Fairs & Festivals, Part VII-B, Vol-XIV, Rajasthan
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PRG. 172 B (N) 1,000 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME XIV .RAJASTHAN PART VII-B FAIRS & FESTIVALS c. S. GUPTA OF THE INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE Superintendent of Census Operations, Rajasthan 1966 PREFACE Men are by their nature fond of festivals and as social beings they are also fond of congregating, gathe ring together and celebrating occasions jointly. Festivals thus culminate in fairs. Some fairs and festivals are mythological and are based on ancient traditional stories of gods and goddesses while others commemorate the memories of some illustrious pers<?ns of distinguished bravery or. persons with super-human powers who are now reverenced and idealised and who are mentioned in the folk lore, heroic verses, where their exploits are celebrated and in devotional songs sung in their praise. Fairs and festivals have always. been important parts of our social fabric and culture. While the orthodox celebrates all or most of them the common man usually cares only for the important ones. In the pages that follow an attempt is made to present notes on some selected fairs and festivals which are particularly of local importance and are characteristically Rajasthani in their character and content. Some matter which forms the appendices to this book will be found interesting. Lt. Col. Tod's fascinating account of the festivals of Mewar will take the reader to some one hundred fifty years ago. Reproductions of material printed in the old Gazetteers from time to time give an idea about the celebrations of various fairs and festivals in the erstwhile princely States. Sarva Sbri G. D. Agrawal, M. Com., R. C. Bhargava, M. Com., B. R. Gulati M. Sc. (Anth.) and Shamsher Singh, M. Sc. (Anth.), Investigators of this office, have built up the series of notes on the fairs contained in this Volume. The note on the Gangaur festival has been contributed by Shri G. R. Gupta, M.A., LL.B., Senior Supervisor of this office, The line drawings are done by Shri L. R. Pendhar ker. Photography for this Volu.-ne was done by Shri P. C. Acharya and Shri B. R. Gulati which was supplemented by obtaining a few photographs from the State Director of Public Relations. Shri Sri Narain, Music Compiler of this office, prepared the staff notations of songs sung at various occasions. Dr. U. B. Mathur, Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations has helped me in editing this work while Shri S. R. Luhadia, Tabulation Officer bas seen it througb the press. I thank them all. I am grateful to Shri Asok Mitra, Registrar General, India and Dr. B. K. Roy Burman, Officer on Special Duty, who very kindly helped me at various stages of this work. Ram Bagh Palace Annexe C. S. GUPTA Jaipur Superintendent, I'st September, 1966. Census Operations, Rajasthan. CENSUS PUBLICATIONS for Rajasthan State The Rajasthan 1961 Census Publications, which will have volume No. XIV in All India Census series. will be published in the following parts :- Part I-A General Report. Part I-B Subsidiary Tables. Part II-A General Population Tables (A Series) and Primary Censu6 Abstract. Part II-B (i) Economic Tables (B Series, Tables I-IV). Part lI·B (ii) Economic Tables (B Series, Tables V- IX). Part II-C (i) Cultural Tables (C Series). Part n-c (ii) Migration Tables (D Series). Part III Household Economic Tables (B Series, Tables X-XVII). Part IV-A Report on Housing and Establishments. Part IV-B Housing & Establishment Tables (E Series). Part V-A Tables on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Part V-B Ethnographic notes on Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. Part VI-A to F Survey of Selected Villages. Part VII-A Survey of Selected Crafts. Part VII-B Notes on Selected Fairs & Festivals. Part VIII-A *Census Administration Report (Enumeration). Part VIII-B *Census Administration Report (Tabulation). Part IX-A & B Census Atlas. A separate District Census Handbook prepared by this office will be issued by the Government of Rajasthan for each of the 26 districts. II- Not for sale FOREWORD Although since the beginning of history, Court of Murshidabad as well as to the Bast foreign travellers and historians have recorded the India Company, the Supreme Court, etc ...... the principal marts and entrepots of commerce in Nabadwip Panjika under the imprimatur of India and have even mentioned important festivals Nabadwipadhipateranugya was accepted by all the and fairs and articles of special excellence available landlords of Bengal." This Nabadwip Panjika in them, no systematic regional inventory was which remained the standard almanac for Bengal attempted until the time of Dr. Francis Buchanan continued in use throughout the first half of the Hamilton in the beginning of the nineteenth nineteenth century and each issue contained a list century. One of the tasks set before him by a of important fairs and festivals in every district. resolution of the Governor-General-in-Council in A valuable almanac was that published by the 1807 was "to examine with as much accuracy as Vern;:tcular Literature Committee's Almanac local circumstances will admit": "an account of published in 1855-56 ( 1262 B.S.). It gave an the various kinds and amount of goods manufac- account of 309 famous fairs of Bengal in its tured in each district ...... the ability of the country second part. The Gupta Press Panjika or almanac to produce the raw materials used in them ...... _.. which virtually replaced Nabadwip Panjika made bow the necessary capital is procured, the its first appearance in 1869 and continued to situation of the artists and manufacturers, publish a useful list of important fairs and the mode of providing their goods .........._. festivals in the country. But this list was by no commerce: the quantity of goods exported means exhaustive nor were W. W. Hunter's which and imported in each district; the manner he published with each Statistical Account. of conducting sales, especially at fairs and markets." Meanwhile native crafts, industries and objects of artistey decayed rapidly and thoroughly That he discharged his duty very thoroughly as a result of the East India Company's policy of will appear from his statistical accounts of Mysore extinguishing them, and official interest in fairs and the northern districtll of Bengal and Bihar. and festivals declined, although these occasions, divested of much of their glory, stilJ continued to The great Revenue Surveys of the middle attract livestock, grain merchandise and handi of the nineteenth century made no attempt in this crafts from far and near. The Imperial Gazetteers direction, and accounts of fairs and festivals in published betwet:n 1880 and 19 I 0 gave a minor districts were neglected until W. W. Hunter took place to these important seasonal markets or up the compilation of statistical accounts again in temporary inland ports. Even the District the last quarter of last century. For the purpose Gazetteers, which still are the fullest and most of notifying holidays in the East India Company's compact accounts of districts, make but casual offices the Board in Calcutta had since 1799 been mention of fairs and festivals in the country and in the habit of "procuring an accurate Bengalee attach little economic importance to them. almanac properly authenticated by brahmanical astronomy" from the Nabadwip Court (letter from For, indeed, the importance of fairs and Secretary of Board of Collector of Nidiya, 5 July festivals-as the meeting ground of livestock and 1799, No. 8217, W. W. Hunter's Unpublished agricultural commodities of many religions and Bengalee MSS Records). Satis Chandra Vidya many cultures, crafts and motifs from far and bhusan in his History of Indian Logic wrote that near, of ideas and design, workmanship, excellence "almanacs were prepared by the Pundit Samaj of and finish, of tools and appJiancel, of trends of Nabadwip which were suppJied to the Nawab' the future and vanishing practices of the past, of adaptability and local variation, of skill and various forces working against them and a record imagination-declined with the punitive export of these rapidly vanishing fairs and festivals could policy of the East India Company and the be made only now as" never again in the future. unrestricted import of machine-made goods, so In the next place, the Census Office considered much so that at tbe close of the" last century fairs it its duty to sustain by a more searching survey and festivals were reduced to a matter of concern the interest that the publication had aroused. only for the Public Health Department. They were no longer regarded as important centres of A different approach suggested itself as the trade and commerct>, but were now from the new t:Hk was viewed in terms of collection of Government point of view merely a collection of extensive first-hand material on each fair and human beings among whom epidemics were to be fesHval It was necess3ry, therefore, in the first prevented from breaking out. Fairs and festivals place, to apprvach as many individuals as possible continued to be a matter of law and order and the in each local1ty, and not restrict the enquiry only Police Department and the District Board to Government or semi~Gvvernment sources, cotinued to maintain full lists of them in their Dep"artments or organisations. In the second local offices, a source which has so far remained place, a satisfactory questionnaire was considered unquarried. most essential. A number of aims were kept in view in framing the questionnaire. These Following the census operations of West were Bengal in 1951, a slim volume, containing a list of fairs and festivals arranged according to districts (a) The questionnaire should be very simple and their Police Stations, was brought out as part and precise in language, designed primarily f.)r oc" the West Bengal scheme of Census Publications.