Bamakhepa

Bamakhepa
Bamakhepa
Personal
Born	Bamacharan Chattopadhyay 22 February 1837 Atla village, Birbhum, Bengal Presidency, Company Raj
Died	July 18, 1911(1911-07-18) (aged 74) Tarapith, Birbhum, Bengal Presidency, British Raj
Religion	Hinduism
Nationality	Indian
Organization
Temple	Tarapith
Philosophy	Shaktism
Religious career
Guru	Swami Kailashpati and Vedagya Mokshadananda
Disciples Nigamananda Paramahansa
Honors	Tarapith Bhairav

Bamakhyapa (Bengali: বামাখ্যাপা, romanized: Bamakhæpa, lit. 'mad saint'; 1837–1911^[1]), born Bamacharan Chattopadhyay, was an Indian Hindu saint who resided in Tarapith and whose shrine is also located in the vicinity of the Tara temple in Birbhum. He was born at Atla village in the Rampurhat subdivision of the Birbhum district.^[2]

Memorial of Sadhak Bamakhyapa

Bamakhyapa's Temple at Maluti in Jharkhand

Seated Bamakhepa idol at the Tarapith temple complex

He was an ardent devotee of Goddess Tara and lived near the temple and meditated in the cremation grounds.^[1] He stayed in Mouliksha temple for continuing the worship of Holy Mother.^[3] Bamakhyapa was fed first in the temple before the deity and nobody obstructed him.^[4] It is believed that Goddess Tara gave a vision to Bamakhaypa in the cremation grounds in her ferocious form.^[1]

Popular culture

Beginning in 2007, a teleserial named 'Sadhak Bamakhepa' about Bamakhepa ran on television in Bengal. By late 2011, it had run for 1500 episodes.^[5]

In the teleserial Mahapeeth Tarapeeth, the life of the ardent devotee Bamakhepa was also depicted elaborately.^[6]

References

1. Kinsely, p. 111
2. Harding, Elizabeth U. (September 1993). Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar. Nicolas-Hays. ISBN 9780892546008.
3. "Break-in at heritage temple". www.telegraphindia.com. The Telegraph. 7 December 2013.
4. Harding, Elizabeth U. (1998). Kali: the black goddess of Dakshineswar. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. pp. 275–279. ISBN 81-208-1450-9. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
5. Gomolo news desk. (29 Nov 2011). "Sadhok Bamakhyapa becomes highly popular" Archived 4 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 31 Jan 2013)
6. "আসছে নতুন ধারাবাহিক 'মহাপীঠ তারাপীঠ'". www.anandabazar.com (in Bengali). Anandabazar Patrika. 27 January 2022.

Further reading

• Dalrymple, William (2009). Nine Lives. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 203–233. ISBN 978-1-4088-0153-6. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
• Kinsley, David R. (1997). Tantric visions of the divine feminine: the ten mahāvidyās. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20499-7.
• Ramos, Imma (2017). Ramos, Imma (ed.). "The Myth of the Goddess Sati". Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal. 1. Routledge: 138. doi:10.4324/9781315223148. ISBN 978-1-315-22314-8.