The Pendrani Yatra of Umarkote was held on Monday with great fervour and gaiety. A large number of devotees and tourists from all over the State as well as Chhattisgarh participated in the festivities. Security arrangement was beefed up for the yatra to avoid any untoward incidents.
People of a small village Pendrahandi worship the soul of Pendrani, a married girl who was a victim of secret jealousy of her own brothers.
According to a legend her husband was overtly pampered by her parents who made him stay in their household with no work to bother about. The four brothers out of sheer jealousy conspired and succeeded in killing her innocent husband and buried him in their field. Sensing a foul play, Pendrani could know the heinous crime and apparently jumped into her husband’s funeral pyre and perished in its flames. A few days later, her spirit was believed to roam in the village helping those who trusted her supernatural transformation.
People adore her sacrifice and worship her in a temple constructed at Umerkote. To pay reverence to Pendrani, locals observe a grand festival known as Pendrani Yatra.
Thus a new cult emerged as Pendrani goddess cult.
Though originated as a tribal goddess, Pandrani became the goddess of both tribal and non tribal communities in the socio-historical process of the region.
The inference of the Pendrani cult is a contestation of male predominance over the women and the whole ritual system adopted in the cult, celebrated by the males playing the role of female goddess, signifies the males subjugation to the woman goddess, thereby compensating the injustice inflicted on goddess Pendrani when she was an ordinary woman before her deification.