Gaajan/Charak photos on Photojournale

I haven't been out on the streets with my camera for some days now. Sort of a sabbatical from photography; well if clicking the shutter is all that is about photography. However I worked on my photographs that I took during Bengali New Year celebration and published them on Photojournale:

"Rituals to celebrate Bengali New Year are many. Rural agrarian Bengal used to welcome the new year with the festival of Gaajan/Charak. It is a month long celebration that spans through the last month of Bengali calendar, Chaitra."

More text and photos at Photojournale : Photo journal stories and photo documentary from around the world

I am also putting some efforts recently to roll my new blog with Wordpress: Babbles of a deranged mind. This is in most part a text-only blog and in no way related to my photo-projects. I wish to let loose my ideas and opinions about the world around me through words in this place. I would really like to see you all in my new blog and hope you will find it interesting as much as this one.

Thanks for viewing!!

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Summer is approaching...

This is the last month of Bengali calendar, Chaitra. We are at the threshold of the summer season. Well the truth is we are already into it. Report shows persistent temperature rise in the country, and as a result we are having short lived winter, prolong and tiring summer and untimely rain and storms. Not long back there used to be occasional thunder storm and cyclone during this time bringing relief from heat and humidity; even I have seen it in my childhood days. We call this climatic phenomenon Kaalboishakhi. But from the past few years it has become a rare event. So now we are enduring a long and sticky summer season.

Like changes in climatic condition there are changes in cultural horizon also. Chaitra is the witness to a month long observation of some rituals, that in many cases spills over to the first month of the new year Baishakh. We call it Gaajan and mostly the people from lower rung of the society are the participants. This is a folk religious celebration where an aboriginal god is the central deity whose priest is also a member of the participating community though now a days the festival has been related to the Hindu god Shiva and a Brahmin is seen to take up the role of the priest. Likewise the festival has lost its splendor and ferocity of celebration in Kolkata and its suburbs. The original spirit can now only be found within some interior pockets of rural Bengal.

Social scientists and cultural historians have shown the celebration to be a fertility ritual for an agricultural community where people pray for good rain and fertility of their land in the wake of a dry summer season. It has been shown to be a celebration of marriage between the Sun God and the Earth. The Hindi speaking people from Bihar also worship the Sun God during Chaitra which they call "Chaiti Chhat". The purpose seems to be the same, that is to pray for fertility and good harvest.

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Rathayatra: The chariot festival of India

One of the important festivals of Monsoon season in India is Rathayatra, the chariot festival. The last Friday, that is 4th July this year, was the day for the festival. Although the rituals are observed for the seven consecutive days the first day celebration is the most cheerful and pompous one.




The original seat of the festival is at Puri in the state of Orissa though these days, due to Indian diaspora, it seems one can witness the festival in the most unexpected location of the world. In India, other than Puri, there are some places which are renowned for the festival. For example in Bengal the chariot festival in Mahesh is considered to second that of Puri in spirituality.



In India to drag the chariot for someone is considered an act of showing the highest honour to the person. When Swami Vivekananda returned after propagating the message of Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religion in USA, the students at Kolkata dragged his horse cart to show their heartfelt respect. The main activity in the festival of Rathayatra is also to drag the chariot of the Gods Sri Jagannatha, Sri Balarama and Devi Subhadra by the devotees. Sri Jagannatha is considered to be the God of all gods and the protector of the whole world. It is believed that on this occasion Sri Jagannatha comes down from his divine abode to meet his devotees on the Earth.



Each neighbourhood in Kolkata has its temple of Sri Jagannatha and the community brings out a chariot which they drag through the streets of the locality. People from the nearby houses come out on the street as the chariot reaches their place to show tribute to the God and to offer sweets and fruits to please Him. Some old families in Kolkata also bring out their family chariots to the street. Recently ISKCON is also celebrating the day in Kolkata and it is one of the most colourful and the biggest events here. However it is the children who seem to enjoy most on this occasion. They buy small wooden chariots from the shops, decorate it with flowers and leaves, place small idols of the gods inside it and then drag it through the streets with blowing of palm leaf horns. At the dusk people get back home buying some bengali snacks like papad, jeelabi, etc.



The God is said to be taken to His aunt's house on the chariot as the part of the first day celebration and after the seven days of observing the rituals on the last day the God is again taken back to His place on the same chariot.


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