PRO. 2IS-B. (N) 1000 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME VIII MADHYA PRADESH PART VII-B HANDICRAFT SURVEY MONOGRAPHS No.2 FAIRS AND FESTIVALS BY K. C. DUBEY Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations Madhya Pradesh AND M.G. MOHRIL Research Investigator Census Operations, Madhya Pradesh 1965 PUBLISHED BY mE MANAGER OF PUBLICATIONS, DELHI-8 Price: Rs. 7.50 P. or 17 Sh. 6 d. or $ 2.70 C. i PRINTED BY SINGHAl MOJILAL &. SONS. JABALPUR 1961 CENSUS PUBLICATIONS, MADHYA PRADESH (All the Census Publications of this State will bear Volume No. VIII) PART I General Report including Subsidiary Tabl~. (in Sub-Parts) PART II·A General Population Tables. PART n·B Economic Tables. (in Sub-Parts) I PART n·c Cultural and Migration Table~!I. (in Sub-Parts) PART III Household Economic Tables. PART·IV Housing and Establishments Table (including Subsidiary Tables) (in Sub·Parts) and Report. PART V Special Tables for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. (in Sub-Parts) PART VI Village Survey Monographs. (A separate Sub-Part for each Village surveyed). PART VII Survey of Handicrafts of the State. (A separate Sub-Part for each handicraft surveyed). PART VIlI·A Administration Report-Enumeration. PART VIII·B Administration Report-Tabulation. PART IX Maps. CONTENTS Foreword i-iii Preface v -vi List of Vikram Sam vat Months and corresponding English Months vii PART I LIST OF IMPORTANT FAIRS AND MELAS Gwalior Division 1-8 Morena District - Bhind District - Gwalior District - Datia District - Shivpuri District - Guna District. Rewa Division Tikamgarh District - Chhatarpur Di~Vict - Panna District --Satna District - Rewa District - Shahdol District - Sidhi District. Indore Division 16--27 Mandsaur District - Ratlam District -. Ujjain District - Jhabua District - Dhar District - Indore District - Dewas District - West Nimar District _,. East Nimar District. Bhopal Division ... •.. Shajapur District - Rajgarh District - Vidisha District - Sehore District - Raisen District - Hoshan~abad District - Betul District. Jabalpur Division Sagar District - Damoh District - Jabalpur District - Narsimhapur District­ Mandla District - Chhindwara District - Seoni District - Bala~~at District. Bilaspur Division Surguja District - Bilaspur District - Raigarh District. Raipur Division Dur~ District -, Raipur District - Bastar District. PART II- LEGENDS ABOUT SOME FAIRS Gwalior Division Lachandas Baba ka Mela - Nagaji ka Mela - Nagra Deo ka Mela - Hira Bhumia ka Mela - Chhigga Shah ka Mela - Ramlila fair - Son Talaiya fair - Kali ka Mela - Unao Fair (Legend about Sun Temple) Unao or Baramju - Peer Budhan ka Mela - Jageshwari Devi ka Mela - Tejaji ka Mela. Rewa Division Mela Abda Pir - Mela Bhadra Kali - Mela Chomukh Nath - Brihaspati Kund ka Mela - Kardameshwar Nath ka Mela -, Hafizji ka Urs - Mela Kashtahar Nath - Mela Bhaya Sokhar Devi - Kali Mai ka Mela - Maha Mrityunjaya ka Mela­ Hanuman and Parvati fair - Shivratri Fair (Amarkantak) - Chandi Devi ka Mela. 11 Indore Division Urs Baba Shahabuddin Saheb Aulia - Baba Saheb ka Mela - Fair Chehallum Hus­ sain Tekri - Tejaji ka Mela - Yatra Gal Merooji - Atniaram Baba ka Mela - Dewadas Baba ka Mela - Kaluji Maharaj ka Mela - Dattatraya ka Mela - Singaji ka Mela - Mela Deojhiri - Melao Sunab Deo - Mela Shankarji - Musekhan Walli ka Mela - Somhar Dev Baba ka Mela - Bageshwari Oevi ka Mela - Mandhata fair. Bhopal Division 68-71 Mela Shri Baijnath Mahadeo - Garibnath Baba ka Mela - Miyanpur fair - Bhilat Baba ka Mela - Kana Baba ka Mela - Fair Bhilat deo - Ramji Baba ka Mela - Bhilat Baba ka Fair (General) Sant Deoji ka Mela - Malajpur Fair Muktagiri Fair - Kajli Fair. Jabalpur Division Dhamoni Urs - Pir Mardon Tunga Baba fair - Burman fair - Sokalpur fair­ Bohni Fair - Jhiria Fair - Baretha Fair - Got-mar Fair - Shrasti Fair - Matha Ghoghra ka Mela - Bandar Chooha ka Mela - Mundara Fair. Bilaspur Division 75 Shankarji ka Mela - Belpan Fair - Chhuri Fair - Pithampur Fair. Raipur Division Banbarda Fair - Malgighori Fair - Champajhar Fair - Khalari Fair Rajim Fair - Bilai Mata Fair .:_ Pahanda Fair - Ghadia Oeo ka Mela - Mela Bhingaram Dokra - Pendrawandrin Devi ka Mela. PART III FESTIVALS Bhai Dooj 81-83 Bahura-Chouth 83-85 Karwa-Chouth 85-87 Halshasti Festival 87-92 Sheetla Ashtami 92-94 Jagannath ji ki Katha 94-97 Kajri-Navmi 97-99 Worship of Gajbeej 99-100 Gaura 100-103 Gana-Gour 103-104 Dasahra lOS-III Diwali 111-113 Bhagoria-Hat 1I3-II4 Koqsar II5-II6 Appendices i-xi Glossoary . i-ii FORE\VORD Although since the beginning of history, foreign travellers and historians have recorded the principal marts and entrepots oft commerce in India and have even mentioned important festivals and fairs and articles of special excellence available in them, no systema­ tic regional inventory was attempted until the time of Dr. Francis Buchanan-Hamilton in the beginning of the nineteenth century. One of the tasks set before him by a resolution of the Governor-General-in-Council in 1807 was "to examine with as much accuracy as local circumstances will admit": "an account of the various kinds and amount of goods manufactured ih each district ...... the ability of the country to produce the raw materials used in them ..... how the necessary capital is procured, the situation of the artists and manufacturers, the mode of providing their goods ...... commerce: the quantity of goods exported and imported in each district; the manner of conducting sales, especially at fairs and markets." That he discharged his duty very thoroughly will appear from his statistical ac­ counts of Mysore and the northern districts of Bengal and Bihar. The great Revenue Surveys of the middle of the nineteenth century made no attempt in this direction, and accounts of fairs and festivals in districts were neglected until W. W. Hunter took up the compilation of statistical accounts again in the last quarter of last century. For the purpose of notifying holidays in the East India Com­ pany's offices the Board in Calcutta had since 1799 been in the habit of "procuring an accurate Bengalee almanac properly authenticated by brahmanical astronomy" from the Nabadwip Court (letter from Secretary of Board to Collector of Nadiya, 5 July, 1799, No. 8217, W. W. Hunter's Unpublished Bengalee MSS Records). Sati~ Chandra Vidya­ bhusan in his History of Indian Logic wrote that "almanacs were prepared by the Pundit Samaj of Nabadwip which were supplied to the Nawab's Court of Murshidabad as well as to the East India Company, the Supreme Court, etc. ..... the Nabadwip Panjika under the imprimatur of Nabadwipadhipateranugya was accepted by all the landlords of Bengal". This Nabadwip Panjika which remained the standard almanac for Bengal conti­ nued in use throughout the first half of the nineteenth century and each issue contained a list of important fairs and festivals in every district. A valuable almanac was that pub­ lished by the Vernacular Literature Committee's Almanac published in 1855-6 (1262 B. S.). It gave an account of 309 famous fairs of Bengal in its second part. The Gupta Press Panjika or almanac which virtually replaced Nabadwip Panjika made its first appearance in 1869 and continued to publish a useful list of important fairs and festivals in the country. But this list was by no means exhaustive nor were W. W. Hunter's which he published with each Statistical Account. Meanwhile native crafts, industries and objects of artistry decayed rapidly and thoroughly as a result of the East India Company's policy of extinguishing them, and official interest in fairs and festivals declined, although these occasions, divested of much of. their glory; still continued to attract livestock, grain, merchandise and handicrafts from far and near. The Imperia] Gazetteers published between 1880 and 1910 gave a minor place to these important seasonal markets of temporary inland ports. Even the District Gazetteers, which still are the fullest and most compact accounts of districts, make but casual ,mention of fairs and festivals in the country and attach little economic importance to them. For, indeed, the importance of fairs and festivals - as the meeting ground of livestock and agricultural commodities, of many religions and many cultures, crafts and motifs from far and near, of ideas and design, workmanship, excellence and finish, of tools and appliances, of trends of the future and vanishing practices of the past, of adapta­ bility and local variation, of skill and imagination - declined with the punitive export policy of the East India Company and the unrestricted import of machine-made goods, so much so that at the close of the last century ,fairs and festivals were reduced to a matter of concern only for the Public Health Department. They were no longer regarded 11 as important centres of trade and commerce, but were now from the Government point of view merely a collection of human beings among whom epidemics were to be prevented from breaking out. Fairs and festivals continued to be a matter of\ law and order and the Police Department and the District Board continued to maintain full lists of them in their local offices, a source which has so far remained unquarried. Following the census operations of West Bengal in 1951, a slim volume, con­ taining a list of fairs and festivals arranged according to districts and their Police Stations, was, brought out as part of the West Bengal scheme of Census Publications. This list was mainly made up of information supplied by District Boards and Superintendents of Police 'of districts. The two lists were collated to make up a comprehensive list containing seve- ral columns: the name of the village arranged under its district and Police Station, with its Jurisdiction List number, the name of the festival or fair by which it is commonly known in the locality, the English month of the year in which it is held, the duration of the festival or fair, and finally the number of persons attending it. Although merely a list, and not quite complete at that, this volume attracted attention and received the apprecia­ tion both of scholars and the general public.