User:Almithra/Okuli

Okuli is a celebration in the state of Karnataka in which the upper caste men sprinkles colours on Dalit women.

Practice
As per custom, Okuli festival should be celebrated every year in Shravan the fifth month according to Hindu calendar, which generally falls during August-September. Regional people believe otherwise it will not rain, pests grow, diseases spread and satanic troubles grow. Having such fears Dalits fall prey to such acts in the name of traditions.

During Okuli, the Dalit women should remove their blouses and wear an Andugachche (the garment above the knee caps tightly hemmed and tucked into the waist band), the saree should be worn to cover the waist and the loose end of it should come over the head. These women hold many long branches of lakky tree [Vitex negundo]. These branches are of three to three and a half feet length and thin and shaky at the tip. There will be another troop against them consisting of non-dalit, non-brahmin men. Even they wear andugachche. They carry on their shoulders a big sack coated with sticky raala and sere. Even now one can find the ruined ponds in front of some temples. Okuli is played around ruined ponds. Men bring the colored water [turmeric and vermilion powder mixed] in their sacks and splash it over the women. The women try to escape from this and beat them with the long branches in their hands. This is a sort of traditional game.

Prevalence
Okuli is still celebrated in Karnataka