Baliraj and Deushi Bhiloo

The importance of Yagya was much in Teytra era. One who performed one hundred aushwameg yugya was called Satkritil. Satkriti was Indra himself and nobody but Indra had the privilege of heaven according to Hindu scripture. So great was the importance attached to yagya during that era.

With the intention of achieving the status of Indra, the son of generons Birochand and the grandson of Bhakta Pralad, Daytaraj Bali, was performing his hundredth ashwayameg yugya but was unable to achieve the status he was craving for because he was secretly nurturing a pride of being a generous descendent of Dayta Dynasty.

Bishnu, who was born from the womb of Aditya, came to the yagya of Bali disguised as mendicant hermit and asked for a piece of land, measuring three steps; as donation. This donation being too meagre and insignificant to a wealthy and generous person like Bali, he suggested the hermit to ask for something more but the hermit refused to do so sticking to his original demand of three steps of land.

In spite of the premonition of Guru Sukra-Charya who forbade Bali from making the donation of land to the hermit saying that it would cause great trouble to Dayta Dynasty because Baman, who had come as a hermit, would forfeit everything that he had if he obliged him with his demand, Bali ignored the advice of even his guru and granted the demand of three steps of land. The hermit, after being granted his wish, assumed his original gigantic from and with his two giant like steps covered the entire area from Bhulok to Brahmalok leaving no space to keep his third step on. The hermit, who in actual, was Baman, threatened Bali of being indebted to him if he failed to fulfill his promise of donating him three steps of land to him. As there was no space left to place Baham's third step Bali, in order to remain true to his promise requested him to stamp on his head and thus complete his third step and Baman did so accordingly.

The close proximity of Nepali language with Bengali and Maithali languages have much to do in forming this custom of dewshi and bhailoo Bhail=Bhaialoo=bhailoo and the feminine gender Bhaileeni which may mean full of joy and colour. From Gorutihar shree=ashwaraya meaning give up all fortune. In order to simplify shree they started pronouncing It as shria which finally took the pronunciation of shuray common parlance. Besides, in memory of the victory of Lord Ramchandra words like “Deo Shree Ram” also got added to it. The tradition of dewshi and bhailoo are important because they encourage the rich and the influencial to make a sacrifice of atleast a part of their earnings, on the day of Laxmi Puja, the day on which the Hindus worship the Godess of fortune and wealth.

During the reign of generous and kind king Bali, the entire kingdom experienced happiness and prosperity. Want and scarcity of any kind were absent in the entire kingdom because of the grace and blessing of Goddess Laxmi.

The difference between Baman and Baliraj is neither were cast nor community based, it is but to show the greatness of generosity and sacrifice and to bring out the differences between the spiritualism and materialistic world. It seeks to show that donation made out of pride, ignoring the advice of the guru leads to ones downfall.

The other persons of considerable generosity were Darsath, Nahush, Prithu, Karna, Kuber and others but none of them were as renowned as Baliraja. That is why during dewshi and bhailoo, all jointly extoll and praise about his generosity and donations. During his reign even his subjects showed a sense of sacrifice and fellow feeling among themselves. These dewshi and bhailoo groups also inspire the people to follow the path set by king Bali and cultivate a sense of sacrifice and generosity in his possession.

The other message that the dewshi and bhailoo groups seek to deliver to all on the happy occasion of Tihar is the victory of Ramchandra over the evils