Tribal festival kicks off in Malkangiri

KORAPUT: Tribals are thronging Malkangiri for the final round of celebration of the month-long Badayatra festival from Saturday to Tuesday, when they will relive a tradition of Dwapara Yuga. During the festival, celebrated every two years, tribals pay obeisance to goddess Jagyanseni (Durga) believing that she will bring prosperity to them.
According to legends, Malkangiri was once ruled by a king Jarasandha, who had imprisoned one lakh kings for sacrificing them before goddess Jagyanseni at Polur.The wish did not come true as Krishna, Arjun and Bhim, disguised as Brahmins, rescued the kings by killing Jarasandha. This angered the goddess and to pacify her, Krishna, Arjun and Bhim promised to offer her an equal number of lives. They kept the promise by sacrificing one lakh animals and birds at Malkangiri.
The tradition has lived on since then. During the festival, Jangyaseni is brought from Polur to Malkangiri on a wooden palanquin. The procession starts 30 days in advance and covers around 90 km . During this time, the goddes is kept at several places, where tribals offer her puja.
"The festival comes to an end a week before Dola Purnima. According to rituals, hundreds of animals and birds are sacrificed to appease the goddess before she is brought to Malkangiri," said a resident of Malkangiri S K Das.
Besides Odisha, people from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are participating in the last three days of the festival and among them are tribal communities such as Koya, Bonda, Paraja, Dedayi, Bhumia, Kanda and Santhal.
Officials said massive awareness campaig has been carried out against animal sacrifice during the festival. "There has been a decrease in the number of animals sacrificed during the festival after we launched an awareness drive," said tehsildar (Malkangiri) Manoj Sahu, who is also the president to the puja committee. He said rise in the price of animals has brought the number down.