#AtoZChallenge - Karaga

(This month, each day, except the four Sundays, I will be blogging about interesting features associated with Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, as part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge)

This is a very old festival of Bengaluru, probably dating back at least two centuries.

Celebrated with pomp and enthusiasm on the full moon day in March-April, it commemorates the annual return of Draupadi (one of the central characters in the Indian epic Mahabharata) to visit her warrior sons.

Though originally it began as a festival of the Tigala community (of gardeners), today it cuts across all sects.

THE PROCESSION

One of the main elements is the procession in which the priest balances the floral pyramid atop the Karaga (an earthen pot), the contents of which is believed to have divine powers. The centre of the festival is the Dharmaraya Swamy temple at Tigalarapete, one of four shrines in the city dedicated to Draupadi and Pandavas.

Dharmaraya Swamy Temple.
Image credit: Wikipedia

The priest carrying the Karaga.
Image credit: The News Minute

The carrier, who is selected six months before the festival, is a man who is dressed as a woman symbolising Draupadi. In fact, during those six months of preparation, he disassociates himself from his family and undergoes strict training.

There are Karaga festivals in other towns but the one in Dharmaraya Swamy temple (also knowns as Bangalore Karaga) is the most popular. The procession passes through various parts of the area where large crowds of people worship the Karaga.

COVID SHADOW

Last year, for the first time living memory, the Karaga celebration -- which normally sees hundreds of thousands of people take part -- was curtailed to a few rituals within the temple with just 13 people in attendance.

It's not going to be any different this time, with the country and more specifically Bengaluru seeing a huge spike in the number of people testing positive.

(Tomorrow, we head to one of the most popular and historical gardens in Bengaluru.)

REFERENCES

Bengaluru's Karaga Festival: Folk Origins and Rituals, by Roshini Muralidhara