Baheeratha and the Bore Josyar

Rain gods hid themselves for the past two years and the trees in my farm have managed to survive largely due to the 'water purchase' program I put in place. I simply buy water tanker-loads and irrigate the farm at regular interval.

This year the prediction by science (no El Nino effect so adequate rains) as well as age-old wisdom (rains will be aplenty in those years that follow two full moon years, i.e. years in which two full moons appear within a single month!) pointed to a good deal of water and hence I continued with my purchase plan till this month. 

The usual monsoon cycle is delayed way beyond; passing rain clouds just don't open up above our region yet. Hence I decided to compromise on one of my core 'green principles' i.e. no new bore wells in my farm. The two there already dried up sowing the seeds of my water purchase program!

I asked around and got to know from fellow village folks that there is a 'Bore Josyar' (water diviner) who is in the trade for close to 40 years and most of the bore wells he divined yielded plenty of water for long stretches of time.

His phone number was hard to get and when I got it finally, I called him up and fixed up a trip to my farm with him.

He arrived with his tools, i.e. a twine with some weights made of various metals dangling from it (one such weight was made of panchaloga!) and a copper frame in the shape of the alphabet 'T' .

He is a business man by profession and uses his 'gift' for the needy for a nominal charge it seems.

I took him to my farm and requested my farm hand to assist him. The Josyar ordered my FH to bring some sticks to 'mark' the water points and also asked him to bring a freshly de-husked coconut.

Once these were arranged, he took off, walking around the farm with the twine and weights dangling loosely from his fingers. I could never tell whether he moved the weights voluntarily or they moved on their own but they started moving in small circles above some parts of the soil. He also used the copper 'T' to verify his findings. 

He localised two 'points' i.e. gateways to aquifers and then took the coconut flat in his palm, started walking around those points with the coconut lying in a horizontal position at the cup of his palm. Suddenly, the coconut stood up! He walked in circles around that part to 'measure' the strength of the aquifer.

Later he told me to go for one of those two points he identified earlier and said I would find water at that 'point' for sure.

The whole process took about three hours, this 70 years old guy walking tirelessly all these hours!

Diviner searching for water at the periphery of my farm

I shall wait for rains for a week or so and then dig...

Baheeratha brought Ganges from high heavens after hard tapas that lasted 1000s of years...the poor me may need to reach at least 1000 feet below the surface to bring up water to my soil - free electricity for farmers in my State has depleted the water table drastically; the farmers collectively forgot to switch off their submersible pumps for the past decade or so! Subtract the scanty rains too from the aquifers and you got me sacrificing my core green principle!