Nuakhai

NUANKHAI JUHAR

Nuakhai or Nuankhai (also known as Nabanna) is an agricultural festival mainly observed by people of western Odisha. Nuakhai is observed to welcome the new rice of the season. According to the Hindu calendar it is observed on panchami tithi (the fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada or Bhaadra (August–September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. This is the most important social festival of Kosala area in our Odisha. Nuakhai is also called Nuakhai Parab or Nuakhai Bhetghat. The word nua means new and khai means food, so the name means the farmers are in possession of the newly harvested rice. The festival is seen as a new ray of hope, held the day after the Ganesha Chaturthi festival. It has a big significance for farmers and the agricultural community. The festival celebrated at a particular time of day which is called lagan. Arisa pitha is prepared to celebrate this festival. When the lagan comes, the people first remember their village God or Goddess and then have their nua. Nuakhai is the agricultural festival of both the tribal people as well as the caste-Hindus. The festival is observed throughout Odisha, but it is particularly important in the life and culture of the tribal dominated area of western Odisha. It is a festival for the worship of food grain. It has its best celebration in the Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Balangir, Bargarh, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sonepur, Boudh and Nuapada districts of our state. According to local researchers Nuakhai is of fairly ancient origin. Some researchers found the fundamental idea of the celebration can be traced back at least to Vedic times when the rishis (sages) had talked of panchayajna, the five important activities in the annual calendar of an agrarian society. These five activities have been specified as sitayajna (the tilling of the land), pravapana yajna (the sowing of seeds), pralambana yajna (the initial cutting of crops), khala yajna (the harvesting of grains) and prayayana yajna (the preservation of the produce). In view of this, Nuakhai may be seen as having evolved out of the third activity, namely pralambana yajna, which involves cutting the first crop and reverently offering it to the Mother Goddess. In early years, there was no fixed day for celebration of the festival. It was held sometime during Bhadraba Sukla Pakhya (the bright fortnight of Bhadraba). It was the time when the newly grown Kharif crop (autumn crop) of rice started ripening. There are reasons for observing the festival in the month of Bhadrava even though the food grain is not ready for harvesting. The thought is to present the grain to the presiding deity before any bird or animal pecks at it and before it is ready for eating. In early traditions, farmers would celebrate Nuakhai on a day designated by the village headman and priest. Afterward, under the patronage of royal families, this simple festival was altered into a mass socio-religious event celebrated in the entire western part of our state. Every year, the tithi (day) and samaya (time) of observance was astrologically determined by the Hindu priests. Priests sat together at the Brahmapura Jagannath temple in Sambalpur and calculated the day and time. The tithi (date) and lagna (auspicious moment) were calculated in the name of Pataneswari Devi in the Balangir-Patnagarh area, in the name of Sureswari Devi in the Subarnapur area, and in the name of Manikeswari Devi in the Kalahandi area. In Sundargarh, Puja (worship) was first offered by the royal family to the Goddess Sekharbasini in the temple which is opened only for Nuakhai. In Sambalpur, at the stipulated lagna (auspicious moment), the head priest of Samaleswari temple offers the nua-anna or nabanna to the Goddess Samaleswari, the presiding deity of Sambalpur. Now-a-days I see this Nuakhai as a festival.not confined into only western Odisha but an universal function of rejoicing among the peasants’ communities all over our state. I offer my ‘Nuakhai Juhar’ to everybody and pray at Maa Tarini to bestow Her sweet blessings on my fellow farmer brothers and sisters in my Odisha so that the laughter on their leaps linger for ever. Again ‘Nuakhai Juhar’. I fail to conclude my post before mentioning the popular saying of Pt. Lal Bahadur Sashtry i.e. Jay Jawan,Jay Kishan.