Sidh Kavedia

Student Reporter

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&quot;Bandar ki pheri
lao, bandar ki pheri lao... [Bring
alms for the monkeys…]&quot; 

Jhujaram Dharmiji
Sant chants this as he cycles through the alleys of Sheoganj town in Rajasthan’s
Sirohi district. “People always give away leftovers such as rotis, and both raw and cooked vegetables
quite readily,” he remarks. “And by the time I collect [food from] about six to
seven alleys, I manage to fill up a sack.” He uses a plastic sack which packs
in 15 to 20 kilos.  

For eight months each
year, Jhujaram gets busy from 8.30 every morning collecting meals for the
monkeys. Once the sack is full, he
switches from the cycle to his moped for the eight-kilometre journey to Gankeshwar
Mahadev Mandir, a small temple surrounded by hills, southeast of Palri
village in Sirohi tehsil, off national highway 62.

He reaches the
temple by about 11 a.m. and shouts “aao, aao” (&quot;come, come&quot;) calling the monkeys. As
if by magic, 200 to 300 langurs (Semnopithecus priam) appear immediately, all staring
at him, waiting for the treat like well-mannered children. But the manners vanish
as he flings the rotis into the air. The animals  quickly rush around and
gobble up everything they can grab even as more langurs  swiftly join in. Jhujaram estimates he feeds
all the 700 monkeys he says there are in this forest, in half an hour. “They
like potatoes, biscuits, bottlegourd and carrots in the summer, roti and even chickoo,” he says. 

Others who try feeding them are met with an aggressive scowl, he says. “They are
terrified of outsiders – they’ve often had people throwing stones and hurting
them. It’s sad that people hurt them, why they do that?” he asks.

Jhujaram sees the
monkeys as a form of the Hindu god Hanuman and he sees his work as seva
(duty). “The monkeys always come because this work has been happening for years
and they are accustomed to it. If for some reason I’m not able to do this for a
couple of days, then it takes them longer to come out,” he says.

Born in Andore
village, near Paladi panchayat  in Sirohi district and now in his early 40s, Jhujaram
has been doing this job for five years. He is paid Rs. 4,000 a month by the
Hanuman Seva Sangh, a local Sheoganj group. “I do get money, but I do this out
of love and not as a labourer. The money isn’t credited to my bank account, but
to an account with the one sitting on top, the maalik (god). This work is all
about punya [virtuous
deeds]. Their [the monkeys’] blessings are immense. By caring for them, even
the maalik will listen to them and
bless me.”

Jhujaram belongs to
the Rebari tribe (recorded in Rajasthan as an OBC,
Other Backward Class) and he is a singer too. His family sings bhajans at
ceremonies. He has two sons; one works at a local cloth store and the other is
studying in Class 5. His wife is an intermittent labourer who also looks after
their home and Jhujaram’s mother, who lives with them. In the four months that Jhujaram isn’t feeding the monkeys, he sometimes finds work as a construction labourer, or sells ice-cream on the streets of Sheoganj. “From this I earn Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 a month, and sometimes nothing and my son (who works in the cloth store) earns about Rs. 4,000. If there is some shortage, Bholenath (the Hindu god, Shiva) will look after that,” he adds.

To help Jhujaram in the peak summer months when the load is greater, another man, also appointed by the Hanuman Seva Sangh, joins him in feeding the monkeys. After the monsoon, they both stop this work for a while. “There is plenty of food readily available in the forest [for the monkeys] after the rains. Last year’s monsoons were very good, this place was green,” he recalls.“But in summer when there is no water, all the tukudis [troops – groups of monkeys] come here. There are five tukudis, and in the winters three of them come to eat here. And the rest go above that hill over there,” he says, pointing to a range. “And beyond the temple are villages, so they go there. In the winters, many of the monkeys descend on the villages where they can find plenty to eat including, sometimes, standing crop.“During the
summers, I try and bring more food as there isn’t much around for them to eat.
Also the days are longer in summer and the mornings aren’t very cold, so I
manage to collect more food as I have more time,” he points out. “They don’t
eat this babool
[Acacia nilotica] itself as
it is inedible, but sometimes they do eat the papdi
[bean-like pods of the babool]. In winter it’s the season of bore [jujube
fruit], so they eat that as well.”

Jhujaram tells us
that he began feeding the primates a little over five years ago. “Before that I
was working at a shop, while another man was feeding them here, every day. This
providing for the monkeys has been on for about 50 years now. People keep
changing but the work never stops.”

When asked who
comes in his place if he is unable to work on some days, he says: “No one!
Other people don’t want to do this work as they are scared of these monkeys
hurting them. The animals also will not trust new people. See – you all [school
children] came and they immediately retreated.”

Jhujaram explains that he used to work in a kirana (general goods) shop when one summer his boss told him that a man was needed for feeding the monkeys or they would die hungry and their souls would be disturbed. He said to me: “you’ll still be employed here but first please do the work of feeding those monkeys.” So for the next four years, Jhujaram did that and continued working at the shop until another man was found and he could stop being the simian feeder.  After working at the shop for 15 years, Jhujaram quit about two years ago, following a disagreement with his boss. And when summer came around and another man was needed to feed the monkeys, he stepped in and has been doing it again since then.“In the cities, I have heard, people cut trees and hurt animals. I’m sure you’ve heard of people throwing stones at monkeys too. So what do you do?” he asks us. “Be it children or adults, I tell them give rotis [food] or don’t give if you don’t want to, but please don’t hurt them or irritate them. Look after the animals and birds around you; we don’t have the right to hurt other creatures.”Jhujaram says that he did think of migrating out of Sheoganj once, and he wants his children to go. “They must decide whether to go or not. I’m sure I don’t want to go to the city. I have found my work and this seva.”We asked Jhujaram’s son, 19-year-old Dinesh Kumar (who works in the cloth store) if he would ever take over his father’s role: “This is saintly work,” he says. &quot;If it is written in my fate, I too will do it.”The reporter would like to thank Jhujaram Dharmiji Sant for his time, patience and enthusiasm in narrating his story. I also want to thank my teacher, Ganesh Venkatraman, for his guidance.  Drawing of man and
cycle: Srishti Vaishnavi Kumaran, a Class 10 student at Shibumi School, Bengaluru.All photos: Sidh
Kavedia and Ganesh Venkatraman, Shibumi School, Bengaluru.

In Sheoganj, monkey business is a great service

ஷியோகஞ்சில், குரங்குகளுக்கு உணவளிக்கும் சேவை

শিৱগঞ্জত বানৰ-সেৱাই মহান সেৱা

شیو گنج میں بندروں کی دیکھ بھال ایک عظیم خدمت ہے

शिवगंज में बंदरों की देखभाल एक महान सेवा है

ସେଓଗଞ୍ଜରେ ମାଙ୍କଡ଼ ବ୍ୟବସାୟ ଏକ ବଡ଼ ସେବା

Sheoganj

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In Sheoganj, monkey business is a great service

In Rajasthan’s Sirohi district, Jhujaram Sant is employed by a local group to collect leftovers from households and feed hungry langurs in the nearby forest, especially in the summer months when food is scarce

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