Month: February 2022

Madhav Narayan

Madhav Narayan observances:

Ghat entrance.
Another group of musicians.
Women bathing at the river’s edge. The white shroud at the left is a corpse awaiting ritual washing and cremation.
Devotees standing around a fire.
The devotees say prayers by the river before walking into town to start their procession.
The devotees roll toward the river as women lay down white sheets ahead of them.
Rolling.
Some devotees do a form of salutation instead of rolling.
The path leads down to the river.
The devotees continue their roll or salutations down to the water’s edge and then climb in.
They wait …
Then, at the signal, they dive in.
Lots of splashing and bathing.
The devotees offer prayers.
Show’s over.

Navadurga festival, Bhaktapur

There in a festival in Bhaktapur called Madhav Narayan which celebrates one of the avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is famous for the sight of male devotees rolling from the center of town down to the Hanuman River to show their devotion to Vishnu. The festival was nearing its close, so I went to Bhaktapur the day before to be at the riverside early in the morning.

It turned out that the city also is in the middle of its Navadurga festival. Navadurga is a mask dance ritual/street carnival. To celebrate Navadurga, dancers representing nine demonic avatars (durgas) of the goddess Parvati run around the city. I wasn’t aware of this until I wandered across a performance in one of the smaller squares of the city. The one in the red mask is one of the durgas; I assume the other is Shiva, since this appeared to be some kind of courtship dance.

The goddess awaits her husband.
The performer had to be guided as the masks are pretty cumbersome.
I had to push around to the front as best as I could; the dancers only played to the band, not to the rest of the crowd.
Collecting tips after the show.

After the show, I walked around the city for a few hours, and then returned to the same neighborhood on my way to dinner. As I passed, there was a loud commotion as young men rushed Shiva back into the square. They ran up and down, and then scampered off.

I continued up the road to a large square which I hadn’t visited before—Bhaktapur is much larger than I’d realized. At the main temple, there was a group of old men were singing and playing devotional songs, so I checked them out before finding some dinner.

After my meal, I was returning to my hotel when I heard another commotion. The street parade of durgas, drums and cymbals was heading toward me.

Naturally, I followed them. The revelers wound through some alleys and eventually ended at a temple where the musicians started pounding even louder. The dancers took off their masks and went inside, where they received offerings and more tips.

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