Karam puja: Tribals celebrate the grandeur of Mother Nature

Jamshedpur, Sep 6: Karam puja, one of the major festivals of tribal communities, was celebrated with fervour in and around the city on Tuesday. It is a festival that celebrates the grandeur of Mother Nature.

In events organised at Karandih and Hata area Tribals sing and dance to the beatings of drums while celebrating the festival. Thousands of people belonging to Kudumi, Munda and Bhumija tribal communities celebrated the festival in rural pockets of Singhbhum district with traditional fervour and gaiety.

As part of the celebration, the devotees go to rivers, creeks or ponds by wearing new clothes. After performing certain rituals, they collect sand in a bamboo basket and return to the village. The sand is kept at a designated place. Seven varieties of grains – black gram, green gram, wheat, paddy, mustard, horse gram and flax seeds– are mixed in the sand. As per tradition, water is sprinkled on it. And the seeds germinate.

People believe that they are blessed by the deity. Next, they collect branches of the Karam tree. They sing and dance while performing this ritual. All the rituals are conducted under the supervision of a village priest.

After the separation from the tree, the branches are accorded the status of god and the priest plants the branches at the centre of an open yard. Devotees dance to the beats of drums.

Govardhan Manjhi, a tribal, said Karam puja is linked to Lord Bishnu, who loved to wear yellow clothes. The flower of the Karam tree is yellow. Karam tree is worshipped to propitiate the Lord Bishnu. The festival is celebrated to remind the role of Karam tree in the creation of the world, he added

The ritual is that the locals along with groups of drummers go to the jungle to cut branches of the Karam tree. The branches are then carried back by young and unmarried girls who together sing to pay a homage to the deity. While singing, these unmarried girls bring the branches to the village to plant them in the ground by using cow dung and also decorate them with flowers. After the plantation, the priest of the village offers liquor and germinated seeds to please the deity for wealth and children and then narrate the whole significance of the festival to the entire village. This whole ritual of pleasing the god also includes animal sacrifice where a fowl is killed and his blood is given to the branch. Moreover, the festival is toasted in two different ways. Firstly, it is celebrated by the villagers on the street. Secondly, it is celebrated by the man in the courtyard where he invites all the loved ones and entertains them with liquor along with the sound of drums.