About the Nuakhai Festival:
Nuakhai
or Navakhai is an agricultural festival mainly observed by people of Western Odisha and Southern Chhattisgarh in India. Nuakhai is observed to welcome the new rice of the season. It is
observed on panchami tithi (the fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the
month of Bhadrapada or Bhadraba (August–September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. This is the most important social festival
of Western Odisha and adjoining areas of Simdega in Jharkhand, where the culture of Western Odisha is much predominant. The
word nua means new and khai means food, so the name means the
farmers are in possession of the newly harvested rice. It is a festival for the worship of food
grain.
Origin of the current form of
Nuakhai:
Although the origin of the festival
has been lost over time, oral tradition dates its back to the 14th century AD,
the time of the first Chauhan King Ramai Deva, founder of the Patna State which is currently part of Balangir district in Western Odisha. In his efforts
to build an independent kingdom, Raja Ramai Deo realized the significance of
settled agriculture because the subsistence economy of the people in the area
was primarily based on hunting and food gathering. He realized this form of the economy could not generate the surpluses required to maintain and sustain a
state. During state formation in the Sambalpuri region, Nuakhai as a ritual
festival played a major role in promoting agriculture as a way of life. Thus
credit can be given to Raja Ramai Deo for making Nuakhai a symbol of Sambalpuri
culture and heritage.
Deities that are offered Nua:
Every year, the tithi (day)
and Samaya (time) of observance was astrologically determined by the
Hindu priests. Priests sat together at the Brahmaputra 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 Saraswati 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.
Details of the rituals of Nuakhai:
The preparations begin some 15 days prior to the date of the festival when the elderly persons of the village sit together at a holy place after the beheren calls the villagers by blowing a trumpet. Then people get together and discuss with the priests the tithi and lagna (auspicious day and time) for Nuakhai. The priest consults the panjika (astrological almanac) and announces the sacred muhurta (a period of time equal to about 48 minutes) when nua is to be taken.
This part
of the preparations shows elements of both the original tribal festival and
elements of the Hindu religion. When the caste-Hindus migrated into the area the
local tribal people adopted the idea of an astrological calculation of the tithi
and lagna for the Nuakhai festival. In the same way, when the
caste-Hindus adopted Nuakhai from the tribal people, they introduced some
Sanskritic elements so as to make it more readily accepted by the caste-Hindus.
There was an attempt made during the 1960s to set a common tithi for the Nuakhai
festival all over western Odisha. It was decided this was not a workable idea. The idea
was reintroduced in 1991 to set the Bhadraba Sukla Panchami tithi for the
Nuakhai festival. This became successful and since then, the festival has been
celebrated on that day, and the Odisha State Government has declared it an official holiday.
Although for the sake of convenience a common auspicious day is set for
Nuakhai, the sanctity of the ritual has not lost its importance.