ABSTRACT
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries there thrived in lower deltaic Bengal punthi literature in Bengali verse devoted to the gods and goddesses of the Sundarbans. The population of the Sundarbans consisted entirely of marginalized people. 'Nearly all the inhabitants' of the Sundarbans were 'either Hindus or Muslims' according to Hunter. Dakshin Ray, known as the supreme lord of tigers, is widely worshipped throughout the whole of the Sundarbans in both parts of Bengal even today. Barakhan Ghazi, a Muslim deity, is also known as Zinda Pir or Ghazi Sahab in the Sundarbans. The world of the folk deities delineated above offers important insights into the character of past human settlements in the Sundarbans. The folk gods of the Sundarbans are depicted in the narrative as arbitrary deities, exercising a fearful command over the settlers. The natural context of the Sundarbans dictated the evolution of a common cult standing apart from orthodox Hinduism and Islam.
