observed mainly in the month
of March-April and saw an
amazing and quite natural
subversion of social conventions. Low
caste devotees of Lord Shiva
performed this penance, when
people swung from ropes with
an iron hook embedded into their backs.
In
1865, the practice of
'charak' (binding a person to a
hook and suspending him from
a high pole) was banned on grounds that it was a cruel
practice.
A week before the charak puja,
men of the lower orders wore
anklets around their necks, and
the sacred thread, went dancing
around grog shops, brothels, and courtyards of people's
houses to the beating of
drums. They went from house
to house gathering sannyasis,
ie, servants who would then
undertake the ritual penances associated with this festival. In the
evening, the children
thronged to see the Jhula
Sanyas when sadhus were
swung over bales of hay set on
fire. As the sky darkened, the
city looked altogether different, and then it was time
for the truth to emerge
surreptitiously, and the picture was not so clean to describe here.
However, enthusiasm getting lesser by the time and the festival at the
end of Bengali year being observed nowadays in Kolkata and Bengal like
a small fair, for a few interested in it.--
A. B.
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