Gaijatra: Display Of Tragedy And Comedy In Nepal

 Siddhi B Ranjitkar

On the first day of the dark fortnight of Sravon (July-August) in the Nepalese calendar, Nepalis celebrate the festival called Gaijatra. The festival is for some people to mourn for their loved ones, others to laugh and enjoy. Some people might think it is contradiction but it is not. In fact, the festival is designed to cheer up the mother that has been sad at the demise of her son. So, it has the combination of the mourning for the loved ones that have died during the year at the same time to cheer up others for keeping the regular life going on.

Every household that has lost a loved one in a year needs to send a live cow or a cow in an effigy around the town on the day called Gaijatra. Our belief is that such a cow helps the souls of dead persons to enter the ‘Yama Lok’. Once a year the entrance to this world is opened to the souls after they have completed the worldly lives. They passed the several tests before reaching the entrance. We also believe that if anyone dies on this very day, then a real cow or a cow in an effigy takes his/her soul straight to this place. 

From the early morning of this day, you find the cows in various sorts of effigies going around the old towns in a clockwise direction across the country. You will find the spires like effigies carried by four men on two shoulder poles, and small size effigies carried by a single man in Bhaktapur. A single boy or a group of boys representing a cow goes around the old Kathmandu. People in Lalitpur do it differently gathering at the Main Square and then altogether going around the town. Other major towns such as Pokhara and Biratnager have also the ways of marking this day.

About four hundred years ago, King Pratap Malla of the Kathmandu city-state has designed and introduced Gaijatra to cheer up his queen that has lost her son. The queen has been crying all day and night at the loss of her beloved son. The king has difficulty in cheering up his queen that has almost lost the mental stability. After thinking for a long time, he has come to the conclusion that he will be able to console his queen only showing how many parents have lost their children, how many people have lost their parents and so on in a year but the people have not lost their faith in living a cheerful life. (Recently, it was fond that the Gaitra had been probably since the reign of Gopalas. So, it is pretty old tradition about 3000 years old.)    

So, the king has decreed that all the households that have lost their loved ones in a year need to take a cow in an effigy around the town passing through the royal square, at the same time they need to make it as funny as possible. The king has also announced that the people can make a fun of anybody including the members of the royal family, and they can stage events, performances or activities designed to entertain others and make them laugh for a week starting from the day of this festival. All comedians, entertainers, and performers need to pass through the royal square.

Individuals, groups or communities display various dances, comedies, dramas and other entertaining events at the open public stages and squares twenty-four hours a day throughout the week. Comedians go around the town making fun of the society, politicians or rulers or of celebrities based on the real or make-believe stories. Dancers display their dances to the tune of music on the platform made at various neighborhoods, and performers play in dramas that start late night and continue until morning.

In preparation for the Gaijatra festivals, individuals, groups or communities teach or learn various dances quite some time before it starts. Individuals or groups wishing to teach and learn various dances, act in dramas and activities do so at their own cost. Then, they perform in drama and other activities of entertainment at no cost to the state or the public and display performances and activities at the pubic places for everybody to watch without any payment. Performers don’t expect any payment from the public except for the satisfaction they achieve from putting up their dramas and dances in the best possible way they can for the enjoyment of the public. Their success in performances is measured by the size of the audience they can attract while performing in the public.

The timing of this festival is made so that most of the people have sufficient time to put up the shows; and the audience has time to watch the public performances. Most of the people have been farmers. Once they have completed the rice transplantation they have three-week time to spare for anything until the next working in the rice fields. About two weeks, they spend on in preparation for putting up their shows and then actually on displaying the shows for a week.

This festival is also linked with the belief in the souls of dead loved ones entering the ‘Yama Lok’: the world of dead ones. We believe that on this day the entrance to this world is opened once a year so that the souls of dead ones can enter. So, if someone dies on this day means s/he directly goes to the ‘Yama Lok’ not need to wander in the cosmic world waiting for the opening of the gate to this world.

We believe that souls of dead travel from their home to ‘Yama Lok’. The distance is cosmic and the way is arduous. First four days and nights the souls of dead ones hang around the roof. So, we hang a dish of regular food from the edge of the roof each evening for four days believing that the dead person eats. Some people even claim that they have seen the shadow of the dead person coming to enjoy the meal. Thereafter, the soul drifts away from the home to a spiritual world.

On the fifth or the seventh day depending on the tradition of the family of the dead one, the family offers a special large meal to the soul of the dead loved one at the entrance to the home. From this day on, the soul moves on away from the home. On the tenth day, it completely detaches from the home, and on the thirteenth day, it starts a spiritual journey to ‘Yama Lok’. It crosses the spiritual river called Vaitarni that tests the vices and virtues of the soul on the way to ‘Yama Lok’.

So, the souls of all dead ones wait at the entrance to the ‘Yama Lok’. On the day of Gaijatra, the entrance to the ‘Yama Lok’ opens and the souls en mass enter the ‘Yama Lok’. However, Yama Raj: the ruler of ‘Yama Lok’ allocates them to stay on the places following the merits and demerits they have earned in their worldly lives.

The families left behind in the human world do everything possible for the souls of their loved ones to travel to the ‘Yama Lok’ without stress. One of the things they do for easing the souls to travel and then to enter ‘Yama Lok’ is to take a live cow or a cow in an effigy in the name of each dead one around the town believing the sacred-live cow or in an effigy helps the soul on the way to and in entering the ‘Yama Lok’.

We make an effigy of a cow one for each dead soul. We make about a thirty feet long (currently it has been shorten due to the overhead power lines) spire like an effigy from four fresh green bamboos tying the four bamboos to four bamboo poles a few feet from the bottom and tie them together at the head, then wrapped them in the men’s or women’s apparels depending on whether the dead person is a male or female. We paste a painted-paper portrait of a cow on the top portion of the spire and tie two rice straw horns and two colored circulars paper ears to it in Bhaktapur.

For the souls of the dead children, we make effigies of cow in upturned wicker baskets that have a meter wide circular upper part and a 15-cm circular bottom, and a height of a meter. Nepalis use such wicker baskets for carrying everything on their backs. They use forehead straps to hold such wicker baskets on their back. We wrap such wicker baskets in an upturned position in the male or female apparels depending on the gender of the children that have died; we tie two rice straw horns, one paper portrait and two paper ears of cow to each of such them to complete such effigies. A man wears such an effigy from the head down to the waist and takes it around the old town walking in a clockwise direction in Bhaktapur.

Watching the cows in effigies going around the town, you can keep the log of a number of male and female adults and children died in a year. So, the state officials must have used this festival for taking the census of the dead ones every year in the past. Anybody wishing to keep the record of the dead ones in a year can do so distributing anything s/he wants to each of the cow in an effigy going around the town on the day of this festival. In fact, some people use to do so even today believing that they will earn merits in doing so.

Before taking out a cow in an effigy, it stands at the entrance to the home of the dead one. The family members make offerings to it following the Hindu rites and rituals. Then, a number of pairs of dancers dance to the tune of the music called ‘ghen-ta-ghising’ to lead it to the town. You need to feed them with the festival dishes such as soup of nine different beans called ‘quanti’, and bread and provide them with alcoholic drinks. You find a number of teenagers and adults volunteering to make a dancing troupe that leads the cow in an effigy around the town. Some well-to-do people even hire a musical band to play music on the way to taking an effigy around the town.

Up until now, the ‘ghen-ta-ghising’ dances have been only for the male teenagers and adults but recently female teenagers have joined the male dancers. Some of the female teenagers are ready to join their male partners to dance ‘ghen-ta-ghising’ if their parents permit them in Bhaktapur. Obviously, some parents don’t allow their offspring to do so, as the dances are amorous and not to the likings of the parents. So, some parents don’t let their unmarried daughters to join such dances in the public.

The tradition has it that the effigy dedicated to Goddess Taleju: the Supreme Hindus Goddess should precede any other effigies dedicated to humans. So, the attendants to Goddess Taleju at the temple take the effigy dedicated to the deity before cockcrow to avoid crows flying over it, as Nepalis believe that flying of crows over any auspicious things will make it inauspicious. So, many people do not even notice the effigy of a cow dedicated to the Goddess Taleju going around the town so early in the morning.

A spire like effigy made of only rice straw dedicated to Lord Bhairava going around the town ends the festival of cows or Gaijatra in Bhaktapur. So, the effigy dedicated to Lord Bhairava is taken around only in the evening. A number of spires like effigies follow it. Some neighborhoods in the southern Bhaktapur town have the tradition of taking the spires like effigies dedicated to their loved ones following the Lord Bhairava spire. A large number of ‘ghen-ta-ghising’ dancers lead the spire to Lord Bhairava and other accompanying spires dedicated to humans around the town.

In Kathmandu, you will find boys wearing paper portraits of cow going around the town the whole day on this festival day. Some people take a live cow around the town.  Some hired musical bands to lead the boys going in the guise of cow around town but you don’t find any sorts of dances similar to the ‘ghen-ta-ghising’ dancers in Bhaktapur.

In Lalitpur, all the people going around the town in the names of their dead loved ones gather at the Square near the famous temple to Lord Krishna, before noon and then they altogether go around. Some people drag a small metal drum on the way; others take one thing or another according to their choice following the tradition and belief and go around the town. However, no dances on the streets and no cows in effigies go around the town.

The Gaijatra-festival days have been the days of freedom of speech and writing during the despotic rule of the Panchayat system from 1960s to 1990 when people could say anything only in praise of the then king. In the name of the festival, newspapers seized the opportunity of writing about the evils of the Panchayat system. Currently, the press does not need to wait for the festival to write without restriction. However, the importance of the Gaijatra has not diminished.

Nepal Academy has set the tradition of holding an annual Gaijatra function. Comedians, dancers, singers, and poem readers have been the participants in the function held once a year.

Anyway, we enjoy holding the Gaijatra festival once a year following the tradition. The young generation continues to mark this festival as vigorously as their predecessors have done. They will continue to celebrate this festival in the future too to open the door for the souls of dead loved ones to the ‘Yama Lok’ at the same time to enjoy the festivities.

Nepalis celebrated this festival on August 3, 2012 this year.

Updated August 4, 2020