page_title: Chinawal
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Chinawal / Demographics / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Ganesh Visarjan in Chinawal village of Maharashtra, India
context_page_description: Chinawal is a village in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra state, India. It is situated at the foothills of the Satpura range in a generally hot and dry climate. The densely populated village is surrounded by the flat land and nutrient-rich black soil.
  The flora and fauna of Chinawal have been impacted by the human habitation and cultivation of the land, but non-human life like neem trees, tree squirrels and graculas can still be found in and around the village. Using modern methods of the agriculture and agronomic practices, villagers of the Chinawal village have achieved a high growth rate of agriculture produce especially of bananas which is noted by the Government of Maharashtra and various other institutions.
  Chinawal is also known for its educational facilities. It has Marathi, Urdu and English medium schools which offer education from the kindergarten up to higher secondary school, and which is facilitated by the students' accommodations and school buses.
  The 'vangyache bharit' loving villagers also favor urad dal, shev bhaji, puran poli and kheer in their dishes.
context_section_description: The population of the village is predominantly theist. Philosophically the Hindu villagers believe in one god, but in practice the spiritual energy of the villagers is distributed in worshipping many deities and saints. In some corner of every Hindu home, a small temple (devghar/devhara) containing deities or photos of the deities can be found. If there is not enough space for the miniature temple, photos/deities are kept on a small wooden stool or fixed on a wall. Choice of the deities varies from home to home, but popular deities are Lakshmi, Shiva-Parvati, Vithoba, Saptashrungi, Ganesha, and Dattatreya.
  The old tradition of long daily prayers with rituals has somewhat become extinct, though it is followed during the festivals and on special occasions. In daily prayers, people simply light a diya and incense sticks and pray with folded hands for a few minutes before continuing their work. The village has Ram mandir, Maruti mandir, Mahadev mandir and other temples. Some villagers go to one of these temples daily for prayer, others visit only during the festivals and on special occasions. Muslim villagers offer namaz daily and most of them fast during the month of Ramzan.
  The social evil of untouchability, which once plagued Chinawal village like any other village in India, has ended here, and those inhuman visuals have become a thing of the past. The Bara Balutedar system has also ended, and now any individual, irrespective of his caste, is free to do any work in the village or anywhere in India, though some villagers still prefer their centuries-old hereditary occupation if they find that it is convenient and profitable. There is no discrimination in public life on the basis of caste, but caste still plays an important role in personal lives of villagers, and intercaste marriages are very rare.
  Not only the caste system, but a centuries-old belief system is crumbling. A Brahman priest does not enjoy the same influence he would have had 200 years ago. Schools teach rational thinking and science, not traditional religious rituals and stories of gods or saints. TV has reached almost every home. The collective result of this is that many old traditions have either disappeared or receive less importance. Occurrences of pravachan, bhajan, and kirtan are on the decline. Every field used to have some presiding deity in the corner of field. That practice has largely disappeared, except for some small temples in a few fields or on the side of the road. The cruel practice of animal sacrifice in front of deities has become extinct long ago. Most of the 16 samskara rituals prescribed in the Hinduism are also long extinct. Some rituals like piercing ears and upanayana recorded in recent history are rarely seen now.
  Not only rituals, but some deities have also disappeared. The tiger deity Waghoba and cobra deity Nagoba have disappeared, as the danger from tigers has ceased to exist and danger from snakes has become very rare. The buffalo deity Mhasoba also disappeared when the dominant occupation of the villagers changed from herding to farming.
  In this disappearing act of traditions and rituals, some traditions have remained constant, and some new rituals have emerged and gained popularity. Rituals of firecrackers, electric lighting, and greeting cards were added to the Vijayadashami-Diwali celebrations during the last few hundred years. Ganesh Chaturthi was an important household celebration before 1894, but now it has been transformed into a big public celebration with erected pandals on the streets, music and dance. In the last few decades, Navratri has also turned into a big celebration like Ganesh Chaturthi. The Holi celebration in the village was almost nonexistent just three or four decades ago, except for lighting holika at a few places. But now teenagers can be seen celebrating and playing with colors. Other festivals like Krishna Janmashtami, Gudhi Padva, Rama Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, and Raksha Bandhan are celebrated with traditional religious fervor, but do not receive much attention from the younger generation, while Ha
caption: Ganesh Visarjan during Ganesh Chaturthi at Chinawal village in 2014
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