The Load Bearer

According to legend, Bangalore’s well-being depends on one man with good balance

For one night every April, the goings-on at Bangalore’s main square reminds the city’s residents of a nearly forgotten past. The Karaga festival, a community event that goes back 800 years or more, is steeped in mythology and esoteric rituals that reverberate through the old city areas. The festival derives its name from the dance performed by a person who balances a decorated pot called Karaga on his head and moves through the streets without touching it. It is said that a divine power helps him balance it. An army of sword-wielding warriors follows him closely with a brief to behead him in case the Karaga, balanced precariously on the bearer’s head, falls. In the history that people remember, no sword has been bloodied this way.

SN Indira, who is overseeing this year’s festival, says there is oral evidence that the tradition has been celebrated for the last 800 years or more, ever since the Dharamaraya temple, where the ritual begins and ends, was built.

Historians hold that the origins of the festival lie in The Mahabharata. Popular belief has it that when the Pandavas, along with their wife Draupadi, were going to heaven, a demon called Timirasura moved menacingly towards Draupadi. She manifested herself as Shakti (Shakti Devi) and created an army to kill the demon. These soldiers were called Veerakumars.

Soon after, as Draupadi continued her journey to heaven, the devoted Veerakumars begged her to stay back. She made a promise that she would stay with them for three days before the full moon in the first month of the Hindu calendar every year. Karaga is celebrated to mark this time.

Vijayalakshmi, a resident of the old city, says she has at least 70-80 visitors every Karaga night, as the terrace of her two-storey building is the best place to witness the procession from.

A married member of the local community is chosen to carry the kalasha (pot) dressed as a woman. The Karaga-bearer removes his wife’s mangalsutra (a mark of a married woman), wears it himself and lives in a secluded place at the beginning of the festival. At the festival’s conclusion, the chosen one is united with his wife in a marriage ceremony.

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Anil Budur Lulla