Nagoba Jaatara: The Grand Tribal Festival of the Mesaram Clan
Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival held in the little village of Keslapur in the Inderavelly Mandal of the Adilabad district in Telangana, India. It is the country’s second-largest tribal carnival and is celebrated for almost 10 days by the Mesaram clan of the Gond tribes. Communities from across the states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh participate in the festival, offering prayers and paying fine reverence to their highly regarded deity, Nagoba. This festival quite literally electrifies this small village in the Adilabad district of Telangana in India.
Nagoba Jatara Celebrations and Rituals
The festival opens with tribal priests conducting the sacred abhishekam to the Nagoba idol at the temple in Keslapur. They use holy water that has been fetched from the Godavari River, located 70 km away, in Jannaram Mandal. This ritual is very much like what the priests do for a king when he is about to be crowned. This purification of the temple with water from the Ganges (Ganga Jal, as it is called in Hindi) is allowed to happen only once in a lifetime for an idol.
One of the most sacred rituals is the placement of the ‘Jhari’, a water container that is 1,400 years old, just before the commencement of the puja. It is a group of Gond and Pradhan elders who fetch the holy water from Hastina Madugu, a revered spot on the Godavari River. They are welcomed traditionally under an old banyan tree.
Bheting Ceremony: Introducing New Brides into the Clan
An important tradition of Nagoba Jatara is the Bheting ceremony, where newly married Gond women are formally introduced into the clan. The Raj Gond Adivasis of Adilabad follow this elaborate ritual to bring new daughters-in-law into their community. Those who were married in the previous year must go through Bheting to meet the clan deities and become eligible to enter the deity’s temple.
Dressed in white saris, the women are now called Bheti Koriad, marking their entry into the clan. They offer naivedyam in bamboo baskets filled with freshly harvested food grains. The bamboo symbolizes the strong relationship the Gonds have with nature, while the naivedyam indicates their gratefulness for a bountiful harvest.
Cultural Festivities: Music, Dance, and Tribal Traditions
Nagoba Jatara comprises many cultural celebrations filled with over 15 types of tribal dances.
One of the major highlights is the Gusadi Dance, performed by Gond tribal dancers, which draws thousands of spectators.
Traditional tribal folk music is performed by pilgrims and priests at the entrance of the Jangubai cave temple. The temple is located in the hilly forests of Kota-Parandoli, Kerameri Revenue Mandal.
Festival women participate actively in the preparation of food and the grinding of grains, taking on as well the traditional responsibility of providing lunch and dinner for all those involved in the festival. This work is done communally, and is done with an eye not only to flavor but also to making the food sit lightly in the stomachs of those who eat it so that they can keep the spirit of the festival alive. There is work to be done, and it incurs energy. Light is good.
Nagoba Puja: Worship of Persa Pen, The Great God
The great festival culminates with the Mahapuja of Nagoba, also known as Persa Pen, which translates to Great God. This highly revered nighttime ritual marks the initiation of the yearly tribal fair, where thousands of devotees gather to obtain blessings and protection from their ancestral deity, Nagoba.
Nagoba Jatara is more than a religious gathering; it is an event that celebrates all that is Gond. This wonderful celebration is not just about the few days of festivities around the god Nagoba; it is also a reminder of the virtues of communal living that were extolled in ancient times. These virtues are preserved in the Mammalapuram texts that are a little more than 5,000 years old (Keshyap 2014). As the Gond words for ‘festival’ (bhakqa in Gondi) and ‘dance’ (thunli in Gondi) remind us, dance is central to the lives of Gonds, and any true celebration that honors Gond traditions will have lots of dance.
1. Gonds also revere their ancestors.
2. The tribal group (the word ‘tribe’ is an outdated description) consists of a little over a million people, most of whom live in India.
3. The festival lasts for almost a week.
4. Rituals, well-stocked offerings to the god, vibrant dances, and music (some 40 different types of musical instruments are used) are part of the festival.
