Ker Puja

Last time we read about Kharchi Puja of Tripura. Fifteen days after the Kharchi Puja, (July 30, this year) comes the second most important festival of Tripura called Ker Puja. However, contrary to the celebrations marking the Kharchi Puja, Ker as the name suggests, is marked with a sense of austerity and seriousness.

After the ritual cleansing of earth (during Kharchi Puja), all the gods and goddesses are now sacred and the entire atmosphere is ‘clean’. The Ker Puja is to honour the guardian deity of Tripura called Ker. A large piece of bamboo bent in a particular manner becomes the image of Ker to be worshiped. It is celebrated in a designated area, which is permanently earmarked for this event. Prior to the starting of this worship, all expectant mothers, ill and terminally ill patients are removed from this area. Once the worship starts, no one can leave or enter the area which has been earmarked for the event. If anything of such nature happens, including a birth or a death, the ritual has to start again at the expense of the person who caused the event. In Agartala, the capital of Tripura, an area has been designated for such event.

Another aspect of this worship is that once the ritual starts, nobody is allowed to speak loudly, joke or make fun, speak lies or derogatory about anyone or anything including uttering of slang and obscenities within the designated area. No celebrations, music and dance is permitted too. The atmosphere in the area has to be clean and not spoilt by anything negative, both in thought and actions. Offering animal sacrifices as part of the festival is another important aspect of the worship.

In the olden days, Ker Puja was observed for the welfare of the village, which now is observed for the welfare of the state. The deities are worshiped to ward of all evil including natural calamities like earthquakes, floods and epidemics as well as external attacks. Earlier the King of Tripura used to bear the expenses of the event, but now the state government bears the expenses as a part of the agreement of annexation by the princely state of Tripura with the Govt of India. The beginning of the worship is marked by firing of guns by the State Police to announce the commencement of the worship.

Ker Puja is considered to be centuries old festival which seems to be having a tribal origin. The same is being followed till date with all its austerity and seriousness. Such worships of appeasing nature to ward off its evil effects is a common phenomenon across the world. Different cultures have different rituals to appease such gods and this ritual being followed with all solemnity only bears testimony to early mans fear and reverence for nature, which people say has ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’. Any disregard of its power is reciprocated with vengeance, one of which we saw recently in Utarakhand.

Ker pic courtesy – www.tripura.org.in

Kharchi Puja

The week long Kharchi Puja commenced in Tripura this week from July 16^th. This is the most important festival of the North-Eastern state and the entire state is in the mood of a carnival.

The festival is interesting, as it blends the tribal as well as the Brahminical aspects of religion very well. The festival is characterised by the worshipping of fourteen gods, more importantly, the heads of fourteen gods, by the royal priest called Chantai. There are different legends lending credence to the festival. Let us look at one of the most important of them.

According to history, the King of Tripura, Trilochan had two sons, Dripakti the elder and Dakshin the younger son. Dripakti was adopted by his maternal grandfather, the King of Cachhar, as he did not have any heir. Soon the King of Cachhar died and Dripakti became the King of Cachhar. On Dripakti’s adoption, Trilochan, declared his younger son, Dakshin as the heir apparent of Tripura. When Trilochan died, Dakshin took the throne. Dripakti on learning about his father’s death claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne as he was the eldest. When Dakshin resisted, a battle waged for seven days, where Dakshin was defeated and Dripakti became the King of Tripura. Dakshin escaped with the heads of fourteen soldiers and set up his kingdom in the area of central Cachhar. Since then the descendants of Dakshin worshipped the heads of the fourteen soldiers who were deified by then. It is said that after the death of Dripakti, his descendants too started worshipping the fourteen ‘deities’ and soon it became a practice.

The tribal language of Kak-barok had tribal names for the fourteen deities. They were Katar, Katar-ma, Burachha, Mailoma, Khuloma, Subrai Raja, Lampra, Toi Bubagra, Sangrama, Harung Bubagra, Nangkhtai Bubagra, Bachhua Bubagra, Thunirok and Banirok. But with the influence of the Brahminical religion, the names soon changed into the gods from Hindu pantheon. Today the fourteen deities are called Prithvi (Earth), Uma (Parvati), Har (Siva), Hari (Vishnu), Kumar (Kartikeya), Ma (Lakshmi), Bani (Saraswati), Ganesh, Brahma (Creator), Kamdev (God of Love), Samudra (Ocean God), Ganga, Agni (Fire), and Himalaya (God of Mountains).

Another version says that the festival is celebrated as

a worship of Goddess Earth. Kharchi or ‘khya’ means the earth and worshipping the earth which provides sustenance to all aspects of life. Interestingly, the Kharchi Pua takes place fifteen days after Ambu bachi. Ambu bachi is the menstruation of the Earth and as thought by the ancient people, menstruation was an ‘unclean’ aspect of a woman. In the ancient times, during Ambu bachi no ploughing or digging activity was taken place. The soil was considered ‘unclean’ and women were prohibited from conducting any auspicious function during Ambu bachi. Even a priest whose wife was in menstruation at that time was prohibited from conducting any ceremony. Kharchi Puja is also considered to be the ritual cleansing of the Mother Earth of its post-menstruation mess! Many even compare this cleansing to the ‘shraadh’ ceremony (after death) from when everything becomes normal! Ambu-bachi is very important in Assam for a similar reason, which we will take up on some different day.

The rituals are marked with the bathing of the fourteen heads of the deities. Sacrifices of goats and pigeons form an integral part of the rituals. The worshipping of the heads, a tribal influence, remains.

The most important aspect of the festivities is the coming together of both the tribal’s as well as the non-tribal’s in the festivities. A festival which has its origin in history gets integrated with both tribal and Hindu mythology which hasn’t lost its significance even today, is an interesting subject for mythologists. Earlier, we have seen instances of popular myths getting ‘tribalised’, but here is an example of the tribal myth getting ‘Hinduised’ (apologies for the English bloomers!). The same integrates very well with the cult of Mother Goddess, which is a significant aspect of worship in the Eastern parts of India.

An excellent example of integration of myths!