Source::Rss
Seven village Jatra, one of the major festivals in the southwest region of the capital, has started today.
The festival begins with the Indrayani Rath Yatra of Kirtipur. In this process, the Rath Yatra of Panga's Balkumari and Vishnu Devi is conducted from Shakti Peeth of the surrounding villages to the Vishnu Devi temple complex located on Balkhu Kinar in Chandragiri Municipality-15.
According to tradition, among the Shaktipeeths of seven villages, Vishnu Devi of Balkhu is considered to be the mother, and the Shaktipeeths of Machhegaon, Bosigaon, Satungal, and Bhairav are her children. According to the belief that children come to meet their mother every year on the day of Mangsir Shulk Navami, on the next Saturday morning, all village chariots and Balkhu-affiliated Guthiyars and villagers bring bazagaza. Newar communities from all parts of the valley come to Balkhu to see that journey.
On the same day, Indrayani Jatra is held at Kirtipur and Vishnudevi and Balkumari Rath Yatra at two places in Panga. As the chariot of the goddess of Machhegaon, who is considered to be the eldest daughter according to the year of the meeting, had to reach the mother, the youngest daughter, the goddess of Satungal, had reached Balkhu without makeup and when the goddess of Machhegaon arrived a little later with makeup, she turned her back to her mother and sat outside. Accordingly, in Balkhu, the chariot of Satungal's goddess is first brought without ornaments, while the chariot of Machhegaon's goddess is kept outside the temple with its back turned.
After bringing the chariot, it has been a tradition to perform puja for the whole day and return to the associated village with a procession.
The name of Balkhu, the main place of the Jatra, is also associated with the legend of Shaktipeeth. A couple of sparrows, snakes, pigeons, etc. were offered as havan (hom) on the day of Bala Chaturdashi on the back of the tantric goddess 'Lungtiazima' Indrayani Devi, who is in the west of the capital, and a pair of pigeons flew out and the place where the pigeons stayed is called Bakhu.
It is believed that after the pigeons fly to the west of Kirtipur (currently Balkhu), the pigeons are left to offer sacrifices there.
'Bakhu' means pigeon in the Nepali language. The place was called 'Bakhu Madu' (without pigeons) because the pigeons that had flown away could not be found even after searching for a long time in that area. At the same place, in all the surrounding Newar settlements, Vishnudevi, Indrayani, Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kumari, Barahi, Sinhini, Byaghrini, Ganesha, Bhairav, Ashtamatrika are worshipped.
As it is the main festival of the local Newar community, the cleaning of houses, the arrival of guests, and preparations for worship have started in all seven villages. On this occasion, the work of preparing the Newari Baja team started about a week ago.
Sindoor will be taken to Balkhu along with Jatra after placing the image of the Goddess in the decorated chariot and getting worship from all the villagers.
“According to the legend, the Rath Yatra takes place in accordance with the legend of the children crossing over to meet Vishnu Devi, who is considered as the mother.” Said Devlal Shrestha, a local.
"The chariot kept in today's temple, called Muhya in Nepali language, is brought to the mandap where the Rath Yatra starts and is cleaned and dyed. Also, the work of welcoming guests and cooking traditional Newari food has started at home." said Devkumar Deshar, a resident of Machhegaon_Rss
(Photo credit: Satungal)
Also Read
