Bi-si-ka jatra: The Festival of Dead Serpents

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Bhaktapur is an ancient cultural city-state in the Nepal Valley. According to one estimate, it has almost half of the ancient wood carvings found in the South Asia. So, it would not be exaggeration to say that Bhaktapur is the center of the Nepalese culture. You can see remnants of the cultural heritage in Bhaktapur even today. One of them is the annual 'Bisikia' festival. Bhaktapurians celebrate the eight-night and nine-day 'Bisika' festival over the period of four days before and four days after the Nepalese New Year day in the Vikram calendar.

Origin and Evolution of Festival

The exact date of the origin of this festival is not known yet, however, this festival must have developed along with the expansion of the Tantrism in Nepal during the period of Licchavi region (400 A.D. – 800 A.D.) because most of the rituals performed to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali, and ‘Yao-sin dyo’ (symbolic union of Bhairava and Bhadrakali) are closely related to Tantra. In addition, this festival had evolved during the period of more than five hundred years when Malla Kings ruled Nepal from the beginning of the 13th century to the mid 18th century.

Originally, Bhaktapurians celebrated 'Bisika' festival for two days only. First day, they pulled ‘Yao sin dyo’ pole up, and they pulled it down the next day after 24 hours of the public display of ‘Yao sin dyo’. Only Goddess Bhadrakali enjoyed the outings on a chariot pulled through the streets.

King Visva Malla (1570 A.D. - 1575 A.D.) added the chariot festival of God Bhairava to this ‘Bisika’ festival. Concerning the chariot festival of God Bhairava added to the ‘Bisika’ festival, a legend has it that Kasi Visvanath, another name of Lord Shiva, once, visited Nepal to watch the ‘Bisika’ festival. Goddess Bhadrakali came to know about the visit of the omnipotent deity in a human form to watch the festival. So, Goddess Bhadrakali with the view to hold the omnipotent god in Nepal forever, informed Tantric Priest Muni Acaju in his dream that he should hold the supreme god by his Tantric power, and keep him in Nepal for the benefits of the people in general; the goddess also informed the Tantric priest that the god in a human form would be taller by a head among all the viewers.

Next day, with his transcendental vision, the Tantric guru Muni Acaju spotted the god at the place currently called Inaco tol. He immediately spread a Tantric net to capture the extra ordinary uninvited guest. The supreme god sensing the Tantric net spread over him, attempted to disappear submerging in the ground. By the time, he arrived at the current day ‘Aisamadi’ corner only his head was above the gorund. The Tantric priest in view of losing a chance to capture the god seized the head by his Tantra. Today, this place is known as ‘Sotunga’ means a self-submerging spot. Here, Taleju Bhavani and Nine-Goddess Durga come to pay annual homage to ‘Sotunga Bhairava’, which is also today known as Akasa Bhairava. Thereafter, the Tantric priest ceremonially enshrined him at ‘Taumadhi’.

After installing the Kasi Visvanath in the name of God Bhairava in Nepal, then agricultural crops improved every year. There was a time when the size of rice grew to an arm’s length. The very pleased farmers brought the biggest rice grain to Lord Bhairava. The rice is preserved in a copper case, and stored in the room next to Bhairava even today. Currently, this unique rice grain is known as ‘Murji-cup’. Over the 'Bisika' festival, caretakers bring it down and place it in a public display for offerings. Since then, the chariot festival of God Bhairava has been the part of the 'Bisika' festival.

King Jaga-jyoti Malla (1586 A.D. – 1613 A.D.) set the tradition of taking God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali to ‘Yao-sin khyo’ to enable them watch the victory pole called ‘Yao-sin-dyo’ pulled up there; and letting them spend a night over there until the ‘Yao-sin-dyo’ is pulled down the next day.

Over the period of 24 hours stay at ‘Yao-sin khyo’, Tantric priests make various offerings to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali. After the pulling-down ceremony of ‘Yao-sin dyo’, the ceremony of colliding the two chariots was performed before departing from that place.

After the lapse of four generations since the addition of the chariot festival of God Bhairava to the ‘Bisika’ festival, King Bhupatindra Malla (1677 A.D. - 1702 A.D.) elaborated this festival by making a three-tiered Nepalese temple-styled chariot to God Bhairava and a two-tiered chariot to Goddess Bhadrakali. In 1681 A.D., he also made it the festival of nine days extending it by four days after the New Year day in the vikrma calendar.

We have two myths about the origin of this festival: one myth is about the mysterious princess whose night guard found dead every morning, another is about the Tantric priest who along with his spouse in the serpent forms committed suicide.

Myths About Origin of Festival

A myth about princess: At one time, there was a mysterious princess in the city-state Bhaktapur. Any person guarding her over a night found dead the next morning. As people came to know this phenomenon, nobody wanted to be a guard to the princess at night. So, the king promulgated a rule making every household mandatory to send one person in rotation for guarding the princess every night. Thus, one person from a household killed every night. Courtiers set up a special funeral team that took care of the dead person every morning. In order to honor the dead person, they built a Nepalese temple-styled portable shrine called ‘Bhajan kha ca’. They carried the dead body on it on shoulder poles for cremation.

Even today, the tradition of taking the Nepalese temple-styled portable shrine called ‘Bhajan-kha-ca’ for cremation is held symbolically collecting a dead body, and holding a funeral function. A musical band plays funeral tune, and leads the portable shrine. This is done exactly like taking a funeral procession from the ‘Taumadhi’ to ‘Yao-sin khyo’ and perform Tantric rituals. This is done after the ‘Yao-sin dyo’ rising ceremony is completed at ‘Yao-sin khyo.’

One night, a prince from a neighboring city-state happened to stay in the household that had a turn to send one of their male family members to guard the mysterious princess on the night. Members of the household were arguing who should take the turn to go to guard the princess. Every male in the household wanted to take the turn. So, everyone was putting forward his reasons for taking the turn. The household head could not take a decision who should be awarded the turn. The guest prince curiously watching them to argue and listening to their argument, volunteered to take the challenge of watching over the princess for a night. However, the household head refused to take the offer of the guest prince because the Nepalese custom did not allow the guest to take such a risky assignment. After an argument, the prince persuaded the household head to agree on his proposal.

On that night, the prince guarding the princess had romance with her. Soon after the romance with the prince, she felt asleep. However, the prince kept a vigil at her bedside to understand the mysterious death of his predecessors. As he was watching over the beautiful face of the princess, he noticed two tiny reptiles crawling out of the nostrils of the sleeping princess. Soon, they began growing bigger and bigger into large serpents, and moving toward him with intention to attack. Realizing the threat to his life, the prince took out his saber, and cut the serpents into pieces. Next morning, when the funeral team came with a portable shrine to collect the body for cremation to their surprise, they found the prince alive.

The king declared the day as the victory day, and set the tradition of celebrating this day as 'Bisika' festival meaning a festival of dead serpents. The king held a show of the dead serpents in public by hanging them on a wooden pole for twenty-four hours.

A myth about the Tantric priest: A legend has it that when Licchavi King Shiva Deva was ruling the then-city-state called Bhaktapur, Kiratas attacked the state. The king went to consult Goddess Vajrayogini about the defense of the country. Goddess Vajrayogini advised the king to consult guru Sekhar acaju, and do whatever he advises him to do. The king called on the famous Tantric guru Sekhar acaju and informed him about what the goddess had told him. Guru Sekhar acaju assured him of driving away the attackers.

Guru Sekhar acaju took a handful of rice and uttered a few mantras on them, and then he gave it to the king saying that the guru would take the form of a tiger and the tiger along with thousands of other tigers would chase away the enemies. After the successful mission, he in a tiger form would return to the king and the king needed to simply toss the rice grains on the tiger. Then, the tiger would change back to a human form.

As the mission was successfully completed, the news of Guru Sekhar acaju deeds spread throughout the state, and ultimately reached his wife called ‘Nara rupa.’ So, the wife knowing the Tantric power of her husband requested him to be a huge serpent that she had never seen before.

Guru Sekhar acaju took a handful of rice, and uttered Mantras on it, and gave it to his wife so that she would toss the rice on him and then he would change back to a human again. Immediately, Guru Sekhar acaju took the form of a huge serpent. Wife ‘Nara rupa’ frightened by the sight of the huge reptile ran away from him.

The husband reptile followed her hoping that she would toss the rice on him; rather she got so frightened that she put the rice in her mouth, and unknowingly swallowed it. Immediately, she also turned into a huge serpent.

Both the husband and wife in the serpent form moved near the palace hoping that the king would see them and then understand the reasons for hanging out such huge serpents at the palace, and ultimately find out they were the guru couple. However, the king did not bother to understand why the reptiles were there, rather ordered the people not to harm them.

The serpent couple seeing no chance of returning to a human form went to the current day ‘Yao-sin khyo,’ and committed suicide. When the news about the suicide of the reptiles reached the palace, the king rushed to see the dead reptiles at 'Yao-sin khyo'. When the king saw the huge dead reptiles, he felt that something must have gone wrong in his state, so, he went to guru Sekhar acaju to consult with him about the death of the reptiles. He found the doors of the guru’s residence left wide open, no trace of guru Sekhar acaju and his spouse, rather noticed the imprint of crawling reptiles.

Following the imprints, he came to the place where the reptile’s couples found dead. He concluded that the reptile couple was, in fact, guru Sekhar acaju and his spouse. To honor the remarkable Tantric guru and his spouse, King Shiva Deva set the tradition of celebrating the festival of ‘Bisika’ jatra meaning the festival of dead serpents. The two huge flags called ‘hali pata’ represent the serpents.

These are the two legends that related to the origin of the ‘Bisika’ festival.

Elements of Festival

The ‘Bisika’ festival has at least five major sub-festivals. They are the pulling of the chariots to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali, and Tantric rituals performed to them, then pulling up and down of a wooden pole with flags that symbolize the dead serpents from whose names the tradition of celebrating the festival was set, then, the festival of Goddess Mahalaxmi and Mahakali, then the festival of Brahmayani and ‘Chuma gane dyo’: the elephant-headed god, and the ceremony of valediction to the goddesses and gods.

Assembling chariots: A few days before the beginning of the ‘Bisika’ festival, hereditary carpenters assemble a three-tiered Nepalese temple-styled chariot to God Bhairava and a two-tiered similar chariot to Goddess Bhadrakali at the ‘Taumadhi’ Square. People belonging to a painter caste paint the chariots; people belonging to the oil peddler caste fasten axles with the body of chariots by ropes made out of special vegetable ropes called ‘bet’.

People believe that a chariot was designed and originally built in the form of ‘sri yantra’: a Tantric geometrical figure, which represents the universe. Both the chariots are made out of wood; only the roofs and a parasol on them are made of gild brass. A circular wire net about a meter in diameter decorated with jingle bells and with a brass crescent is set at the second-tier of the chariot to God Bhairava. Probably, the crescent represents the crescent on the matted hair of the supreme god called Lord Shiva.

Each of the four sides of the chariot to Lord Bhairava has three openings. Each of these three openings is decorated with a ‘torana’. Each ‘torana’ has a carved image of one of the three gods such as Bhairava, Ganesh and Kumar. Lord Bhairava is the incarnation of Lord Shiva, Ganesh and Kumar are his sons.

Each side has two ‘tulanas’; all together the chariot has eight ‘tulanas’. Each ‘tulana’ has one of the eight different Bhairava images.  Each corner ‘tulana’s has a carved image of ‘kun-suru’. The chariot has a chamber for Lord Bhairava.

The chariot has a heavy upward curving wooden beam called ‘beta-sin’. This beam represents the serpent god. The upward-bending part of the beam in the front of the chariot symbolizes the head of the serpent god while the rear part the tail.

The chariot has four wooden wheels of about 1.5 meters in diameters. All of them have three-painted eyes, which symbolize super power in them.

According to the chronicle, Bhaktapurian King Visva Malla had an agreement with the Kantipurian King Amar Malla to use the timber from the holy forest called ‘Slesmantak’ nearby the Pashupati temple in Kathmandu. Lord Shiva had appeared in the guise of a deer in this forest, and remained nearby the forest across the Bagmati River forever, and became popular by the name of Pashupati today.

The Festival: On the first day of the ‘Bisika’ festival, that is the four days before the Nepalese New Year day, caretaker priests perform pre-outings rituals to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali. Thereafter, the ancient palace authorities sent the state offerings to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali, and officially secured the approval of the deities for their outings before they were taken to their respective chariot.

To make the chariot ready for pulling, caretaker priests perform worship to ‘Beta dyo’: the steed deity of God Bhairava. Thereafter, they set ‘Beta dyo’ at the top of the upward curving beam of the chariot. Obviously, ‘Beta dyo’ steers the chariot while merrymakers pull it on the narrow streets of Bhaktapur town. ‘Beta dyo’ is a dwarf human size made of bronze. He is a very restless deity that is why caretakers keep him always in an upside down position.

After the installation of ‘Beta dyo’ at the top of the ‘Beta-sin’, the festival authorities along with the ‘guthi sansthan’ officials take the full size God Bhairava from the god house ceremoniously led by a musical band to the chariot, and emplace the god in the inner chamber of the chariot.

The priest in-charge of the god holds the deity by his arms throughout the chariot-pulling festival, and is flanked by two caretakers called ‘Bhailo nayo’ of the chariot. Five carpenters also take the positions: one each at the four corners and another at the front. Four people one each at left and the right corner at the front and the rear of the chariot stand to urge on the people to pull it.

When everything and every body are ready at the chariot, a Brahmin priest comes with the state sword from the main palace courtyard in Bhaktapur; and takes his position in the chamber of the chariot. The sword called ‘khadga’ represents the head of state. Previously, the head of state used to stay with the deity in the chariot during the chariot pulling festival.

When the three-tiered chariot with the god is ready for pulling, merrymaking volunteers pull the two-tiered chariot to Goddess Bhadrakali from ‘Tamacchi’ to Ghatarma tol where the goddess resides in her god house. Here, caretakers ascend the goddess to the chariot from her god house. Thereafter, volunteers pull it back to ‘Taumadhi tol, and keep it facing the chariot to Lord Bhairava so that, both the god and goddess can see each other. After this ceremony, volunteers or merrymakers pull the larger chariot.

The chariot to God Bhairava has six ropes at the front and four ropes at the rear. The tug of war among the merrymakers starts off at the ‘Taumadhi’ Square where people from both sides of the city try to pull the chariot to their respective side. One side or another wins, and they pull the chariot to their destination they wish for. Previously, they could not do so because there was a limit set by the state to pull the chariot. When people from both sides enjoy pulling the chariot to their satisfaction they park it at ‘ga hiti’. Only after that merrymakers begin the pulling of the smaller chariot with Goddess Bhadrakali. Usually, youngsters pull this two-tiered Nepalese temple-styled chariot, and park it down at ‘ga-hiti’.

When both the chariots are parked at the respective parking lot, caretakers take the God Bhairava from the chariot to the temporary god lodge called ‘chaphali’ at ‘Lakola chen’ tol, and other caretakers take Goddess Bhadrakali from the chariot to her temporary lodge at ‘Lakola chen’. ‘Beta dyo’ remains at the chariot throughout the festival period of eight nights and nine days. The priest responsible for holding the state sword takes it back to the state palace and keeps the state officials informed about the progress of the chariot festival.

Priests perform ‘Lamo thapan’ worship to God Bhairava at ‘chaphali’. Probably, ‘Lamo thapan’ means emplacing the god temporarily at the god lodge. Thereafter, they perform ‘maha bali’ to God Bhairava on this night. On the second day, priests perform ‘nitya puja’ means regular offerings and on the third day they perform five-animal-sacrifice called ’pancha bali’ to God Bhairava. They sacrifice three different animals such as goat, sheep and duck to god Bhairava inside the god house, a chicken and a buffalo outside the god lodge. All sacrificial animals and birds are male only.

On the fourth day of the festival, the state authorities send state offerings including two sacrificial male goats. They release these goats at the ‘ga hiti’ square and watch over the goats what direction they take. The goat that goes to the north is sacrificed to the God Bhairava, and then another to Goddess Bhadrakali. After these offerings to the god and to the goddess, caretakers bring the god and place him at the inner sanctum of the three-tiered chariot. Similarly, caretakers bring Goddess Bhadrakali to her two-tiered chariot and place her in it. Brahman priest comes with the state sword takes his position in the larger chariot. Thereafter, volunteers or merrymakers pull the chariot to Goddess Bhadrakali and then the chariot to God Bhairava to ‘khanla’ from where the deities could watch the rising of ‘Yao sin dyo’ at the ‘Yao-sin khyo’.

Simultaneously, priests hold tantric rituals called ‘ganga puja’ to Goddess Bhadrakali at her ‘pitha’ at ‘Yao sin khyo.’ Only after the completion of this ‘ganga puja’ to Goddess Bhadrakali, the local people called ‘pode’ drag the wooden pole from the shade it is stored; and they set the bottom of the pole at the hole made for it. Thereafter, ‘pode’ take the head of the sacrificial buffalo offered to the Goddess Bhadrakali at the place behind ‘chandika’ at ‘Taumadhi’ tol.

Three to four wooden poles are stored in the shade called ‘Yao sin’ god house. When these wooden poles get old, and are no more safe to use for ‘yao sin dyo’, the concerned ‘guthi’ officials bring new poles from the preserved forest called ‘Yao sin gu’ about five kilometers to the east of Bhaktapur.

A team of ‘guthi’ people headed by a Tantric priest goes with offerings including a sacrificial male goat to the forest mentioned above. The priest performs Tantric rituals, and utters mantras in the ears of the goat then leaves it loose to roam at its will. The tree sniffed by the goat gets the honor of being ‘Yao sin dyo.’ When the goat completes sniffing a tree, caretakers sacrifice the goat to the tree, and then, helpers clear off the branches, and cut the tree into the pole of the size of fifty-five arms length.

A group of people drags this pole ceremoniously from the forest to the ‘Yao sin’ shade. People believe that sal trees in this forest compete each other to grow tall and straight so that they could be selected for the pole for ‘Yao sin dyo’.

‘Yao sin dyo’ is in fact the god called Akash Bhairava (sky Bhairava) in union with Goddess Bhadrakali. The hole in the ground, where the wooden pole ‘Yao sin dyo’ stands is considered Goddess Bhadrakali. Thus, the pulling of ‘Yao sin dyo’ in this hole signifies union of Lord Bhairava with Goddess Bhadrakali.

‘Yao sin dyo’ stands there for twenty-four hours signifying the complete life cycle. So, people pull it up on the eve of the Nepalese year and fell it down in the evening of the New Year day. In case, delay occurs in pulling ‘Yao sin dyo’ up then pulling it down also is delayed by the same hours in order to keep it for twenty-four hours.

People responsible for binding ropes to the pole bring eight ropes carrying on shoulder poles to ‘Yao sin khyo’. These ropes are made of cotton yarns. People belonging to the caste called ‘sayami’ in Bhaktapur have a ‘guthi’ for taking care of ropes and neatly binding them the ‘Yao sin’ pole at its armpit.

They first bind several tree trunks together to make outstretched hands of ‘Yao sin dyo’. Then, they wrap the outstretched hands in blue cloths matching the color of Akash Bhairava, and bind the hands at about ten-arm-length down from the top of the ‘Yao sin’ pole. Then, they attach a cooper mask of Akash Bhairava to the pole at the cross point of the outstretched hands and the pole. They also set a bunch of fresh green twigs at the tips of hands and at the tip of the pole.

They bind two flags at the armpit of the ‘Yao sin’ pole. One flag is of thirty-five arms length. It represents a male serpent. Another flag is of thirty-four arms length. It represents a female serpent. Both of them are of one arm length width. These two flags are made out of cotton. They have eight auspicious symbols and numerous Tantric paintings that depict 33,331 deities. Currently, people belonging to thirty six-sub castes participate in fabricating these two flags.

They bind four ropes at the right armpit and another four ropes at the left armpit. People believe that each rope is possessed with one mother goddess; thus, these eight ropes represent eight mother goddesses belonging to the ‘Nava Durga’ troupe in Bhaktapur. They are Brahmayani, Mahesvori, Kumari, Mahakali, Barahi, Tripurasundari, Indrayani, and Bhadrakali. So, people think that each rope has the strength of one mother goddess. When all the ropes with the strength of eight mother goddesses are fully stretched then only ‘Yao sin dyo’ rises.

Caretakers of ‘Nava Durga’ troupe come to ‘Yao-sin khyo’ to pick up eight mother goddesses after the completion of the pulling up of the ‘Yao sin dyo’ and take them back to the ‘Nava Durga’ house.

After the ‘Yao sin dyo’ is pulled up, curious people check to which direction the copper mask of Akash Bharaiva is facing, as people believe that rains starts off from the cornered it faces in the beginning of the monsoon.

As soon as ‘Yao sin dyo’ is up at ‘Yao sin khyo’, a group of people pulls the chariots to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali to ‘Yao sin khyo’ from ‘khanla’ where two deities have stayed for watching the pulling of ‘Yao sin dyo’. They pull the three-tiered chariot with God Bhairava to the place where ‘Yao sin dyo’ is standing.

Then the priests carry the god on their arms from the chariot to the eight-cornered pavilion for an overnight stay. Similarly, caretakers take Goddess Bhadrakali from her chariot to her field shrine called ‘pith’.

Immediately after taking God Bhairava to the pavilion, priests perform a Tantric offering called ‘tha puja’ means emplacement worship to the god; on the same night, they perform ‘maha deep puja’ to the god. This is a Tanrric offering, too.

Next morning i.e. on the New Year day, men, women and children go to ‘chupin ghat’ and take a dip or wash their faces in the waters of Hanumante River flowing nearby ‘Yao sin khyo’. People believe that by doing so they get immunity to all sorts of diseases for a year in other words they get protected from different sorts of diseases. After the washing at ‘chupin ghat’, they go to pay homage to ‘Yao sin dyo’, Goddess Bhadrakali, and God Bhairava, all are at the ‘Yao sin khyo’ on this day.

Farmers make sacrifice of female chicken that have not laid eggs yet, to God ‘Beta dyo’ set at the tip of the upward curving beam of the three-tiered chariot. Unlike other gods and goddesses, ‘Beta dyo’ accepts only female chicken on this occasion. Farmers revere ‘Beta dyo’ believing that the god protects them from evil spirits on the field.

In the afternoon, ‘kana-fata yogis’ make ‘jogi cakre’ offerings to God Bhairava in front of the god-house at the ‘Taumadhi’ Square. They put up eighteen large clay bowls filled with various sorts of liquors. Thereafter, they make offerings including a sacrificial goat to God Bhairava. They perform similar ‘jogi cakre’ in front of the ‘Taleju’ temple at ‘Layaku’.

In the evening, when all Tantric offerings to ‘Yao sin dyo’, God Bhairava and Goddess Bharakali are completed, caretakers take God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali from their respective field shrine to their chariot parked nearby. Then the priests with the state sowrd and other authorities take their positions in the chariot.

Members of the ‘guthi’ prepares for puling down ‘Yao sin dyo.’ They unwind the ropes from the ‘Yao sin dyo’ pole they had wind around the pole on the previous day. When the ropes are let loose, some brave people climb the ropes and attempt to reach the armpit of ‘Yao sin dyo’. When everything of the festival is done at ‘Yao sin khyo’, then the pulling-down ceremony is performed to the ‘Yao sin dyo’. Thereafter, people pull down the ‘Yao sin dyo’.

Immediately, after pulling down ‘Yao sin dyo’, people pull the chariots from ‘Yao sin khyo’ to ‘ga hiti’ where the chariot-colliding ceremony is performed. The larger chariot is firmly set at the wall made out of stone while the smaller chariot is pulled back and forth to collide with the larger chariot. This is repeated for three times. This means the god and the goddess is saying ‘bye’ to each other.

Thereafter, caretakers remove the deities from the chariots and take the deities to their respective lodge shrine, God Bhairava to ‘caphali’ and Goddess Bhadrakali to her temporary god house at ‘ Lakola che’. Priests and caretakers perform welcome offerings to these deities. They make other Tantric offerings until the end of the festival.

On the sixth day of the festival, people celebrate the festival of outing of Goddess Mahalaxmi and Goddess Mahakali in the northern part of Bhaktapur. In the afternoon, people carry the goddesses on the respective portable shrine on their shoulder poles and bring them to meet each other on the half way between their temples. This is a symbolic meeting of two sister mother goddesses. Devotees sing hymns. Traditional musical bands play religious tunes. Merrymakers follow both the portable shrines back and forth. Similarly, other people celebrate the festival of the elephant-headed god called ‘chuma gane dyo’ at another place.

On the seventh day, a festival of Goddess Brahmayani is held in the eastern end of Bhaktapur. Caretakers and priests perform Tantric offerings to the Goddess, and then they place the goddess on a portable shrine and carry it on shoulder poles to the neighborhood. This is the festival of outing of Goddess Brahmayani. A musical band leads the shrine carriers; devotees follow them. Some devotees sing hymns while others play religious tunes. Thus, the outing of Brahmayani is celebrated.

The eight day of 'Bisika' festival is the day of making concluding offerings to all gods and goddesses participating in the ‘Bisika’ festival. They are around city-state Bhaktapur. Caretakers of different gods and goddesses bring their deities to their respective public place for all devotees to revere them. This is a day long religious festival held one day before the completion of the 'Bisika' festival. Devotees carry one item of offerings or another, and offer such items to all gods and goddesses around Bhaktapur. All these participating gods and goddesses are in different names of God Bhairava, Goddess Bhadrakali and Lord Ganesh. They have participated in the 'Bisika' festival since the fourth day of the festival.

After receiving the last public offerings, all these gods and goddesses return to their respective god houses in the night; this is called ‘dyo tha ha bigya ke gu’ means taking the deities to their respective god house. After completion of this ceremony, the ‘Bisika’ festival is almost completed. All these Tantric gods and goddesses have been honored Tantrically. They go back to their respective god house in the night after performing the night festival.

The last day of the 'Bisika' festival is significant in the sense that both God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali complete the nine-day long outings. Priests perform Tantric rituals to God Bhairava and Goddess Bhadrakali throughout the day. In the evening, they bring the deities from their respective god lodging to the respective chariot.

All responsible authorities take their positions on the chariot to God Bhairava for the final pulling of the chariot. Merrymakers pull the chariot on the street of Bhaktapur in the dark night because for safety reason electricity authority turns off the electric power making the night dark. After pulling the chariot up and down of Bhaktapur, merrymakers park the chariot at the ‘Taumadhi’ Square in front of the permanent god house of God Bhairava.

The priest takes the god to the god house, the state sword bearer returns to the state house. Other people on duty such as ‘Bhailo nayo” and others complete their respective assignment and return to the regular lives.

Caretakers of God Bhairava perform Tantric purification rites to the god at the entrance to the god house before taking the god in. The god has been out for eight nights and nine days. He has accepted the offerings made by the people of different castes and lived at different lodgings. Therefore, the god house caretakers put various questions such as where had he slept and with whom he had slept, what food he had taken and so on. Then, the caretakers perform purification of the defilement caused by outings of the god. Only after that, God Bhairava enters the god house, and resides there. Thus, ends the 'Bisika' festival.

Reference: ‘Nepal ko saskritik tatha aitihasik digdarsan’ by Lila Bhakta Munankarmi, 1984 A.D. (2041 B.S.)]