Similar is the case of Bhairwanand, the tribal deity of the Râikwâr Râjputs of Oudh. He was pushed into a well in order to fulfil a prophecy, and has since been deified. [402]
So with the queen of Ganor, who killed herself by means of a poisoned robe when she was obliged to surrender her honour to her Mughal conqueror. He died in extreme torture, and was buried on the road to Bhopâl. A visit to his grave is believed to cure tertian ague. [403]
Next come those mortals who have been deified on account of the glory of their lives. Vyâsa, the compiler of the Vedas, has been canonized, and there is a temple in his honour both at Benares and Râmnagar. In the latter place he has been promoted to the dignity of an incarnation of Siva, whereas in Benares he has a temple of his own. His worship extends as far as Kulu, where he has an image near a stream. Pilgrims offer flowers in his name and set up a stone on end in commemoration of their visit. [404]
Vâlmîki, the author of the Râmâyana, is worshipped in the same way. He has shrines at Bâlu in the Karnâl District and at Baleni of Meerut. Baliya, the headquarters of the district of that name, is said to be called after him. The Aheriyas and Baheliyas, both hunting tribes of the North-Western Provinces, claim descent from him, and he has now, by an extraordinary feat in hagiolatry, become identified with Lâl Beg, the low caste godling of the sweepers. [405]
Many other worthies of the olden time are worshipped in the same way. From the Himâlaya to Bombay, Dattâtreya, a saint in whom a part of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva was incarnate, is worshipped by Vaishnavas as a partial manifestation of the deity, and by Saivas as a distinguished authority on the Yoga philosophy. He has temples both in Garhwâl and in the Konkan, like Parâsara Rishi, the reputed author of the Vishnu Purâna, who wished to make a sacrifice to destroy the Râkshasas, but was dissuaded by the saints, and then scattered the fire over the slope of the Himâlaya, where it blazes forth at the phases of the moon. [406] In like fashion the records of the last census have shown worshippers of the poets Kâlidâsa and Tulasi Dâs, as in Bombay their great writers Dnyânadeva and Tûkarâm are deified by the Marâthas. Nearly seven thousand people in the North-Western Provinces adore Vasishtha, the famous Rishi, and many others Nârada Muni, who is a well-known personage and generally acts as a sort of Deus ex machinâ in the folk-tales. On the whole in the North-Western Provinces over a quarter million people recorded themselves as votaries of these deified saints, devotees and teachers.