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Patankodoli Festival

India is a land of festivals with every region having many festivals popular across the country. Some of them are Ganesh festival of Mumbai, Rajasthan’s Pushkar Camel Fair, Brindavan Holi, Durga Puja from Bengal and Kerala’s Thrissur Pooram. However, many other festivals though popular in their own local region are generally unknown due to lack of adequate marketing. One such festival is ‘Shri Vitthal Birdev Yatra’ celebrated in Patankodoli village of Maharashtra.

I learned about this festival through ‘My India Adventures’ and my plan was set for Oct11-12. Patankodoli is about 16 Kms from the famous city of Kolhapur. The festival derives its name from the much-revered Shri Vitthal Birdev Temple situated in this village and is held annually between Dusshera and Diwali. During the festival many devotees from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh visit the temple to worship, seek blessings and enjoy the good times.

Normally, I gather some information about the place before visiting it for better planning but this time I decided to surprise myself…it just adds to the excitement. On Oct 12, after a round of delicious steaming hot breakfast (no compromise on that please! 😉) our group started for Patankodoli at 7:30am and reached the village in an hour. I could feel the good vibes of the festival with busy streets, smiling happy faces and vibrant colours in the environment. The atmosphere was straight from my childhood days when we often visited such fun-fairs. Fortunately, passage of time has not affected the tradition in Patankodoli.

This festival offers a good mix of religious rituals and various cultural programmes. Villagers enthusiastically participate in devotional songs, dances and musical activities. All artists were showered with love and appreciation by the spectators lifting the performance to their best. It was remarkable to observe immense respect and bonding amongst people leading to happiness all around.

Atmosphere was colourful but one colour was dominant…Yellow of turmeric. There was no person who was not covered with yellow from head to toe. Every footstep left its mark on the turmeric that was now new top layer of the terra firma. Every breath was laden with the fragrance of turmeric which is significant in Hindu culture. It is symbol of Sun which is a key source of life on Earth. Turmeric also has medicinal properties that helps to keep diseases at bay.

The main attraction of the festival is arrival of Pharande Baba – the spiritual guru of local farmer and shepherd communities. He walks a distance of about 240 Kms in about 21 days from Anjangaon in Solapur district to Patankodoli. Baba arrives along with his disciples and takes shelter in the temple. Since dawn devotees start flowing in and within 3-4 hours thousands of villagers could be seen surrounding the temple to seek his blessings. I had never seen such a large gathering of people and it was commendable of Kolhapur Police to keep things under control.

At around 1:15pm, Baba arrived at the centre of the Temple lawn for his famous Hedam dance ritual. In this ceremony, Baba who is considered as a messenger of God is said to go into a trance, dancing with sacred sword of the community to seek blessing from the Almighty for welfare of everyone. This is one of the various rituals performed all over the world to connect with God. After 15 minutes of Hedam dance, Baba went back to temple and the devotees also dispersed allowing land to be visible again. Many of them were collecting turmeric from the ground as Prasad which they would use for religious ceremonies and medicine. Business activities which had taken a break during the dance ceremony promptly resumed.

I was left thinking that these simple villagers don’t aspire for too much in life but are happy. They also take time off from their busy schedule to celebrate cultural and religious functions as one community to keep their age-old traditions alive. What power keeps them together. All the rituals and festivities are only a medium to keep this bond strong. I feel this power originates from the basic need of every human being to be an integral part of society, to have good friends and to share happiness with others. We are after all social animals and love to spread a smile. Mutual co-operation and exchange of ideas is also important for social, economic, cultural, religious and intellectual development of human race. Our ancestors would have realized this core truth and devised such festivals with balanced combination of entertainment and religion to bring people together as one. Surely, many festivals will find their genesis in this concept. The world is moving at a fast pace where traditional methods of community bonding are being replaced by electronics. While it is necessary to keep moving on with changing times, we should maintain connections with our roots that have keys to the mystery of life. Patankodoli festival sets an example to fulfil this responsibility…