A sketch of Lumbini development

Pachali Bhairav's assembly and victory* celebration

Razen Manandhar

The legend has it that Pachali Bhairav lived in Pharping with his family. It is believed that he was in love with a butcher’s widow who lived near Teku. Bhairav used to visit her by evening in human guise and stayed till dawn to fly to Kashi he and take a purifying dip before returning to his kingdom.

 The widow's inquisitive neighbours inquired her about the regular visitor. Because the neighbours compelled, she finally pleaded him to give his introduction. Bhairav tried to eschew it put he was obliged to show her his real face. Before that, he gave her some rice grains and said, “Don’t be afraid. After seeing me, throw it at me and I will become normal.”

Bhairav came up with Hercules-like size, stretching from heaven to hell. Alarming, the woman ran away with the rice grains in her hand. Bhairav followed her with a feeble hope that she Would bring his guise back, just be disappointed.

It became a bright morning and he had to hide himself in a haystack near the Bagmati river. The Woman is known as Ajima and their love son is the giant three-eyed deity seated on Bet. He carries trident, hand-drum and wind bowl and wears a moon over hair bunch, a snake, a garland of human skulls, and elephant-skin robe around his giant body. The artists have depicted his image in metal, wood, stone as well as boiled rice for tantric representations. Pachali, derived from the system of Panchali, is one among his dozens of aspects formulated by tantrics of the Kathmandu valley.

By the divine order, King Gunkamdeva built the Kathmandu city by 10th century and established the temple of Pachali Bhairav. Bhairav came and promised that he would visit him every twelve years and exchange the double-edged sword so that the king could possess the divine strength. The exact date of the commencement of this dance is still unknown. Yet, it is believed that the early King Amar Malla (1538 - 1560 AD) started this festival (or made it public). Legends aside, this is undoubtedly one among a few ancient stories, dramas or operas being played after a long gap but still, drawing the Nepalis’ as well as tourists’ attention each time. Besides this, there are twelve-year- festivals with similar dances from Thecho, Shikali (or Khokna), Bhadrakali, Holchok and some others too.

The mask dance is still awaited in the capital. People feel happy to have seen the auspices of charming dance being performed at traditional stone paved stages (dabuli),  or by roadside in front of temple etc. For the whole year the troupe, members of a particular traditional organization with above 30 members called guthi, becomes busy to give continuity to this pre-historic art of performance. ,

Preparation

On the dark night of Asadh, the chief leader and the chief priest of the guthi visit the Royal Palace with four balls of beetle nuts called gue-dan, for His Majesty’s permission to star the rehearsal.

Then the characters are i selected. All the to-be-dancers pray for success at the temple of Pachali Bhairay. This is the start of their 'divine life’ - the role-names are given to them, For the whole period, they bathe every day and eat only 'pure' foods. In the guthi house at Jyabahal, the elders repeat and the newcomers (who are to replace their elder family members) learn the basic steps as well as the mantras.

Bekhaman Mali, one of the caretakers of the troupe, says that it is not enough but God helps them. He adds the learning process is extremely difficult and the disciples must remember the power of God. The protagonist’s role-player throws a feast at his home in the meantime and at midnight, secret puja is organised with animal sacrifices.

On the seventh day of Vijaya Dashami, the role-players of Bhairav, Ajima, Barahi, Kumari and Ganesh take bath, formulate the Dancing God Nrityanath into a water pot, hold puja at night and go to five different peeths (surrounding temple sites of the protecting Goddesses) in which five species are sacrificed. On the ninth day, the masks are brought from a particular artists’ family and decorated at the peeth. The pujais followed by the procession of the dancers to the ancient Royal Palace.

 

Exchange of sword

On the tenth day of Vijaya Dashami, the dancers with weapons, dazzling new dresses, heavy ornaments, garlands and of course colourful masks, visit the ancient palace and exchange their swords with the king. This takes place amid the tumultuous night, encircled by various traditional musicians, dancers as well as the loving king.

 

Performance

Then the series start. Before they appear, Ganesh gives black tika over the dancers’ foreheads and the masks. This makes them ready for the show. The first chance always goes to the residents of Bhimsensthan where King Amar Malla (the Thaku jujoo) used to reside. The regular performing stations are Bhimsensthan, Jyabahal, Hanuman Dhoka, Wotu, Naxal, Hadigaon, Chikamugal, Maru, Wonde, Tebahal and others.

 

The dance

The mask dance of the Gathus (the Newars family of floriculturists) deals with Pachali Bhairav, Ajima, Ganesh and many others in which the dancers enliven mythologies with colourful dresses , hypnotizing masks and rhythmic steps that activate along the traditional drums, norns and cymbals. Thej once-in-twelve year event has religious, cultural as well as aesthetic angles to analyze.

It comprises of twelve members: Bhairav (blue robed); Kumari, Barahi, Ajima or Chamunda (red robed); Rudrayani, Ganesh (white robed); Indrayani or Manmaiju (orange robed) Bramhayani (yellow robed) and Beshnovi (green robed). Among them, Rudrayani and optional character Shwet Bhairav are vegetarians. White robed Singhini and red robed Byangini guard the assembly. Moreover, the character of [Mahalaxmi] is not played and her small mask is hung with a stick. It is believed that opening of her eyes on the mask will lead the termination of the world.

One complete performance takes around 24 hours. Generally, it starts at late evening with a group dance. Then Pachali Bhiarav resumes puja dance that goes on till midnight. Including Bhairav-Ajima duet, almost all the characters present solos that may last for several hours. They exercise the most part of their bodies and each step has symbolic meaning.

They keep quivering and stay in a way hypnotized until they wear the mask and belt of tiny bells "ghangla" around their calves (a dancer says he does not feel he quivering and he himself does not believe he dances for hours). All the characters have different postures, steps and role in the group show. The dances convey the superiority of their existence in the world and on the other hand they pay homage to the goddess Navdurga, represented by a water-filled copper pitcher. The opera-like series of dances culminate with killing of the demon by Ajima. Then the mother goddess celebrates the victory by distributing rice wine and snacks to the participants as a housewife. Earlier, Sacrifices of buffaloes, sheep or ducks are done and the dancers, in spell, suckle the fresh blood right from the veins. They swallow dozens of crude eggs either.

Meantime, the comic interlude of Singhini and Byanghini adds much lighter touch in the dance. They quarrel and then start loving - they comb and feed each other affectionately. They ask for donations from the audience and those who tease them are to be punished lightly at the middle of the stage. Similarly, Barahi's distributing snacks to the audience also denotes some hints of participatory theory of the post-modernism.

 

The end

After performing the dance fora score of time, on the last day, that falls on July 6 (Bhalbhal Astami), a mysterious puja is resumed to tranquilize the gods, making the dancers virtually dead for anight. 53-year-old helper of the group Bhekhaman Mali, the Dho- Phomi Nayo, relates the cryptic happenings. On that night, all the dancers are decorated and brought at Dalachhi. A kind of special rice, known as see-ja (means rice for dead ones) is thrown at them and all becomes unconscious, as if dead. A complete funeral ritual is held for them and taken to Teku ghat. The guru comes and a sprinkle of water with mantra wakes them all up. A Mystic puja is done and the dancers place their maks on the pyre. The character for Bhairav sets the crematory fire on the masks. After four days, they all mourn for the death of the masks and thus the whole series of twelve-year-festival ends.

This article was published in The Kathmandu Post on 1999 July 4

*It was printed "viceroy" by mistake

 

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