Gaajan-AnotherAddendum

The word GAAJAN is from garjan– the soul-stirring cry of the mendicants. It is the roar of the lion – the spine chilling call of the mythical God Siva. The festivals continue for a month starting from the last month of the traditional almanac, Chaitra and ends with the beginning of the New Year in the month of Baisakh. Summer is then is at its peak. Another name for the festival is Charak coming from chakra or the wheel – the circle of the movement of the Sun. It is symbolized by the setting up of a high pole from which hangs a devotee. With the help of a strong rope he swings himself in space going round and round the pole. It is a difficult and dangerous feat.
Sociologists opine that this festival, which can be seen even in some pockets of an urban jungle like Calcutta, is predominantly linked to the agricultural community. The farmers are being baked in the sun. So they pray for the rains. Siva is said to be very close to the tiller of the soil. Both Hindu and Buddhist influences have left their stamp on the bloody festival of Gaajan.
In mythological tales Bali was the King of the Asuras (demons). His son Baan was a devotee of Siva and together with his subjects offered blood to appease the god. According to legend Usha, the daughter of Baan, fell in love with the grandson of Krishna, Anirudha. A bloody feud ensued. Finally Krishna negotiated and brought about an amicable settlement by which Baan came to be recognized as one of the first ranking disciples of Shiva.
According to historians when during the middle ages the Buddhists came to be cornered in India and specifically West Bengal, they sought shelter under the banner of Hinduism. But they brought with them certain Tantric rituals of Buddhism, which involved bloodletting as well as mendicancy. Buddha laid great stress on monasticism and that is why during Gaajan, ordinary householders become mendicants for a month, put on ochre robes and beg from door to door. Dharmaraj is the Lord of the Buddhists. In some places the Gaajan offerings are divided into two with a drawn line – one side is for Shiva and the other for Dharmaraj.
Most of the villages of across Bengal the mendicants go early in the morning to the cremation ground to collect the skulls of the dead(This is apecial ritual at the villege Kurdmun). Sometimes they collect it from the morgue of suburban government hospitals. After dancing around with these, the skulls are again returned from where they were brought. From other sources it is learnt that dakinis and yoginis (female witches) would dance naked with their bodies smeared from top to toe with vermillion.
Today they wear saris bordered with red. Others walk over nails or hot coals and some have their nostrils and tongue pierced with rods. Alternative versions of the same theme are observed in festivals stretching from Myanmar to Japan speaking of a strong Buddhist influence.
The Gaajan festival was a great social leveler. The humble downtrodden peasant who are called Bhaktaa(the worshipers) acquired Shiva-hood(Shiva Gotra), for one day to one month depending on the traditions and rituals. When he appeared in the sitting room of the Landlord with holy bel (wood apple) leaves in his ears and his palm the landlord had to get up and touch his feet. Such was its force and impact. The farmer, the oil-maker, the fisherman, the potter, the cobbler, the barber, the scavenger, the undertaker – all became intoxicated for a month and were given due respect.
In 1012 King Dharmapal II after being defeated in war went into hiding. His wife Queen Saphula cut off her two breasts during Gaajan praying for the welfare of her King and Kingdom.
The bloody aspect of inflicting self-injury greatly disturbed British rulers. In 1864 the government banned some gory acts. In due course the festival lost its ferocity but retained its strength in observing a month of austerities and discipline, which is always good for the body and mind. A question arises today – in bygone days the blood that flowed was self-inflicted; the roar was that of the self-sacrificing mendicants and not the guns of self-seeking political hoodlums staining the green villages red right across the globe.

PotteryOfBengal

Hand-made pottery is predominantly a woman's art and rituals in West Bengal. Women in most of the folk communities generally make variety of dolls and toys. These hand made figures, small dolls and toys are done by pressing and moulding methods. Some important and interesting items are :
Mangol Ghot
Mangol Ghot is a kind of small vase which is commonly used all over Bengal in all kinds of rituals. In birth initiation and marriage ceremonies, in the festivals and rituals of all Gods and Goddesses these auspicious vases of various shapes and sizes are counted as essential requisites. These are mostly painted.
Lakshmi Ghot
These are auspicious vase of the Goddess of wealth. There is fairly a large variety of Lakshmi Ghot in West Bengal, mostly done in pairs, one for Lakshmi and another for Ganesh. Of these, Tamluk Lakshmi - ghats are most decorative and beautiful. Lakshmi's face is shaped on the upper fringe of the vase, with sharply drawn eyes and crest and the trunk of Ganesh in the other vase is also fine. In Raghunathbari, the vases are placed like bowls on an earthen stand. The Jhargram type, is the simplest one with a little long neck marked with two dots for eyes. It has a look of tribal simplicity.
Manasa - Ghat (Bari)
The most conspicuous type of Manasa ghat is found in Bankura and Garbeta area of Midnapur. Based on earthen jars turned upside down, the face of the serpant-Goddess, along with the attached snake-hoods, give the vase a peculiar shape and form. The number of snake-hoods varies from one, three, five, seven, to more than hundred arranged in ascending tiers according to the size of the vase.
Tulsimancha
One of the finest unique specimens of potter's craft is the Tulsimancha of Midnapore. Tulsimancha is generally a raised pedestal, either brick-built or earthen. The terracotta tub - like Tulsimancha with decorative motifs (mainly of Gods and Goddesses) are hardly found outside Midnapore. . It may be placed on the ground anywhere and filled with earth. Then a tulsi plant or any other small plant may be planted on it.
Dakshin Roy's Head - 'Bara - Murti'
Another interesting piece of pottery which is basically a Ghat or vase, shaped into the figure of a local village deity is Bara-Murti. This is also a vase upside down. The upper part is elongated into the form of a leaf with painted leaves and flowers on it and below it on the round surface the face of Barathakur is drawn. It is commonly worshiped in pair and also sold by potters in pair, of which one is God Bara and the other, his consort Narayani. In the Narayani ghat the moustache is absent. Eyes, eyebrows, moustache and beard are all sharply painted by brush. The worship of this Bara - murti is widely prevalent in the south of 24 Parganas district, where almost in every village the rituals are observed on a mass scale during the last day of Bengali month Pous and the first of Magh, corresponding to 14-15 January. The painted terracotta heads of Bara is placed under trees in pairs. Locally Bara is popularly known as the severed head of 'Dakshin Roy' who is a tiger-god. It is one of the most popular people's God in south 24 Parganas, associated with an environment of forest, which is likely to be the Sunderbans.
Marriage - Ritual vessels (Harhi)
In marriage ceremonies, vessels of different shapes and sizes are necessary for sending gifts to bride's and bridegroom's houses, especially varieties of sweets. Earthen vessels were used in the past because it were considered more sacred and auspicious than glass-pots or metal-pots. Of these earthen vessels some interesting varieties are found in Bankura, Midnapore and Murshidabad, which are painted and decorated. Harhis are not painted in all places and even where these are painted, the painting is not done by the professional potters of Kumbhakar caste, but by Patuas or scroll-painters, as in Midnapore (Narajol). In Bankura, the vessels are not painted by brush, but etched and engraved with pointed needles by potters (generally women). The designs are geometric and symbolic. Fish is a common subject in all drawings on these auspicious vessels. The Patuas paint flowers and leaves with fish. The other designs are of trees and flowers, symbolically executed.
Putul (Dolls)
The dolls are usually made by pressing and moulding methods. Now-a-days these are mostly prepared in mould. The mould may be prepared in parts and on each mould - piece the required quantity of clay is firmly pressed to get the intended shape and look. Clay paste is used for joining together the moulded parts. Then the object is dried, burnt and painted by brush. Mica - coated Red Dolls are made by moulding method. It is found in Howrah district : Puilya, Tantiberai, Tulsiberai and Sariyala - Balipota and in Midnapore.
Pressed - nose Dolls
The size of this doll is 1-2 inches to 4 -5 inches. It is found in Tulsi - berai, Tantiberai, Sariyala - Balipota, Antila and Kalikapur, Patihal and Jagatballavpur in Howrah district, in Midnapore town and in Berachampa - Debalaya. The dolls of Jagathballavpur and Midnapore town have blue and red stripes on white coating.
Horse - riders with and without wheels : Average height of the dolls is 4 to 5 inches.
Wheeled type is made in Tantiberai and Bantul in Howrah district and in Berachampa. Mother - Dolls :
Of all the mother - dolls the most interesting and unique types are made by Bankura potters. The types vary in different centres. Panchmura, Rajagram and Sonamukhi which are the three principal centres of Bankura pottery produce different type of mother - dolls. The dolls of Sonamukhi have red colour but the Panchmura dolls are generally black. Dolls of Sonamukhi and Rajagram have 'bonnets' also.
Dolls with Hip Jars
These are popularly known as 'Kalasi Kankhe Putul' or dolls with hip - jars.' Housewives on the village roads with water filled earthen jars on their hips in pleasant relaxing mood ' has been captured by the women potters and shaped perfectly into the hip-jar dolls. There are numerous representations of village life in dolls. The different types of these dolls are hair - caring, milk - maid (Goalini), wheat-crusher, horse - rider and elephant - rider. All these dolls are done by pressing method and by women potters. Of these, hair-caring is a peculiar type of doll which depicts a woman sitting in front with her child sucking her breast and another woman from behind is caring her hair. The size of the doll is about 5" x 6"x3". It has all the qualities of sculpture and looks like a piece of wood-carving or stone-carving.
Patua-made dolls
Patuas or Chitrakars are scroll-painters. Some types of clay dolls, figures of deities and animals are made by women of Patua-caste in West Bengal in Midnapore, Bankura, Howrah and 24 Parganas. Silate (slate-like) dolls: These are like plaques with holes for fixing on walls. These are coloured dolls and the favourite colours are green, red and blue.
Krishnanagar Pottery
Krishnanagar clay-modeling is about 250 years old and the potters of Krishnanagar did not originally belong to their present locality. In Krishnanagar pottery the social scenes of our country and the people, the different castes and racial types are reproduced realistically in clay-models. For example social scenes like collectors court, tea garden, Pandit-Sabha, Charak festival etc are used in clay modeling. This pottery is very popular and in most of the international exhibitions held since 1851, Krishnanagar clay-models have won medals and certificates and also great admiration from the people of Europe. The prices were very high even one hundred years ago and one can easily imagine its possible clientele today. The customers of these models used to be mainly Europeans.
Bankura Pottery
The principal centres where the terracotta horses and elephants are produced are Panchmura, Rajagarm, Sonamukhi and Hamirpur. Each of these four centres has its local style. Bankura horse is very popular. The Bankura pottery is mainly used for ritualistic purposes. The rituals are almost all exclusively associated with local village gods and folk-festivals in the worship of various kinds of tribal, semi-tribal and folk deities. The Panchmura-style of pottery is the best and the finest of all the four types. The symmetry of shape, the rhythm of the rounded curves of the body, especially of the horse, have lent a dignity and charm to it's form which is incomparable. Simplicity and dynamism are the chief components of Panchmura-style. It is more sophisticated than the other three types-Rajagram, Sonamukhi and Kamirpur types are a little less sophisticated and more massive. In Jhargram and Gopiballavpur areas in Midnapore district, within the tribal belt, the terracotta horses assume a crude near-primitive form and are fully hand modeled.

Bangabda/Bengali Era

The Bengali Era or Bangabda is used in Bangladesh, West Bengal and Tripura. It is also used in Assam where it is called the Bhaskar (Sun) Era, The era is an adaptation of the solar calendar that was introduced by Emperor Akbar in 1584 AD. Netters will recall that the Hijri era is based on the lunar calendar where the month of harvest keeps shifting from year to year. This had made it awkward to assign a fixed date for collecting taxes which became due after harvest. Akbar's calendar was the Emperor's solution to the problem.
Persians, unlike the Arabs, follow a solar calendar where the year begins on the day of vernal equinox (21st March). Akbar's calendar was based on the Persian model. Though introduced in 1584 AD, Akbar had the calendar backdated to start on 21st of March of 1556 AD which was the year he had ascended the throne. This was the year 963 in the Hijri era.
Bengal adopted Akbar's calendar with certain modifications. In 1556 AD, the Bengali calendar was assigned the year 963 to coincide with the year in Hijri era which today reads 1418. It is 1416 in the Bengali year.If we recall that a solar year is about 11 days longer than the lunar year, it is not difficult to figure out why the Hijri era has marched ahead by: [11 X (1998 - 1556)] days = 13 years in the 442 years since 1556 AD.
There is one other significant difference with Akbar's calendar which, like the Persian calendar and the Christian calendar, had months of fixed number of days. The Bengali month, on the other hand, is based on the ancient Sanskrit treatise, "Surya Siddhanta" where the months are assigned by the zodiac sign. The sun's stay under a zodiac sign varies from year to year. That is why any Bengali month can vary in length anywhere from 29 to 32 days. The sun enters the Mesh Rashi (Aries) on 15th of April, give or take a day.This marks the beginning of the Bengali year and is celebrated as the first of Baishakh.
The Bengali calendar is a prime example of the eclectic spirit that had prevailed during the rule of Emperor Akbar. It was a synthesis of features from ancient Indian calendars based on "Surya Siddhanta" with those of the Hijri calendar and the Persina calendar.
No wonder that the Bengali calendar is catering successfully to the needs of a quarter billion Muslims and Hindus of Bangladesh and Eastern India.
KalbotiMudra is ending this posting with a SHUBHO NABABARSHA (Happy New Year) greetings to all the netters. May it herald the beginning of an era of harmony in the strife torn subcontinent.