In a view to create awareness about Sanja festival of Malwa region among city locals, the artists defining Malwa culture in a 'Sanjha Phooli' workshop underway at Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum crafted Kel image, (Banana tree) of gyaras or aikadashi on canvas with coloured paper stripes and cow-dung and recited songs related to the festival in the Museum on Monday.
Sanja festival prevalent in many parts of India, including Madhya Pradesh is the most creative aspect of rural culture of Malwa region. This festival is celebrated by young girls in honour of a goddess named Sanja. During the pitra - paksha (the fortnight of the ancestors), young girls emboss various motifs on the canvas of cow-dung every day. The festival of faith and belief to bless with good married life and further happiness is turned into fortnight programme of singing and making motifs for sixteen days. To make motifs attractive, they are made in relief style with the help of fresh cow-dung are decorated with flowers, bright and colourful stripes of paper. On one side this festival represents religious faith and while on other is form of entertainment. Here making of Kel image on gyaras of pitra-paksha is considered as good symbol and has special significance in Sanja.
Every evening, the girls belonging to the same locality gather to offer prayers in front of prepared motif and sing song in praise of the goddess. In today's cultural presentation of folk song- the artists recited song- 'gadi neeche jiro boyo' expressed, Sanja brought ornaments for her but by seeing this, her mother-in law got annoyed. The other song- 'mai cot chada chad jhanku' defined enchanting and adorable relations for her brothers.