Kumaon gets ready for Nanda Devi festival

BD Kasniyal

Advertisement

Pithoragarh, September 16

Preparations are afoot across the Kumaon region for the Nanda Devi festival, which will take place from September 18 to 21.

“Nanda is the unifying Goddess of Uttarakhand as it is the only deity which is worshipped in every part of the state, be it tribal parts of Munsiyari in Kumaon or Chamoli in the Garhwal region. Nanda worship binds the state into one bond of culture,” said Kaushal Saxena, an eminent author.

“We have started erecting shops on flat grounds in Nainital where the festival will be organised. The shopkeepers have also started pouring in, keeping in the mind the rich business they expect from the festival,” said Ganga Prasad Shah, spokesman for Ram Sevak Sabha, the organiser of the festival.

In Almora district, the Nanda Devi ground is getting ready for the festival as shops are being set up and goods from outside the district are coming in.

“We have the most ancient and separate method of worshipping Nanda and Sunanda. We in Almora, worship them with tantric methods for which the pandits bring tantra pattas and carry these after the ritual gets over,” said Naveen Bisht, a journalist and cultural activist of Almora town.

Bisht said efforts were being made this year to celebrate the festival with the traditional methods and offer gifts to the Goddess.

“There were times when the villagers, even from remote part of the then Chand Empire, used to come to Nanda Devi festival in Almora with their gifts for the Goddess and sang traditional songs of chanchari, jhora, bhagnaul playing on hurka (a traditional musical instrument of Uttarakhand). We are trying to revive this by inviting villagers from the surrounding villages of Almora town to take part in the festival like their forefathers used to,” said Navin Bisht.

In Ranikhet and Champawat towns, arrangements for Nanda festivities are being sped up as committees have been set up at these places and venue grounds are being decorated. “We are trying to make it a gala affair this year by inviting more and more people,” said CS Joshi, a member of the organising committee of Nanda Mahotasava in Champawat district.

Significantly, in the 10 villages of Talla Johar region and two villages of Malla Johar region of Munsiyari sub division of Pithoragarh district, villagers conduct a five-day trek to reach the 15,000-feet-high glacial regions of Hiramani, Ralam, Namik and Chiplakedar to collect Brahm Kamal flowers, to offer it to Goddess Nanda.

“We believe that the Goddess hovers on the flower during these days in the form of a honey bee. We bring the flower home along with the bee as the bee personifies Nanda Devi,” said Jeewan Danu, a villager from Girgaon village of the Talla Johar region.