Nepal is observing the Hindu festival of ‘Bada Dashain’ or ‘Vijaya Dashami’ from Monday, two weeks after ‘Gen Z’ protests rocked the country and led to toppling of the K P Sharma Oli-led Government. The festival commenced with the observance of ‘Ghatasthapana’, the ritual that sets the tone for the ten-day celebrations. During the rites, devotees across the country worshipped Goddess Durga and sowed maize and barley seeds in a clay pot to germinate ‘jamara’ (barley shoots), a key symbol of the festival. On the first day of ‘Dashain’, barley seeds called jamara are sown in a mud vessel while a metal vessel ‘kalash’ with water in it is kept beside it for a ritual known as Ghatasthapana.
In Kathmandu, the main jamara was placed in the centuries-old royal palace Hanuman Dhoka’s ‘Dashain Ghar’ at the auspicious time by performing a special Vedic ritual on Monday morning. With the Ghatasthapana, celebrations and prayers take place in all the Shaktipeeths or religious power centres across the country, including in the Kathmandu Valley. The barley seeds grow into jamara or barley shoots on the 10th day, the Vijaya Dashami day. They are offered with tika or vermilion powder mixed with rice and curd and applied on the forehead marking Vijaya Dashami festivities.
The ‘Bada Dashain’, which starts on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada or the first bright moon day as per the lunar calendar, extends up to Kojagrat Purnima, the next full moon day. People celebrate the festival by organising a feast and putting tika on their foreheads up to Kojagrat Purnima. Kathmandu becomes almost deserted as half of the people residing in the capital city return to their native homes in the countryside. In the past few days, around 200,000 people have already left Kathmandu for their destinations outside the Valley.
This year, people are observing the festivities in the aftermath of ‘Gen Z’ protests and the chaotic situation that followed it. At least one and a half dozen big malls and Bhatbhateni Supermarkets were burnt to ashes and many business houses were vandalised by the protesters due to their presumed political connections. Unlike the past, the markets in Kathmandu do not have a vibrant and lively look this time around. Last week, former chief justice Sushila Karki took charge as prime minister of the caretaker Government as the students’ two-day long protests.