PRG. 141. B. (N) (Ordy.) 850 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME XV UTTAR PRADESH PART VII-8 FAms AND FESTIVALS IN UTTAR PRADESH General Editor P. P. BHATNAGAR of the Indian Administrative Service Superintendent qf Census Operations, Uttar Pradesh By R. I. VERMA of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service Deputy Superintendent of Cens!JS Operations PRINTED IN INDIA BY THE SUPDT., PRINTING & STATIONERY, U. P. AT THE TECHNICAL PRESS (PR.) LTD., ALLAHABAD AND PUBLISHED BY THE MANAGER OF PUBLICATIONS, DELHI-8 1966 Price (Inland) Rs. 6'00 (Foreign) 14 sh or 2 $ 16 cents. CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 Central Government Publications Census Report. Volume XV-Uttar Pradesh is published in the following parts:- I-A (i-ii) General Report I-B Report on Vital Statistics I-C (i-iii) Subsidiary Tables (in 3 books) II-A General Population Tables II-B (i-vi) General Economic Tables (in 6 books) II-C (i-v) Cultural and Migration Tables (in 5 books) III-A Household Economic Tables III-B Household Economic Tables (concluded) IV-A Report on Housing and Establishments and Housing and Establishment Tabl es (E-Series Tables-except E-III) IV-B Housing and Establishment Tables (E-III) V-A (i-ii) Special Tables for Scheduled Castes V-B Reprints fro1)l old Census Reports and Ethnographic Notes VI Village Survey Monographs (Monographs on Selected Villages) VII-A Handicraft Survey Reports VII-B Fairs and Festivals in Uttar Pradesh VIII-A Administration Report on Enumeration (for official use only) VIII-B Administration Report on Tabulation (for official use only) IX Census Atlas of Uttar Pradesh X Special Report on Kanpur State Governm.ent Publications 540 Volumes of District Census HandhGoks CON'l'EN1'S Page FOREWORD PREFACE iii I. Fairs in Uttar Pradesh District Uttar Kashi Chamoli 6 Pithoragarh 8 Tehri Garhwal 12 Garhwal 16 Almora 22 Naini Tal 22 Bijnor 26 Moradabad 28 BudaWl 38 Rampur ... 42 Bareilly 46 Pilibhit 50 Shahjahanpur 54 Dehra Dun 58 Saharan pur 58 Muzaffarnagar 62 Meerut 64 Bulandshahr 68 Aligarh 72 Mathura 74 Agra 82 Etah 88 Mainpuri 90 Farrukhabad 96 Etawah 100 Kanpur 104 Fatehpur 110 Allahabad 118 Jhansi 124 Jalaun 128 Hamirpur 132 Banda 138 Kheri 142 Sitapur 146 Hardoi 152 Unnao 156 P(Jge District 162 Lucknow 164- Rae Bareli 168 Bahraich 170 Gonda 176 Bara Banki 180 Faizabad 184- Sultanpur 186 Pratapgarh 190 Basti 194 Gorakhpur 196 Deoria 198 Azamgarh 206 Jaoopur 214 Ballia 218 Ghazipur 228 Varanasi 234 Mirzapur ll. Festivals Festival 243 Sheetla Ashtmi 243 Ram Naunll 243 Baisakhi Purnima 243 Bargadee Arnavasya 243 Jyaistha Dussehra 244 Guru Purnima 244 Nag Panchmi 244 Raksha Bandhan 244 Harchatya or Halshasti 244 Krishna Janam ABhtlIli 245 Hartalika Teej 245 Gallesh Chaturthi 245 Anant Chaturdashi 245 Piu'a Visarjan Amavasya 245 Durga Naumi or Navaratri 246 Dussehra 246 Karva Chauth 246 Diwali 247 Gobardhan Puja 247 Bhaiya Dooj 247 Devuthan Ekadashi 247 Kartika Purnima 247 Sakat Chauth 248 Makar Sankranti 248 Basant Panchmi 248 ShiVlatri 248 floli 249 Buddha Purnima Festival Page Mahabir Jayanti 249 Guru Nanak's Birthday 249 Ramzan (Id-ul.Fitr) 249 Id-uz-Zuha 250 Muharram 250 Chellum 251 Barawafat 251 Shab-e-Barat 251 New Year's Day 251 Good Friday 252 Easter 252 Christmas 252 1lI. Maps Map of Uttar Pradesh showing Fairs with congregation of 25,000 and above Facing Page 1 Map of Uttarakhand Division showi.ng Fairs wIth congregation of 10,000 and above 1 Map of Kumaon Division ., " " " " " I Map ofRohilkhand Division " " " " " Map of Meerut Division " ., I " " " " " Map of Agra Division " " " " I Map of Allahabad Division " " ~ 238-239 " " " " " " I Map of Jhansi Division " " " " " " Map of Lucknow Division I " " " " " " Map of Faizabad Division " " " " " " Map ofGorakhpur Division " " " " " " Map ofVaranasi Division " " >l " " " J FOREWORD Although since the beginning of history, foreign crafts from far and near. The Imperial Gazetteers published travellers and historians have recorded the principal between 1880 and 1910 gave a minor place to these impor­ marts and entrepots of commerce in India and have cven tant seasonal markets or temporary inland ports. Even mentioned important festivals and fairs and articles of the District Gazettcers, which still are the fullest and most special excellence available in them, no systematic region~l compact accounts of districts, make but casual mention inventory was attempted until the time of Dr. FranCls of fairs and festivals in the country and attach little econo­ Buchanan-Hamilton in the beginning of the nineteenth mic importance to them. century. One of the tasks set before him by a resolution For,indeed, the importance of fairs and festivals-· of the Governor-General-in-Council in 1807 was "to as the meeting ground of livestock and agricultural com­ examine with as much accuracy as local circumstances modities, of many religions and many cultures, crafts and will admit": "an account of the various kinds and motifs from far and near, of ideas and design, workmanship, amount of goods manufactured in each district ... the excellence and finish, of tools and appliances, of trends ability of the country to produce the raw materials used of the future and vanishing practices of the past, of adap­ in them ... how the necessary capital is procured, tability and local variation, of skill and imagination­ the situation of the artists and manufacturers, the mode declined with the punitive export policy of the East India of providing their goods ... commerce: the quantity Company and the unrestricted import of machine-made of goods exported and imported in each district; the maIUler goods, so much so that at the close of the last century fairs of conducting sales, especially at fairs and markets." and festivals Were reduced to a matter of concern only That he discharged his duty very thoroughly will for the Public Health Department. They were no longer appear from his statistical accounts of Mysore and the nor­ regarded as important centres of trade and commerce, thern districts of Bengal and Bihar. but were now from the Government point of view merely The great Revenue Surveys of the middle of the a collection of human beings among whom epidemics nineteenth centUry made no attempt in this direction, Were to be prevented from breaking out. Fairs and fes­ and accounts of fairs and festivals in districts were neglec­ tivals continued to be a matter of law and order and the ted until W. W. Hunter took up the compilation of statis­ Police Department and the District Board continued to tical accounts again in the last quarter of last century. maintain full lists of them in their local offices, a source For the purpose of notifying holidays in the East India which has so far remained unquarried. Company's offices the Board in Calcutta had since 1799 Following the census operations of West Bengal in 1951, been in the habit of "procuring an accurate Bengalee a slim volume, containing a list of fairs and festivals almanac properly authenticated by brahmanical astrono­ arranged according to districts and their Police Stations, my" from the Nabadwip Court (letter from Secretary of was brought out as part of the West Bengal scheme of Board to Collector of Nadiya, 5 July 1799, No. 8217, Census Publications. This list was mainly made up of W. W. Hunter's unpublished Bengalce MSS Records). information supplied by District Boards and Superinten­ Satis Chandra Vidyabhusan in his History of Indian Logic dents of Police of districts. The two lists were collated wrote that "almanacs were preparcd by the Pundit Samaj to make up a comprehensive list containing several columns: of Nabadwip which were supplied to the Nawab's Court the name of the village arranged und!':r its district and of Murshidabad as well astothe East India Company, the Police Station, with its Jurisdiction List IT.mber, the name Supreme Court, etc ............. the Nabadwip Panjika of the festival or fair by which it is commonly known in under the imprimatur of Nabadwipadhipateranugya was the locality, the English month of the year in which it is accepted by all the landlords of Bengal". This Nabadwip held, the duration of the festival or fair, and finally the PJnjika which remained the standard almanac for Be~gal number of persons attending it. Although merely a list, continued in use throughout the first half of the mne­ and not quite complete at that, this volume attracted teenth century and each issue contained a list of impor­ attention and received the appreciation both of scholars tant fairs and festivals in cvcry district. A valuable and the general public. Its general value lay in its being almanac was that published by the Vernacular Literature a compendium and its particular value lay in presenting Committee's Almanac published in 1855-6 (1262 B. S.). a distribution throughout the country of particular festive It gave an account of 309 famous fairs of Bcngal in its occasions. The Superintendent of Cmsus Operations second part. The Gupta Press Panjika or almanac which for West Bengal, who continued in an honorary capacity, virtually replaced Nabadwip Panjika m~de its first appear­ was piled from time to time with requc'sts to undertake an ance in 1869 and continued to pubhsh a useful Itst of cxtcnsive survey of the subjcct which seemed to accord important fairs and festivals in the country. But this well with the Superintendent's own personal desire. For list was by no means exhaustive nor were W. V·i. Hunter's one thing, quite a few of the old and traditional fairs and which he published with each Statistical Account. festivals of West Bengal are on their way to extincticn on Meanwhile native crafts, industries and objects of account of various forces working against the,m and a artistry decayed rapidly and thoroughly as a result of the record of these rapidly vanishing fairs and festivals could East India Company's policy of extinguishing them, and be made only now as never again in the future.