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| The Old Time View Of Jeypore Dasara |
The great event of the year in jeypore was the Dasara feast,which lasts for sixteen days and includes several ceremonies in honour of the goddess Kanaka(golden) Durga whose temple is within the palace walls.
Sheep and goats are sacrificed on each of the first thirteen days of the Dasara,and on the fourteenth some buffaloes as well.On that day,which is known in consequence as the Bodo Uppano(great offerings) day,the Maharajah,dressed in white ,himself visits the goddess's shine and then holds,from a white thnone,a darbar which is attended by the bollo-loko(courtiers) and lampatas(servants) and others,while the senior Maharani(called the patta Mahadevi) does the same after him,receiving bhets(presents) from the ladies who attend.
On the sixteenth,or sanno Uppano(little offerings) day the Maharaja,who,this time,is dressed in scarlet,worships the goddess in the darbar hall of the palace and holds,from a scarlet thrones, a darbar at which bhets are offered.Neither of these thrones are used except at the Dasara.It is customary for the Maharajah's feudal retainers to to come into jeypore with their followers to pay their respects at this second darbar, and many of inams and mok ha sas in the estate(see,for example ,the account of Bissemkatak above) have been granted on the express condition that the grantees do this annual service.
On the eighteenth day, preceded by the goddess Kanaka-Durga and a flag which was captured long ago from the troops of Baster in one of the many skirmishes which took place with that state,the Maharajah and his son,seated in ambaries on elephants and followed by the European and other officials of the place in hawdahs on other elephants,go in procession to the Dasara podia in the mango grove north on the town.These worship is paid to the goddess by the Maharajah and afterwards the crowd processed to shoot a brinjal on the top of a long bamboo.This custom is followed at Dasara all over the Northern circars and the country west of them,and is supposed to symbolise the general rejoicings which took place when Durga succeeded in overcoming the buffaloheaded demon Mahishasura.
On the sixteenth,or sanno Uppano(little offerings) day the Maharaja,who,this time,is dressed in scarlet,worships the goddess in the darbar hall of the palace and holds,from a scarlet thrones, a darbar at which bhets are offered.Neither of these thrones are used except at the Dasara.It is customary for the Maharajah's feudal retainers to to come into jeypore with their followers to pay their respects at this second darbar, and many of inams and mok ha sas in the estate(see,for example ,the account of Bissemkatak above) have been granted on the express condition that the grantees do this annual service.
On the eighteenth day, preceded by the goddess Kanaka-Durga and a flag which was captured long ago from the troops of Baster in one of the many skirmishes which took place with that state,the Maharajah and his son,seated in ambaries on elephants and followed by the European and other officials of the place in hawdahs on other elephants,go in procession to the Dasara podia in the mango grove north on the town.These worship is paid to the goddess by the Maharajah and afterwards the crowd processed to shoot a brinjal on the top of a long bamboo.This custom is followed at Dasara all over the Northern circars and the country west of them,and is supposed to symbolise the general rejoicings which took place when Durga succeeded in overcoming the buffaloheaded demon Mahishasura.
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