Guardians of the Mountain: From Kingship to Bhomiyā Jī at Śikharajī

This paper examines the emergence of Bhomiyā Jī Mahārāja, the guardian deity at the foothill of Śikharajī (Pārasnātha Hill), and situates his worship within longer histories of landholding, protection, and mediated access to the mountain. While Śikharajī is the most revered Jain tīrtha, sanctified by the liberation of twenty tīrthaṅkaras, ascent has historically required negotiation with territorial authorities. Drawing on colonial revenue records, court cases, Jain tīrthamālā literature, and vernacular pamphlets, the paper traces how guardianship shifted from the Bhuiyan Raja of Palganj under the ghatwālī tenure system to institutional Jain trusts in the colonial and postcolonial periods. I argue that Bhomiyā Jī does not replace earlier intermediaries but condenses their functions into a divine form. His shrine materialises structural continuities in authority even as legal regimes transformed property, sovereignty, and recognition, foregrounding questions of Adivasi dispossession and sacred access.