The
beginning of his public appearance, thirty six years after his first appearance
in Orissa, i.e. in 1862, is confirmed by the statements of other sources.
The first deed of this period was the wonderful conversion of Bhima Bhoi,
whose famous poems the sect owes a major part of its popularity. Bhima
Bhoi was blind from birth, a foundling, adopted by a couple of Khond tribe
in Kandhara (Rairakhol). He left them when he was still a child and eked
out his living by begging, undertaking casual inferior jobs and narrating
stories. When he met Mahima Svami in 1862 he is stated to have been only
thirteen years old. The remarkable meeting is described repeatedly in
details: Mahima Svami and his disciple Jagannatha or Vasudeva appeared
before Bhima Bhoi in a vision and restored him his eyesight. After realizing,
however who his visitors were, Bhima Bhoi requested them to take away
his eyesight, so that he ahs not to see the wickedness of the world and
to bestow on his instead the prophetic and poetic gift, so that he could
herald the new teaching. One of the most significant works of Bhima Bhoi,
Nirveda Sadhana, describes this vision followed by a perceptive conversations
between Mahima Svami and Jagannatha expounding the new teachings.
In the following years, Mahima Svami
preached in the former Feudatory states of Tigeria, Angul, Dhenkanal,
Boudh, Rairakhol, Sonepur and Banki setup Tungies and Mathas and gathers
an apparently very vast growing number of disciples around himself, whom
he ordained after a certain period first as Kanapatis or Kaupindharis
(cloth or kaupina wearers) and later, at times as Kumbhipatias or Balkaladharis
(bark or "kumbhi" wearers). The kanapatias wear a so called
kaupina i.e. ochre coloured cotton loincloth which is passed through the
legs and tied to a twisted girdle. The Kumbhipatias or Balkaladharis have
the same form of loincloth on, the only difference being that it consists
of the dried bark of kumbhi tree which has the same colour as the kaupinas.
The distinctive mark of the sect are the characteristic big umbrellas
made from a palm leaf which serve the roaming sanyasis as a protection
against sun and rain. Mahima Svami is said to have ordained himself 64
Balkaladharis who are also termed as Siddha Baba- a clear allusion to
the 64 Siddha Nathas sect with which Mahima Dharma has many a thing in
common. During Mahima Svami's life time there were, no doubt tensions
which later led to the setting up of two different kinds of denominations
within the sect.
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