Kashi’s Dom Raja dies; PM and CM express grief
VARANASI : Jagdish Chaudhary, 55, the Dom Raja of Kashi, passed away due to prolonged illness on Tuesday.
The Dom Raja is the head of the community that takes care of cremation at both the cremation ghats of Varanasi -- Manikarnika ghat and Harishchandra ghat.
Chaudhary was one of the proposers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he filed his nomination as BJP candidate from Varanasi parliamentary constituency for the general election in 2019.
The Prime Minister and chief minister Yogi Adityanath mourned the demise of Chaudhary.
“I am saddened by the death of Varanasi’s Dom Raja Jagdish Chaudhary ji. He carried forward the tradition of Sanatan Dharma. He was a keeper of the culture of Varanasi. He worked for the welfare of the society and social harmony during his entire life. May his soul rest in peace and God grant his family the strength to deal with this loss,” the Prime Minister said in a tweet.
Yogi said Chaudhary’s demise is “a loss for the entire Indian society.”
“The symbol of social harmony, Dom Raja Jagdish Chaudhary’s death is saddening. His death is a loss for the entire Indian society. I pray to ‘Baba Vishvanath’ to grant you a place in his ‘Paramdham’. Om Shanti,” Yogi tweeted.
According to a family member, Chaudhary suffered an injury in his thigh around two months back. “He was undergoing treatment for the injury. On Tuesday morning his condition deteriorated. He was rushed to a private hospital where he breathed his last,” Chaudhary’s kin said.
As news of the Dom Raja’s demise spread, a large number of people visited his house to pay tribute to him. He is survived by wife Rukmani Devi (45), two daughters (19 and 16) and a son Om Chaudhary (14). His last rites were in the evening here at a ghat.
“In Varanasi, last rites are performed at Manikarnika ghat and Harishchandra Ghat. At both the ghats, members of the family of Dom Raja shoulder the responsibility of setting up the pyre and cremating the bodies brought to the ghats for last rites,” said Pt Prasad Dikshit, expert in Karmkand and Vedic rituals. He added that they are called Dom Raja for performing the last rites.
“It is also said that they are called Dom Raja since they bought Raja Harishchandra in Kashi,” Pt Dikshit added.
Around 500 members of the community live at Manikarnika Ghat and Harishchandra Ghat. As Jagdish Chaudhary was the senior most member, he was called the Dom Raja.
Meanwhile, Prof Vijaynath Mishra, a neuro-physician at IMS-BHU, tweeted, “Good bye Dom Raja! Regards all participants of International Kashi Ghat Walk University.”
Prof Mishra said that last year in December, Dom Raja released the theme song of Kashi Ghat Walk as chief guest. District magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma visited the house of Chaudhary at Tripura Bhairavi Ghat and expressed grief over his death.