The Love Saga of JHITKU-MITKI

So far, only the stories of Shirin-Farhad, Laila-Majnu, Heer-Ranjha, Romeo-Juliet and Sohni-Mahiwal are invoked in love. But the youth of the remote tribal area of ​​Chhattisgarh’s tribal-dominated Bastar also consider such a loving couple as their ideal, who gave their lives for love. Yes, the ideal lovers of the tribals are the couple ‘Jhitku-Mitki’, who gave their lives for the sake of their true love many years ago.

Since then, today the people here are engaged in worshiping this pair like gods and goddesses. The sublime tradition of sacrificing one’s life for love has been going on for centuries in the tribal areas. An example of this is found in the worship of ‘Jhitku-Mitki’.

This old immortal love story of Jhitku and Mitki is of Pendravan village of Vishrampuri, a block of Bastar district. According to this, a farmer of Gond tribal lived in Pendravan. He had seven boys and a girl named Mitki. Being the only sister among seven brothers, she was very dear and dear to the brothers.

Mitki’s brothers were always worried that when their beloved sister would go to her husband’s house, they would not be able to live without him, so the brothers started looking for a man who could stay at their house even after marriage. . He got Jhitku as a groom, who agreed to live in the same house, sharing his work with the brothers.

A drain used to flow near the village, where the seven brothers and Jhitku were trying to build a small dam to stop the flow of water. They used to build the dam during the day and go home in the evening, but every night the water would break the soil of the dam and their efforts were in vain. One night a brother saw in a dream that the goddess was asking for sacrifice to complete this task. On the basis of superstition, he agreed to this and chose Jhitku for the sacrifice. One night they killed Jhitku near the same dam. When the sister came to know about it, she also ended her life by jumping into the water of the dam due to the disconnection of Jhitku. The story of this sacrifice spread like a fire in the forest to all the villages.

Impressed by this love and sacrifice, the rural tribals started worshiping Jhitku and Mitki. Today, these tribals consider the worship of Jhitku-Mitki to be right for the success of love. They say that no lover’s dream remains incomplete after worshiping here. After centuries, the fame of Jhitku-Mitki has spread from the remote villages of Bastar to the capital of the country in today’s modern era.