Om Banna (also called Om Bana and Bullet Baba) is a shrine located in Pali district near Jodhpur, India, devoted to a deity in the form of a motorcycle. It is located 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Pali and 50 kilometres (31 mi) away from Jodphur on the Pali-Jodhpur highway, near Chotila village. The motorcycle is a 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet. Hundreds of devotees turn up every day to pray for a safe journey, often bearing liquor.

HISTORY

In 1988., Om Banna (formerly known as Om Singh Rathore) was traveling from the town of Pali to Chotila when he lost control of his bullet motorcycle and struck a tree. Om Banna was killed instantly in the accident, his motorcycle falling into a nearby ditch. The morning after the accident, local police took the fallen motorcycle to a nearby police station. Miraculously, the next day it disappeared from the station and was found back at the site of the accident. Police, once again, took the motorcycle, this time emptying its fuel tank and putting it under lock and chain to prevent its removal. Despite their efforts, the next morning it again disappeared and was found at the accident site. Legend states that the motorcycle kept returning to the same ditch. It thwarted every attempt by police to keep it at the local police station; the motorcycle was always returned to the same spot before dawn.

This came to be seen as a miracle by local townsfolk and they began to worship the “Bullet Bike.” News of the miracle motorcycle spread to nearby villages and the townsfolk built a temple to worship it. This temple is known as “Bullet Baba’s Temple." It is believed that Om Banna’s spirit helps distressed travelers. The temple includes a tree ornamented with offerings of bangles, scarves and rope. Those who pass by stop to bow their heads in honor of the helpful spirit and leave an offering. For the past twenty years, Poonam Giri has maintained the temple and acted as priest.

WORSHIP

Every day nearby villagers and travellers stop and pray to the bike and its late owner Om Singh. The temple beside the Enfield motorbike has a big picture of Singh, fondly known as Om Banna. It is said that a person who does not stop to pray at the shrine is in for a dangerous journey. Many shops offering incense sticks, flowers, coconut and red thread meant for offering prayers have sprung up near the shrine. Local people sing folk songs in the name of Om Bana who owned the motorcycle. Travellers, especially drivers of vehicles that pass by, offer prayers at the site, which is almost in the middle of the road.

Some drivers also offer a small bottle of liquor at the site, praying for a safe journey. Devotees also apply the 'tilak' mark and tie a red thread on the motorbike.

Times Change…Devil’s Kitchen Then and Now... GUNA CAVES !

Photinia integrefolia ssp. Sublanceolata, in Devil’s Kitchen (Guna Caves) in South India. The picture on the left was taken in 1998 with a panoramic camera on TMX 100 120 format film. The picture on the right, actually a composite image, was taken in June using a digital camera. The iron fencing was erected after the spot became a popular destination and was an attempt to keep tourists from venturing near to the edge.

For many visitors Palani hills and Kodaikanal have long evoked ideas of deep mysticism and mystery. A place that often conveys these emotions are the cavern’s in Pillar Rocks known as Devil’s Kitchen or more recently Guna Caves. The area is located on the southern escarpment of the Palani Hills where weathered charnockite pillars protrude out of the cliff face. Historically these cliffs were covered in a mix of native grasses and shoal (montane evergreen) forest. Because of the unique topography and climatic conditions on the edge of the escarpment the area hosts what was once one of the most unique and finest shola examples near Kodaikanal. When the Palanis were settled by Americans and Europeans fast growing, non-native tree species were introduced to the area changing the views that were sketched by early visitors such as Douglas Hamilton. The shola at Pillar Rocks, like many in the outer hills, was largely left intact.

Prior to 1990s the caverns and gnarled shola of Devil’s Kitchen were a favorite, yet little known, hiking spot for Kodai school students and the few hippies and others who resided year around in Kodai. The area was dangerous with numerous caverns enclosed by dense vegetation. In fact there is a memorial at the entrance to the shola remembering an unfortunate trader from Madurai who fell to his death in one of the crevices in the 1950s. A highlight of the trip was to descend into the deepest cave, actually the split between the third pillar and the main cliff face, into the “kitchen.”  The hike involved some serious scrambling and a short rope descent before you traversed a dank, pitch-black tunnel and emerged in a forest-enclosed outlet (popularly known as the chimney).

In 1992 a Tamil film named Guna was shot within the caverns. Once the movie was released people wanted to see the site and it quickly became a favorite spot for tourists making the rounds from the Golf Course to Moyer’s Point.  The Forest Department now reluctantly manages this flow but the numbers on a busy weekend are astounding. A minor bazaar with shops selling corn, candy and what not marks the entrance to the caves. There is rubbish strewn all over, vegetation has been trampled and areas have been blocked off with massive steel frames and grates. Pesty bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata) scavenge for food while the calls of the Malabar Whistling Thrush Myophonus horsfieldii are drowned out by the shouting and hooting of visitors. The Devil’s Kitchen area and its vandalized habitat by chaotic mass tourism underline the challenges of managing sensitive habitats in a hill-station with growing numbers of visitors. It is a very personal and sad development that illustrates the worst side of the tourist boom in the hills.

Rubbish from tourists dumped into a natural cavity in the shola at Devil’s Kitchen.

Main entrance to Devil’s Kitchen with memorial vandalized and turned over by visitors.                                   This was taken on a quiet weekday and is usually filled with large crowds of boisterous tourists.

Gnarled roots and branches of the shola edge at Devil’s Kitchen.

Vegetation above the deep cavern that is the “kitchen” of Devil’s Kitchen. This area, because of its dangerous chasms is off bounds tourists and still retains the feel of the undisturbed caverns.