WELCOME TO BHARATHAM MITTA

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To call The Mahabharatha a literary text is a heresy and to say that it is a scripture amounts to sectarianism. Then what it is? It is a part of life to us, the people of erstwhile North Arcot district of British India and to the southern parts of Chittoor district and the northern parts of Vellore district of the present times. Every village of this area contains a place called Bharatham Mitta and many of these places have a small temple of Dharmaraja which becomes the hub of the respective village in the months of May and June every year as it would be the setting for the Mahabharatha yagna.

It is hot summer when the mercury climbs over 40 degrees, the water level in the wells would get shrunk and the peasants would be waiting for rains. People of this area conduct the Harikathas  of Virataparva whenever there is draught and Nalacharithra when they fall on evil days as they believe that that  would bring   them good luck and happiness . Organizing Mahabharatha yagna every year may be an extension of the same belief. Like the Kurukshethra war which went on for 18 days and like the Mahabharatha which contains 18 parvas it is a festival of 18 days. Huge pandal would be erected before the temple and sand would be spread on the floor under the pandal to make the people who sit on it feel comfortable. The Mahabharatha is related in the form of a Harikatha by an exponent of that form of art during the day time.   On the other side of the pandal, facing the temple, a stage with mud platform, stone beams and a canopy of coconut leaves would be constructed in which the folk dramatic version of The Mahabharatha is performed during the respective nights.

Many Harikatha exponents were there in the different parts of Rayalaseema at one time though the number of them got decreased afterwards due to many factors like urbanization and lack of encouragement. My maternal great grandfather was a great exponent of Harikatha and the old generation of our place says that he had a sweet voice which was audible even to a mile as there were no megaphones at that time. A life size photo painting of him used to be there on the threshold of our house for a long time when I was a child but I don’t know what happened to it afterwards. But I still remember his majestic posture in a silk dovathi, flowing angavasthram, vibhuthi stripes on the forehead and shoulders, huge ear rings, golden kankanams to hands and anklets to the feet.  When we were children Harikatha exponents of Nellore and the costal districts were very much popular.

The wooden statue of Pothuraju, the brother in law of Pandavas according to a folk story, will be taken in procession to the surrounding villages to inform the commencement of the Mahabharatha yagna. The yajna begins on the appointed day, the Harikatha in the day and the respective story as a folk play in the night.  Before the beginning the statues in the temple, Sri Krishna,  Dharmaraja, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva , Draupadi and Pothuraju  would be worshipped and  then the statue of Pothuraju would be brought to the platform as the presiding deity of the Yajna. Every day of the eighteen days is allotted to an important part of the story. The importance of Mahabharatha, Bhartha’s birth, Bhisma’s  prathigna, Wax House, Bakasuravadha, Rajasuyam, Mayasabha, Pachikalu, Vasthraapaharanam, Vanavaasam, Gograhanam, Rayabaaram, Abhimanyu’s death, Karna’s death and finally slaying of  Duryodhana … it is the order.  Some of the events are celebrated as performances during the day after the Harikatha. Bhima’s journey to the cave of Bakasura in a cart filled with all kinds of food would be enacted as a live show after which the food would be distributed as prasada. A big toddy tree would be erected to which many branches would be arranged. It is called Thapasumaanu, the tree of penance. The actor playing the role of Arjuna climbs it singing padyas and songs requesting Lord Siva to present him Paasupatha. After reaching the top he drops lemons and Vibhuthi mounds among the people swarmed around it. People vie with each other to procure them as they believe that those things have divine power. Women who crave for children take a holy bath and prostrate there in wet clothes.  The looting of cows (Gograhanam) is the next important event when the cows and calves of the villages would be taken into procession. On the final day the killing of Duryodana would be performed. A huge figure of Duryodana would be made with mud as if he lies on earth and the actors personifying the characters of Bhima, Duryodana and Sri Krishna perform the play adjacent to that. After that people compete with each other to grab at least a pinch of the mud from the right palm of the figure of Duryodana as they believe that the wealth line of his right palm stretched like a male centipede and they would flourish well if they would keep that mud in their houses. They also believe that everything got nullified after the death of Duryodana and Dharmaraja had to rule nothing but a grave yard. (Afterwards I learnt that Andhras took the side of Kouravas in the Kurukshethra war. I believe that we have a strong sympathy for Duryodana and many of our popular books and movies vouch for it.  We might have retained that concern in the genes.)

The night Ata begins at 9 PM and goes up to 6 AM next morning. It is performed by a troop of players from Kangundi, a place near Kuppam . The play begins with the Chopudaar(Introducer) who announces the arrival of the kings and the make up some of the actors would be quite amusing as they wear sun glasses and wrist watches. Villages arrive there with their mats and blankets and many of them watch it lying on them and occasionally slipping into the sleep.

95 percent of the people of our village, Damala Cheruvu (Chittor district) are Muslims and all them used to attend the day story and night play in our childhood. All of them were well versed in The Mahabharatha story.  I was regular to all the day- stories along with my friends, obviously majority of them were Muslims. But our elders never allowed us to go there on the nights as we would be deprived of the sleep and then we had to skip going to the school next day. We prevailed on   them on Saturday-nights and managed to go to Bharatham-Mitta but soon slipped into the slumber and our grandmothers used to rebuke us forever for spoiling their happiness.

After some years we found that a number of gambling tents sprouted around the place during those 18 days and many men went there to sneak into them than to see the night-play. Moreover the organizing committee had to conduct auctions of them to collect money to meet out the expenses of the 18 day yajna. Thus the irony is that the gambling which the Mahabharatha vehemently denounces had become the only source to conduct it. But that is a different story and I will tell you that afterwards.  

                                                      -MADHURANTHAKAM NARENDRA

 (The writer is a bilingual short story writer, novelist and  poet, writing in both Telugu and English)

                                                                                                                                                         


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