Introduction

Bathouism is the traditional religion or belief of the Bodo Tribe of Assam State of North East Region of India as well as the neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Bathouism is the traditional religion or belief of the Bodos which have been practised since time immemorial. The Bodos have inherited it from their forefathers. The religion has passed from generation to generation in Bodo society. Bathouism is not only a religion but also one of the unique identities of the Bodos. The Bodo society is a nature-worshipping society and most of their day-to-day lives revolve around nature. The natural objects can be reflected in their traditional dresses, surnames and so on.

The followers of Bathouism worship the five elements of nature the Sun, Earth, Air, Water and Universe. These are the five elements of Bathouism as well as the five elements of nature.

The holy term Bathou is made up of two words – Ba meaning Five and Thou meaning deep principles or philosophies in the Bodo language. Therefore the term Bathou means five deep principles or five deep philosophies or thoughts. The five deep principles or philosophies are the Sun, Earth, Air, Water and Universe.

Importance of the Five Elements of Nature!

Sun

The Sun is the ultimate source of all energy in our solar system. It is just like the centre of our solar system. Each and every object in our solar system revolves around the sun. It is the biggest fire, light or star in our solar system. Without the sun, everything in our solar system will be in darkness.

The sun is very very important for us in many different ways. The primary producer like grass or plants gets its food or energy from the sun. Green plants including grass prepare their food through autotrophic nutrition or photosynthesis with the help of sunlight.

Therefore we can say that the sun is even in the centre of the food chain. Sunlight is essential for each and every living thing be it plants or animals. With the help of sunlight only, we can see the beautiful blue sky. Sunlight is also a good source of vitamins.

Earth

The Earth is the only planet in our solar system which is said to have supported life. The Earth is a beautiful planet because of its bio-diversity where we can find that each and every thing depends on each other.

Living things can be found only on our planet Earth. There is no life on other planets of the solar system.

In our earth, we can find different types of beautiful living things like plants, animals, birds and so on. There are both land as well as sea creatures. Some creatures can live in both land and sea as well as some creatures are also the proud masters of three worlds like land, air and water. Some birds can dive deep into the river as well as fly high in the air. There are no such beautiful living creatures on other planets of the solar system.

Therefore, it can be considered that only our earth is the only unique and life-supporting planet in our solar system.

Air

Air is another vital element for each and every living thing. The air is made up of different gases like nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. On the other hand, animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

In this way, each and every living thing is dependent on each other both directly and indirectly.

Water

Water is also essential for all of us. We can find water in the body of each and every living thing be it plants or animals. In other words, it can be stated that water is life. Water is present in each and every living thing.

Water is a very precious natural resource which can be used for different purposes like irrigation and agriculture.

We can’t imagine a life without water. Water is very important for us in our daily lives like drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, bathing and so on. It can also be used for watering the garden and crops as well as many other domestic purposes.

Universe

The Universe includes our beautiful blue sky. We can see the beautiful sun and the blue sky only because of the presence of the universe. Since our earth has an atmosphere, we can see the beautiful blue sky because of the scattering of light in the atmosphere. In the blue sky, we can see the beautiful natural scenarios like the beautiful rainbow, flying birds, sunrise, sunset, morning star, evening star and so on.

In the night sky, we can see the beautiful moon and the stars.

Conclusion

Bathouism is a nature-worshipping religion of the Bodos, which has been practised since time immemorial. The Bodos have inherited the religion from their forefathers and they are always ready to preserve it for their future generations. The Bodos are considered to be nature lovers or worshippers of the nature. The scenarios of nature are reflected in the spheres of each and every aspect of the Bodo way of life. Even the natural objects are reflected in the Bodo surnames like the surname Daimary is related to the river, the surname Basumatary is related to the earth, the surname Brahma is related to the fire, the surname Swargiary is related to the universe, the surname Hajowary is related to the hill and so on. Since the Bodos are worshippers and lovers of nature, therefore it can be stated that their surnames are also derived from the nature. Moreover, the Bodo ways of life and living are also unique as they always use to settle or dwell in the nature like near the hills, near the rivers or near the forest. In their traditional dresses also, different natural designs are reflected just like Hajw Agor, which means hill design can be found in Aronai, one of the Bodo traditional attire and so on.

.    .    .