Jagdalpur: World famous Bastar Dussehra has started in Chhattisgarh. Bastar Dussehra festival gives a different identity to the people of Bastar. Because this festival is celebrated for 75 days. But this year Bastar Dussehra will not be celebrated for 75 days but for 107 days. This great festival will start from July 17 (today) in front of Maa Danteshwari temple with Pat-Jatra Vidhan. To fulfill this ritual of worship, a Sal tree was selected and cut in the forest of village Billori on Friday late evening after offering prayers. According to information, this year 2023, due to one month of Purushottam / Adhikamas and eclipse on October 28, the time limit of Dussehra festival has increased.
Phool Rath Parikrama started on Tuesday in the world famous Bastar Dussehra festival. This chariot will be pulled for six days from second to seventh day. It was started by Raja Vir Singh Deo 411 years ago. The four-wheeled flower chariot and the Vijayarath pulled on the day of Vijayadashami have eight wheels. Bastar Dussehra was started during the reign of King Purushottam Dev. He was given a sixteen wheeled chariot with the title of Rathapati at Jagannath Puri. The 16 wheeled chariot was first pulled in the year 1410 at Badedongar.
Four wheeled chariot dedicated to Lord Jagannath
Maharaja Purushottam Dev was a devotee of Lord Jagannath, so he separated four wheels from the 16-wheeled chariot and made the Goncha chariot. Which is operated in Goncha festival. In this way the Dussehra chariot with 12 wheels was pulled for a total of two hundred years.
Dussehra dedicated to Goddess
Folk litterateur Rudranarayan Panigrahi states that the flower chariot is drawn every year for six days from II to Saptami and Vijay Rath on Vijayadashami and Ekadashi days as rain inside and two days outside as rain. Shakti Puja takes place in the eastern and northern states of India. This effect is also there in Bastar. Goddesses are mounted in both the chariots, so there is no tradition like Ravana’s slaughter here.
Dussehra being celebrated since last 615 years
It is worth mentioning that every year devotees and tourists from all over the country and abroad reach to visit Goddess Maa Danteshwari, the worship of the tribals of Bastar. According to the historical fact of Bastar Dussehra, in the year 1408, Purushottam Dev, the Kakatiya ruler of Bastar, was given the title of Rathpati at Jagannathpuri and he was presented with a huge chariot with 16 wheels. In this way Dussehra is being celebrated in Bastar for 615 years. King Parushottam Dev had distributed the chariot of 16 wheels which he had received as a boon from Jaganna Puri. He first dedicated four wheels of the chariot to Lord Jagannath and by offering the remaining 12 wheels to Danteshwari Mai, started the tradition of celebrating Bastar Dussehra, a Bastar Gancha festival, since then this tradition has been going on till now.