Buffalo King

Published on 10th June, 2018, in Mid-day. If one travels around Pune, one occasionally comes across small folk shrines dedicated to a deity known as Mhasoba, or the buffalo-god. Not much is known about him, but the shrine is clearly not a Brahminical one and there is nothing about him found in Sanskrit literature. Yet he is venerated by common folk, usually, those involved in farming and herding activities, who offer him milk and sacrifice goats and roosters to him. Some link Mhasoba to proto-Shiva, the horned hermit image found in the Indus Valley seal. Others to the buffalo-demon, Mahisha, who is killed by Durga. ..