in the time of Namdar Khan. The principal build- ings of interest are Ram Chandra's temple, the Mahanubhava temple called Raj Math, and a mosque which has been the subject of much dispute.
Ritpur is the chief seat and place of pilgrimage of the sect vulgarly known as Manbhau, more correctly Mahanubhava. Its founder was Kishan Bhat, the spiritual adviser of a Raja who ruled at Paithan about the middle of the fourteenth century. His followers believe him to have been the derm-god Krishna, returned to earth. His doctrines repu- diated a multiplicity of gods , and the hatred and contempt which he endured arose partly from his insistence on the monotheistic principle, but chiefly from his repudiation of the caste system. He inculcated the exclusive worship of Krishna as the only incarnation of the Supreme Being and taught his disciples to eat with none but the initiated, and to break off all former ties of caste and religion.
The scriptures of the sect are comprised in the Bhagavad Gita, which all are encouraged to read The head of the sect is a mahant, with whom are associated a number of priests. The sect is divided into two classes, celibates and
- harbarts or seculars. Celibacy is regarded as the perfect life, but
matrimony is pei nutted to the weaker brethren. The celibates, both men and women, shave all hair from the head and wear clothes dyed with lampblack. The lower garment is a waistcloth forming a sort of skirt, and is intended to typify devotion to the religious life and conse- quent indifference to distinctions of sex. The dead are buried in salt, in a sitting posture. Kishan Bhat is said to have obtained a magic cap, by wearing which he was enabled to assume the likeness of Krishna, but the cap was taken from him and burnt. This is probably a Brah- manical invention, like the story of Kishan Bhat's amour with a Mang woman, which was possibly composed to lend colour to the absurd Brahmanical derivation of Manbhau^ the vulgar corruption of the name of the sect (Mang + bhau ' Mang-brother '). The name Maha- nubhava is borne by the sect with pride, and appears to be derived from mahd ( l great ') and anubhava (' intelligence '). It is written Maha- nubhava in all their documents. The Mahanubhavas appear to be a declining sect They numbered 4,111 in Berar in 1881, but m 1901 there were only 2,566.
[In former editions of the Gazetteer^ the erroneous connexion of the Manbhau sect with the Mang caste was unfortunately accepted as true In consequence of some legal proceedings which incidentally arose from this misstatement, the mahants of the sect put themselves into com- munication with Prof. R. G. Bhandarkar of Poona, and also placed at his disposal their sacred books, which, as attested by colophons, go back to the thirteenth century. Prof. Bhandarkar has satisfied himself of the genuineness of these books, which are written in an archaic form of Marathi. They piove that the Manbhau sect (or Mahanubhava, as it is there called) was founded by one Chakradhara, a Karhada Brahman, who was contemporary with the Yadava Krishna Raja (A D 1247-60), and is regarded as an incarnation of Dattatreya. It is interesting to find that two of the present mahants of the Manbhau sect are natives of the Punjab, and that they have a math at Kabul As explaining the introduction of the name of Kishan Bhat, mentioned above, Prof. Bhandarkar has fuither discovered in the Manbhav books an account of various religious sects formerly flourishing in Maharashtra.
Among them is one called Matangapatta, confined to Mahars and Mangs, which is said to have been founded by one Krishnabhatta, about whom is told the legend of an amour with a Mang woman. This sect is still represented in Ahmadnagar District]
