Bastar: The other place where the chariots roam
1 Oct 2014 12:11 AM GMT
Like is done in Puri, two giant wooden chariots are pulled through the streets of Jagdalpur, the district headquarters of Bastar, each year. The Bastar dussehra, of which the rath yatra is a part, is also billed as the ‘world’s longest dussehra’, with preparations and festivities spread over a total of 75 days.
One of the chariots – there’s a four-wheeled one, the one that was pulled out on Friday, and a larger eight-wheeled one – is made afresh every year. And the people who make the chariot – the villagers of Jhar Umargaon and Beda Umargaon; they made the eight-wheeled chariot this year – have been doing so for about 500 years now. Like them, every single caste and tribal group in what used to be the kingdom of Bastar has a specific task that it is expected to carry out.
The smaller chariot for example is pulled by various tribespeople from 40 villages around Jagdalpur, the bigger one by Maria tribals, the nails for the chariots are made by Muria ironsmiths, the dragging ropes are plaited by Dhurwa tribals, and so on. Â
The Bastar dussehra then, while the rest of the world might think of it as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, or Ram over Ravana and Durga over Mahisasura, is really a reminder of how the Bastar kings used the festival to unite the disparate castes and tribes that they ruled over.
In the 15th century, Raja Amman Deo is said to have pilgrimaged to the Jagannath temple in Puri, prostrating himself the entire way. So pleased was Jagannath with the king that he offered him a 12-wheeled chariot for the return journey. (Apparently, the lord made his wishes known through a dream the Puri Raja had.) That chariot was broken up into two, an eight- and a four-wheeler – the replicas of which roam Jagdalpur today. Even the fact that the villagers give up about 15 mandays – during which time they could be working their fields or working as paid labour – to help put the dussehra together is a reminder of the system of corvee, or unpaid labour that a subject gives to his king.
Yamini Pandey Gupta, the tahsildar of Jagdalpur and the secretary of the Dussehra Samiti, says that the villagers who work on the preparations are given food and provisions for the duration of their stay, and costs incurred on the pujas that they do are reimbursed. ‘But no wages are paid.’
‘I’m here for Ma Danteswari and the raja. They’re one and the same thing,’ said Sonardas, one of the carpenters working on the bigger chariot. Nandini Sundar, in a fascinating description of the Bastar dussehra in her book Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar (1854-2006), writes that dussehra was not celebrated in Jagdalpur between the years 1930-66 because of the absence of the queen. Proof that dussehra here was not always primarily a religious festival.
Pride of place in the rath too was given to the king. But in 1966, after the death of Pravir Chandra, the last king to have ruled over Bastar in pre-Independent India, the internecine quarrelling between members of the royal family led to Ma Danteswari (who might have been a tribal deity but was then appropriated by the ruling family as their primary goddess) taking over from the role played by the king.
Her chhatri (umbrella) is now placed on the raths as they make their way through the town.
The larger chariot will be wheeled out on Vijay Dasami (October 4) and will make its way from the Ma Danteswari temple, through the town’s Central Market, and back. It will do so again the following day. The smaller chariot, starting Friday, will follow that path for six days.
The other three fascinating rituals of the Bastar dussehra — removed from what is seen elsewhere — are the Jogi Bithai, the Kumdakote kidnapping, and the Kachan Gadi.
On Thursday, a priest made his way to the Sirasar Bhavan just outside the palace and took his place in a pit in the centre of the hall. For the next nine days and nights, he will not move from his spot, nor will he eat anything. As for the more prosaic question of what he might do should the need for the bathroom arise, a helper sitting next to him says: ‘Mug hai.’ The priest himself, Bhagat Nag, looking only slightly weary from his ongoing ordeal, says he is ‘honoured to have been chosen for the task’.
According to Sundar, the priest is probably meant to be a sit-in for the king, who would otherwise have had to perform the penance himself.
On day 12 of dussehra, the chariot (and in the old days the king) will be ‘kidnapped’ and taken to a place called Kumdakote. In the old days, the king’s subjects would then make offerings of cash, game, and fruits to him. The kidnapping is probably symbolic of the king’s tribal subjects – Chhattisgarh is largely tribal – wanting their own dussehra, since they were unable to partake in the largely Hindu rituals of dussehra.
The Bastar dussehra itself started on Wednesday with permission to hold it being taken in the Kachan Gadi ritual in which a pre-pubertan girl is first made to circumambulate a swing made of thorns seven times, accompanied by a group of singing women.
The girl then becomes possessed, ‘fights off’ an interloper — probably symbolic of an evil spirit trying to disrupt dussehra — on the festivities, and is then finally made to lie on the swing of thorns.
So far, no girl has been reported to have been hurt in the process.
The head priest (in the old days the king) of the Danteswari temple then asks for her garland, which she gives. And dussehra begins. The giving of the garland is in exchange for the kingdom, which the girl (in her role as Kachan Devi) will keep safe for the period of dussehra.
One of the chariots – there’s a four-wheeled one, the one that was pulled out on Friday, and a larger eight-wheeled one – is made afresh every year. And the people who make the chariot – the villagers of Jhar Umargaon and Beda Umargaon; they made the eight-wheeled chariot this year – have been doing so for about 500 years now. Like them, every single caste and tribal group in what used to be the kingdom of Bastar has a specific task that it is expected to carry out.
The smaller chariot for example is pulled by various tribespeople from 40 villages around Jagdalpur, the bigger one by Maria tribals, the nails for the chariots are made by Muria ironsmiths, the dragging ropes are plaited by Dhurwa tribals, and so on. Â
The Bastar dussehra then, while the rest of the world might think of it as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, or Ram over Ravana and Durga over Mahisasura, is really a reminder of how the Bastar kings used the festival to unite the disparate castes and tribes that they ruled over.
In the 15th century, Raja Amman Deo is said to have pilgrimaged to the Jagannath temple in Puri, prostrating himself the entire way. So pleased was Jagannath with the king that he offered him a 12-wheeled chariot for the return journey. (Apparently, the lord made his wishes known through a dream the Puri Raja had.) That chariot was broken up into two, an eight- and a four-wheeler – the replicas of which roam Jagdalpur today. Even the fact that the villagers give up about 15 mandays – during which time they could be working their fields or working as paid labour – to help put the dussehra together is a reminder of the system of corvee, or unpaid labour that a subject gives to his king.
Yamini Pandey Gupta, the tahsildar of Jagdalpur and the secretary of the Dussehra Samiti, says that the villagers who work on the preparations are given food and provisions for the duration of their stay, and costs incurred on the pujas that they do are reimbursed. ‘But no wages are paid.’
‘I’m here for Ma Danteswari and the raja. They’re one and the same thing,’ said Sonardas, one of the carpenters working on the bigger chariot. Nandini Sundar, in a fascinating description of the Bastar dussehra in her book Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar (1854-2006), writes that dussehra was not celebrated in Jagdalpur between the years 1930-66 because of the absence of the queen. Proof that dussehra here was not always primarily a religious festival.
Pride of place in the rath too was given to the king. But in 1966, after the death of Pravir Chandra, the last king to have ruled over Bastar in pre-Independent India, the internecine quarrelling between members of the royal family led to Ma Danteswari (who might have been a tribal deity but was then appropriated by the ruling family as their primary goddess) taking over from the role played by the king.
Her chhatri (umbrella) is now placed on the raths as they make their way through the town.
The larger chariot will be wheeled out on Vijay Dasami (October 4) and will make its way from the Ma Danteswari temple, through the town’s Central Market, and back. It will do so again the following day. The smaller chariot, starting Friday, will follow that path for six days.
The other three fascinating rituals of the Bastar dussehra — removed from what is seen elsewhere — are the Jogi Bithai, the Kumdakote kidnapping, and the Kachan Gadi.
On Thursday, a priest made his way to the Sirasar Bhavan just outside the palace and took his place in a pit in the centre of the hall. For the next nine days and nights, he will not move from his spot, nor will he eat anything. As for the more prosaic question of what he might do should the need for the bathroom arise, a helper sitting next to him says: ‘Mug hai.’ The priest himself, Bhagat Nag, looking only slightly weary from his ongoing ordeal, says he is ‘honoured to have been chosen for the task’.
According to Sundar, the priest is probably meant to be a sit-in for the king, who would otherwise have had to perform the penance himself.
On day 12 of dussehra, the chariot (and in the old days the king) will be ‘kidnapped’ and taken to a place called Kumdakote. In the old days, the king’s subjects would then make offerings of cash, game, and fruits to him. The kidnapping is probably symbolic of the king’s tribal subjects – Chhattisgarh is largely tribal – wanting their own dussehra, since they were unable to partake in the largely Hindu rituals of dussehra.
The Bastar dussehra itself started on Wednesday with permission to hold it being taken in the Kachan Gadi ritual in which a pre-pubertan girl is first made to circumambulate a swing made of thorns seven times, accompanied by a group of singing women.
The girl then becomes possessed, ‘fights off’ an interloper — probably symbolic of an evil spirit trying to disrupt dussehra — on the festivities, and is then finally made to lie on the swing of thorns.
So far, no girl has been reported to have been hurt in the process.
The head priest (in the old days the king) of the Danteswari temple then asks for her garland, which she gives. And dussehra begins. The giving of the garland is in exchange for the kingdom, which the girl (in her role as Kachan Devi) will keep safe for the period of dussehra.
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