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| RAJA
SANKRANTI |
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| Celebrated In
: Cuttack, Puri & Balasore, Orissa. |
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| Also known as
: Mithuna Sankranti or Swing Festival |
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| Falls on : The 1st day of the month of Asara (June - July) |
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| Significance
: Celebrating the arrival of Monsoon season. |
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| Raja Sankranti
(Swing festival) or "Mithuna Sankranti" is the first day of the month of 'Asara'
from, which the season of rains starts. It inaugurates and welcomes the agricultural year
all over Orissa, which marks, through biological symbolism, the moistening of the summer
parched soil with the first showers of the monsoon, thus making it ready for productivity. |
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Welcoming
the Monsoon
To celebrate the advent of monsoon, the joyous festival is arranged for three days by the
villagers. Though celebrated all over the state it is more enthusiastically observed in
the districts of Cuttack, Puri and Balasore. The first day is called "Pahili
Raja" (Prior Raja), second is "Raja" (Proper Raja) and third is "Basi
Raja" (Past Raja). |
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Legend
According to popular belief as women menstruate, which is a sing of fertility, so also
Mother Earth menstruates. So all three days of the festival are considered to be the
menstruating period of Mother Earth. During the festival all agricultural operations
remain suspended. As in Hindu homes menstruating women remain secluded because of impurity
and do not even touch anything and are given full rest, so also the Mother Earth is given
full rest for three days for which all agricultural operations are stopped. |
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| Significantly, it
is a festival of the unmarried girls, the potential mothers. They all observe the
restrictions prescribed for a menstruating woman. The very first day, they rise before
dawn, do their hair, anoint their bodies with turmeric paste and oil and then take the
purificatory bath in a river or tank. |
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| Peculiarly,
bathing for the rest two days is prohibited. They don't walk bare-foot do not scratch the
earth, do not grind, do not tear anything apart, do not cut and do not cook. During all
the three consecutive days they are seen in the best of dresses and decorations, eating
cakes and rich food at the houses of friends and relatives, spending long cheery hours,
moving up and down on improvised swings, rending the village sky with their merry
impromptu songs. |
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The
Melody Of The Festivity
The swings are of different varieties, such as 'Ram Doli', 'Charki Doli', 'Pata Doli',
'Dandi Doli' etc. Songs specially meant for the festival speak of love, affection,
respect, social behaviour and everything of social order that comes to the minds of the
singers. Through anonymous and composed extempore, much of these songs, through sheer
beauty of diction and sentiment, has earned permanence and has gone to make the very
substratum of Orissa's folk-poetry. |
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| While girls thus
scatter beauty, grace and music all around, moving up and down on the swings during the
festival, young men give themselves to strenuous games and good food, on the eve of the
onset of the monsoons, which will not give them even a minute's respite for practically
four months making them one with mud, slush and relentless showers, their spirits keep
high with only the hopes of a good harvest. |
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| As all
agricultural activities remain suspended and a joyous atmosphere pervades, the young men
of the village keep themselves busy in various types of country games, the most favourite
being 'Kabadi'. Competitions are also held between different groups of villages. All
nights 'Yatra' performances or 'Gotipua' dances are arranged in prosperous villages where
they can afford the professional groups. Enthusiastic amateurs also arrange plays and
other kinds of entertainment. |
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Culinary
Delights
The special variety of cake prepared out of recipes like rice-powder, molasses, coconut,
camphor, ghee etc. goes in the name of "Poda Pitha" (burnt cake). The size of
the cake varies according to the number of family members. Cakes are also exchanged among
relatives and friends. Young girls do not take rice during the three-day festival and
sustain only with this type of cake, fried-rice ('Mudi') and vegetable curry. |
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