Jugar Yatra at Kuchipali in Bargarh, Odisha

Jugar Yatra in Kuchipali village of Bargarh District is a unique celebration. This is the only festival of its kind though some other villages of the same district have attempted in the last few years to organize one in their villages. It is true that western Orissa pays homage and gratefulness to the deities via a series of festivals but some rituals of those festivals do not go well with a majority of people. Amongst those, the practice of animal sacrifice has been objected several times in different ways. Protesting against this cruel ritual, the villagers commenced Jugar Yatra in 1985 where Jugars are offered to Goddess Kali declining the brutal convention of sacrificing animals in the name of devotion. A report by Himanshu Guru.

Goddess Kali in Kuchipali Village

In this festival mammoth Jugars are taken in a carnival and finally offered to Goddess Kali at her shrine located in the village. After the ‘Jugar’ is offered to the Goddess, it is distributed among the villagers and devotees present there. The inhabitants believe that offering the ‘Jugar’ and distributing it among the people fetches peace and prosperity to the village. The festival has become very popular and lakhs of devotees visit the remote village from different places of Orissa and some from the adjacent state Chhatishgarh. A report by Himanshu Guru.

What is ‘Jugar’

Jugar

Jugar is a cone-shaped food item made of parched boiled rice and jaggery, called Lia and Gur respectively in the local language besides coconut and 12 different kinds of palatable items, put together in a frame of 12 to 15 feet high. Jugars are offered to the mother deities including Goddess Durga and Kali. Normal size of Jugar prepared in houses and offered to the Goddess during occasions like Durga Puja, Bhai Jiuntia and Kali Puja ranges from ½ to 1 foot high. But the Jugars prepared for the ‘Jugar Yatra’ ranges from 8 to 15 feet approximately. And that is the prime attraction of the festival. The fiesta takes name from this recipe. Normally People make wishes and when their wishes are fulfilled they make Jugar and offer it to the divine mother. Of course some people also prepare without any wish but just out of devotion.

Preparation

Prepartion of Jugar for the Yatra begins four months ahead of the festival since the right quality of jaggery and fried paddy are available then. Jugar is a huge sized food structure and no compromise can be made in selection of its raw material, lest the formation may collapse at any point of time.

Motto of the festival

The Jugar Yatra of Kuchipali basically conveys the message to the society to propagate devotion without harming anybody else, human or animal. It is their way of conveying to the society that Gods and Goddesses can be pleased with non-vegetarian food materials. Slaying of a huge number of animals is not a essential ritual of worship. And even if this is a ritual, the tradition can be compromised and there is no harm in it.

Communal harmony

Jugar Yatra is not only about divine aspect, but it also sows seeds of communal harmony. The hamlet of Kuchipali houses people from all the religions and all of them take part actively in the festival. In the last years it has been observed that not only Hindus but Muslims have also prepared Jugars for the festival. They also take active part in the whole process. Not only just as members but sometimes have they become organizers of this festival. Again, despite prevalence of strong laws on equality, sometimes lower caste people, like Harizans are kept away of the social functions in some remote pockets. But Jugar yatra even counters this evil practice and people from these castes have taken leading part in the last years in this festival.

Kalash Yatra at Kuchipali

The Carnival

The Jugar Yatra carnival, locally called procession is the most fascinating part of this festival. People prepare life size Jugars, decorate them with gift papers, nylon clothes and other decorative stuffs and include it in the carnival that passes through the main road to finally reach the shrine of Goddess Kali in the village. Lakhs of people witness this incredible gala. Not only the Jugars, but musical extravaganza road shows are also part of the carnival. The festival is also a platform where a series of music and dance troupes showcase folk culture of the area. Amongst these, duldulibaza, namoguru, ramtali, karamsani, krushnaguru, ghantabadya, sankhadhwani etc. are the popular music-dance extravaganzas.

The silver Jugar

The ‘silver jugar’ is a noticeable element in the festival. In the last years, silver Jugars made of 21x21 kg parched rice and sugarcane molasses were witnessed. The Jugar was enclosed with a layer of silver sheet. The silver sheet was carved with drawings.

Bottom Line

In the name of custom, innocent animals are killed during festivals dedicated to Gods and Goddesses. This rite has become a tradition and the same is followed from generation to generation while the followers do not bother to pay heed to their conscience whether to slaughter innocent animals or not. But Jugar Yatra of Kuchipali in Bargarh district has discarded this ever going evil tradition and has successfully completed 29 years, which is proof to the fact that Goddess of course do not want innocent animals be killed in huge numbers in her name.

The Carnival for Jugar Yatra