The great festival of the Goddess: Daśaharā in Bastar

Title:

The great festival of the Goddess: Daśaharā in Bastar

Creator:

Rüstau, Hiltrud

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:ec373bb2-df29-4f55-8c5b-1fd0a2f0c8e5
uuid:ec373bb2-df29-4f55-8c5b-1fd0a2f0c8e5

Subject:

Daśaharā and festival

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Format:

bez média and svazek

Description:

Daśaharā in Bastar/Jagdalpur has nothing to do with the Rāmāya‚a or the Devīmāhātmya, as elsewhere in India. Here, Danteśvarī, the tutelary goddess of the erstwhile royal family, is at the centre of the festival. Invited by the royal family, goddess Danteśvarī arrives from Dantewā`ā, the former capital of Bastar; many village goddesses of the tribal environment also attend. Smaller or larger silver umbrellas are used to represent the goddesses. Some wooden frames (ā‚gās) are used to represent male gods. The climax of the festival is reached, when Danteśvarī, the guest of honor, arrives together with Māvlī, the tutelary goddess of the earlier dynasty, who is represented by a type of palanquin (`oli). One of the most outstanding features of the festival is the procession of two big wooden chariots, constructed by different groups of  divāsis and pulled around a certain quarter of the city by other groups, according to a fixed tradition. In the past, the festival served as the annual means of re-endorsing royal power. Since 1999 the grand-nephew of the last Mahārāja of Bastar has again taken over most of the ritual functions.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
policy:public

Source:

Archiv orientální | 2007 Volume:75 | Number:4

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false