How the Berhampur Goddess Festival Used to Be Celebrated in All Its Glory-By P Parthasarathi

The earliest live performance of a song that comes to my mind is from a beggar woman — a very old woman in the early 1960s — who used to come and sit in front of our old ancestral mansion after stepping on to the verandah and holding her walking stick. She would sing with both her hands holding the stick, giving the rhythm (timing) support for the song, producing a peculiar sound when an iron ring in one of her fingers made contact with the stick.

Those were the times when the country’s economy was in the doldrums, what with so many beggars straggling on the roads and standing in front of every house, expecting alms. That was a time when apartment culture was not even heard of and most of the families lived in their own houses, some small and some big. Many of them used their musical talents to justify their begging, perhaps with a self-respect satisfying them that the people who were giving these homeless people coins or rice were pleased with their musical performances.

Those were the time when automobiles were very few and there was virtually no noise pollution. Radio was a luxury for the lower middle class and the upper middle class. Those who were able to afford a radio set were considered highly privileged. A telephone at home was considered a dream of only the few who had the guts to dream to become rich. Ford-made cars of the old model were the popular ones with the economically stable upper middle class.

A neighbour receiving an occasional telephone call would cause the others much irritation, perhaps because they thought that undeserving people were getting calls over telephone that only the rich deserved.

Those were the days when villagers used to travel in bullock carts to the nearest towns to watch films, the only source of mass entertainment then. I remember at least 50 to 60 bullock carts parked near a cinema hall named Utkal that carried villagers from different hamlets around our the then-town Berhampur just to watch the film Veer Bhimsen in which Dara Singh played Bheem. The famous Goddess Festival, popularly known in Odia as Thakurani Jatra, also was in progress. The selection of the perfect time to screen mythological films by the cinema hall organisers was usually the two months when the festival would be in progress so that the masses that visit Berhampur from different places to have a darshan of the Thakurani Maa will also have the luxury of seeing other screen gods like Krishna, Rama and others from Indian mythology.

Also prominent were the roads with men donning make-up and suitable attires to resemble mythological characters, a traditional practice to please the goddess. For some, this period would be a boon to earn an extra buck on the pretext of donning the disguise that made it mandatory for every one they approached to give them some contribution with which the former was supposed to buy prashad and contribute to the festivities. This would be a time when the only dominating thought in every mind was the goddess.

During the last week of the festival, roads would get overcrowded and even walking on the main road was possible only by jostling through the crowd — let alone riding a bicycle. The tradition still continues but with certain conditions put in place by the authorities. First of all, the period of festivities has been reduced to only a month because of shortage of water and power.

The number of people donning different divine avatars has substantially come down, what with economic prosperity that does not compel many to go for begging in disguise. However, one thing remains unchanged — the unfortunate men with the soul of females — females trapped in male bodies — this is a period when everyday they wear a saree and make themselves look like the opposite sex, often creating an impression that what the crowds see is in fact a woman and not a man.

This time, as the festival was celebrated, all those vivid images locked in my mind since childhood came rushing to the surface in a flashback. I prostrate before the Goddess Budhi Shantarani for giving us, the Berhampurians, so much to enjoy and so much to seek from her, along with, of course, her blessings.

-By P Parthasarathi, (parth1956@gmail.com) Published: 28th October 2015

- LInk http://www.newindianexpress.com/columns/How-the-Berhampur-Goddess-Festival-Used-to-Be-Celebrated-in-All-Its-Glory/2015/10/28/article3101527.ece