Kutch is a district of Gujarat. Most part of it is deserted. This desert area is known as the Rann of Kutch.
In the Rann of Kutch there is a range of hills called Karo Dungar. Atop one of the hills there is a small and beautiful temple. The temple does not have idol of any God or a saint. It has footprints of a sadhu who passed away long ago. People from the surrounding villages have high regards for this memorial of the sadhu.
The devotees of this memorial, visit the temple quite often. They make offering in the form of sweetmeats and choicest food-items at the footprints of the holy sadhu.
As part of custom, the pujari of the temple collects the offering in the evening. He takes the collection near the edge of a cliff. He then shouts the words ?Long Long Long? from the edge of the cliff. His words reverberate in the valley nearby. On hearing the words the jackals start rushing. The jackals throng there in large numbers. They eat the entire offerings within no time. The jackals then retreat to their caves.
After reaching the caves, the jackals howl loudly. The howling-sound echoes and re-echoes in the valley. The pujari keeps waiting at the edge of the cliff till such time the acknowledgement of satisfaction falls to his ears.
Many times this sound of satisfaction does not emerge. In that case the pujari stands waiting at the edge with burning flame in his hand till late nightfall.
This return-sound is considered as a nod from the God expressing his pleasure over the offering. The pujari conveys the tiding to the concerned devotees of the day who return from the temple with a sense of satisfaction.
At time, the jackals eat up the offerings but they never release the return-sound from their caves. The devotees then submit the offerings again the next day. They keep on repeating the offerings till the emergence of return-sound.
Rarely the jackals don'tturn up at all in spite of repeated invitation to them in the form of words ?Long Long?. The refusal on the part of the jackals is considered as a bad omen. In that case the collected food is scattered in forest and the birds swarm at the site, pick up the food particles and go back to their nests.
Under such circumstances also the offerings are repeated till such time these are accepted by the jackal community.
This tradition has a legend behind it. Long long ago there was a sadhu residing over this hill. He did not bother about the basic amenities like water food and shelter. He used to eat tender leaves of trees, drink the water of a fountain and have a sleep over the rock or under a tree. He was careless about his basic needs because he used to get the greatest joy ( the mother of all the joys bestowed by the material comforts) in his samadhi (deep trance). He used to enter into such samadhi and remain therein for hours together at times for the whole day.
Once this sadhu was lost in samadhi. At that time one jackal turned up at the place. The jackal was extremely hungry and had gone very week as he could not get any food for number of days.
The jackal waited and waited for hours together with a hope that the sadhu would come down to his body-senses and alleviate his hunger.
After a long spell of samadhi the sadhu came down to his senses and he saw the jackal falling down on his feet. The jackal lifted its neck with great efforts and looked at the sadhu with expectant eyes. Sadhu realised that the jackal was down with starvation. However, the sadhu did not store any food-item with him. The sadhu was so much moved by the pitiable condition that he said lo anga (Have my limb and let your appetite be satisfied)? And so saying sadhu offered his own flesh to the starved animal. The sadhu did not feel the pangs in removing his own flesh with his own hands. On the contrary the sadhu'sface glittered with joy.
The jackal ate the flesh with pleasure and retreated to his cave. The jackal then released a howl for joy. His voice echoed in the valley. The sadhu went into raptures on hearing the voice and soon he went into a samadhi once again.
The sadhu'smemory was sublimated in the form of footprints.
Thereafter there were generations after generations of devotees. But the tradition of jackal-feeding continued unabated and the progenies of jackals did not forget the custom of responding to the call from pujari.
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