Seven days monarchy festival begins in Tripura

Agartala, Jul 22: The seven days of the traditional monarchy festival began today in Tripura with the august guard of honour to uncrowned Raj Chantais (Head Priest) on the occasion of Kharchi worship in Old Agartala, some 13 km from the city.

The ceremonial worship started with the holy dip of head-images of 14 Hindu deities in River Howrah.

Despite incessant rain, hundreds of Hindu devotees, both tribal and non-tribal, took holy baths at the Kharchi ghat as part of the rituals on Shukla Asthami, which symbolises peace, harmony and fraternity.

Kharchi is one of the popular festivals of Tripura in which all people, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, participate. It comprises the chanting of mantras by the head priest and the ritual sacrifices of animals.

In this festival, the people offer Puja to 14 deities, namely Hara or Shiva, the destroyer in the Hindu trinity, Uma or Durga, the consort of Shiva, Hari or Vishnu, the preserver, Maa or Laxmi, the consort of Vishnu and the goddess of prosperity, Vani or Saraswati, the goddess of learning, Kumar or Kartik, the god of war, Ganesh, the god of wisdom, Chandra or the Moon, Brahma, the creator, Abadhi, the god of ocean or water, Ganga, Agni, Kama and Himadri or the Himalaya.

The peculiarity of the Kharchi festival is that only the heads of these gods are worshipped, which begins with the sacrifice of 108 goats.
Earlier, the heads were carved out of stone. Later, however, Maharaja Kalyan Manikya, one of the kings of Tripura, had them created out of an alloy of eight metals. Initially, these images were placed at the Sunderbans and finally, after the construction of the Chaturdasa Devata temple, the images were shifted at Old Agartala.

Another special feature of this puja is that these deities are kept locked in a room throughout the year and it is only during these seven days that they are brought out and the devotees can have a glimpse of them.

UNI