Thousands of cattle sacrificed during Bada Yatra

Koraput, Feb 25: More than a thousand cattle have been sacrificed at 'Bada Yatra', along the 70 km road while visiting the four principal deities at the Malkangiri temple, near here, for the past five days.

The festival, which commenced from the original abode to the temple town of Malkangiri, witnessed a horrific scene of blood and gore as sacrifices were made to appease the deities.

As per traditions, the Kondh, Paraja, Koya, Bonda, Bhumia and Gadava tribes in Malkangiri district bring out the principal deities Kanamraju(Krishna), Balaraju(Arjuna), Potaraju(Bhima) and Mutulaumma (Durga) in a colorful procession to appease the principal goddess, Mutulaumma, with much fanfare covering about 70 km distance to observe the Bada yatra festival every year.

All the four deities were taken out amid chanting of mantras by tribal heads from near Manayamakonda last Wednesday.

As the deities passed the villages, the locals sacrificed cattle heads in every step to get blessings of the deities as they believe that the gods require as many as one lakh cattle heads during the festival.

About one lakh tribes of the state along with Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal thronged to witness this unique yatra of sacrifices.

The sight of 'trantriks' (sorcerers) drinking the blood oozing from the cattle heads to get 'super power', was spine chilling.

The deities who reached Malkangiri today after travelling the last six days, would be kept in a religious place and the special rituals would continue for next four days.

The district police administration had made elaborate arrangements keeping in view the presence of Naxalites during the yatra. About four platoons of armed forces have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident, officials said.

UNI