Bathouism

Bathouism is the traditional faith of the Boro, or Bodo, people of the Brahmaputra valley in Assam. The name is read as ba, five, and thou, deep, for the five principles of air, fire, earth, water and ether, created by the high god Bathoubwrai, the Elder. His daughter Mainao guards the rice fields.

The god is embodied in the sijou, a spurge shrub planted in the courtyard on an altar fenced with eighteen pairs of bamboo strips, one for each pair of lesser gods. Bathou has no scripture and no temples; its priests are the male douri and female doudini.

After the Koch kingdom rose in 1515, it kept the Duars open to non-Brahmin cultures. Hindu rites spread among the Boro, and some entered the Ekasarana Vaishnava faith, though Bathou held on in many families.