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CHARAK FESTIVAL
The last month of the Bengali year is Choitro. It is the usual Spring time in the Indian periodic context. The festivity breathes high as nature dress outs in cheerful greeneries all around. The season brings cuckoos’ ecstatic songs about the bounties and opulances of nature.

The spontaneity of life does not stop in nature but. It trickles down to human conditions where it finds methodical proclivity to joyous fulfillments. It can be realized as Choitro unfolds and preparations run high to celebrate Charak Puja amid deep and rhythmic beating of drums accompanied by the enthusiastic musicians divided in small groups, wearing the outfits of Hindu deities; Shiv, Durga, Kali, demons and hermits. They exihibit mythical performances going from one house to another in towns and villages. During the month people remain witness to these group of musicians called Charak Sanyasis visiting door to door and seeking donations to perform puja on the day of Choitro Sankranti also known as Mahavisubh Sankranti or Mesh Sankranti. The dance drama sort of performance features Shiva’s dance, Kali’s slaying of demons, the fight between gods and demons etc. Among these Shiva’s dance is a popular art form, which in common parlance termed as ‘Shiver gajon’.

Charak Puja is celebrated in Barak Valley,West Bengal, North Bengal, Bangladesh and Tripura. In North Bengal Charak Puja is identified as Gajon Uthshava or Gomvira. In West Bengal it is coined as Nilpuja as the whole activity centers round worshipping Nil Shiva. In Assam Tripura and Bangladesh it is popularly known as Charak Uthshava. An important note on the festival is that Charak Puja cannot be performed in a house or within the precincts of a building. It is not performed in residential vicinities, but preferred on open grounds, fields etc. Moreover it is prevalent in areas dominated by the schedule caste Bengalees particularly.

On Charak Sankranti, people bid adieu to the departing year observing the festival zealously, while giving warm welcome to a new year on the next morning hosting colourful programs unique in style and keeping absolute differences with the former mode of celebrations. Importantly but, as Charak is celebrated in Barak valley, Rongali Bihu is celebrated splendidly in BhrammaputraValley at the same time almost.

Charak is an an ancient tradition. Charak Sannyasis who remain associated with the puja practice chastity throughout the month of Choitro, till the last day. During the month, Charak Sannyasis restrict themselves to vegetarian diet and that too once in a day. For a month they retract to ascetical life; practicing self mortifications rigorously. Moreover a Charak Puja is performed under the active surveillance of an experienced Charak sannyasi in the line of Charak tradition ; a person who has seen many pujas in his life time, himself adequately trained and served the tradition sincerely. Generally a humble man ; recognized as a sadhu or a saint in the society.

A sadhu elaborated that in order to learn the niceties of Charak Puja, he was under the tutelage of an older sadhu for eight years in a jungle in austere practices to attain powers or siddhi. For long eight years he abandoned the comforts of a normal householder life; laid upon the bare ground as bed, ate only fruits and boiled vegetables in a day and maintained sexual restraints severely. Moreover chanted mantras innumerable times under adverse circumstances, like in winter sinking on chest in the cold waters and in summer seated in the middle surrounded by burning logs from all four sides. In course of strenuous practices he countered terrible things spiritually, but remained undaunted. The sadhu said that the austere practices included pranayams and yogic exercises in addition to the chanting of mantras and also that the final attainment of siddhi varies from person to person with reference to time, because some may achieve it in shorter length, while others could take more time to achieve siddhi or the spiritual powers.

The Charak Sannysis not only dance on the mythological themes of Shiva-Shakti but display extraordinary feats and techniques like rubbing forcefully sharp swords on each other’s tongue and hitting hard with choppers on the opponent’s belly, neck etc without causing least injury. The sannyasis take part in dance on the sharp and heavy choppers at night as the main attraction of Kali dance. The human replica of Kali also exhibits her strength and prowess by wielding sword and dancing on burning embers. Indeed by the power of mantra and tantra, the impossible tasks become possible in easy and convenient ways to the practitioner sannyasis. The people connected with the rituals are poor and they trust in the power of mantra and tantra for their safety and immunities.

The human replica of Kali manages to keep herself unhurt behaving frantically on sharp choppers; jumping and dancing on the raised weapons in front of the naked eyes of people. In the total exercise but none gets hurt and not a drop of blood oozes out of any wound. However the mock fight draws immediate public attention to the integral Charak culture, who donate liberally to their fund to continue the show to its consummation in Charak Puja at the end of Choitro. The tradition of Charak Puja is all about worshipping the Charak tree, thought to be the abode of lord Ardhanarishwar. An idol of Ardhanarishwar along with the tree are worshipped at a time during the Puja. Ardhanarishwar is a combined entity of Shiva andShakti in the world. An incarnation of PURUSH AND PRAKRITI in the deity, indicating that the human life co-exists with nature and one is indispensable for the sustenance of the other.

Normally a Charak tree grows 30 to40 feet high and does not have too many branches. The tree appears long and straight and is scarcely distributed in nature; only 2to3 pieces are hardly discovered in the forest areas sometimes. The charka tree after being worshipped is duely immersed in the river waters. After immersion the tree is believed to revisit next year at the same ghat, wherefrom the charka sannyasis bring it back to the ground of puja necessarily.

Charak tree is divine from the traditional and ritualistic point of view. The Sannyasis and their guide; the sadhu keep vigil on the tree from its invocation and puja to the immersion in river, because the tree is a personalized deity in the form of Lord Ardhanarishwar and is spiritually sensitive. It is believed that any chance contact with unchaste matter in human touch or otherwise may debar it from reappearing next year in the identified part of the river, due to contamination.

Next, the Charak Puja performed in the area is sanctified and then protected by fencing, where the Charak tree is installed religiously. People who attend the festival pay prostrated obeisance to the tree from outside the protected area. The Charak Sannyasis and the sadhu are the only people who can enter into the prohibited area as they observe month-long penance and qualify themselves categorically to execute any holy task attached with Charak Puja.

The Sannyasis while observing penance invoke to the Charak tree to come above the water from secret location and enable them to perform puja. It is believed that the tree remains in nearby areas in the river; immersed previously and usually remain available for the execution of rites. But any outer contact with desecrate thing push it to unknown destination. The experienced sannyasis under the circumstance offer special prayers to the Charak tree and Lord Ardhanarishwar to protect their tradition and prosperity by appearing in another tree. The prayer continues till the sadhu receives divine grace through dreams etc. People believe that divine instructions appear in dream to the sadhu telling about the place of tree’s occurrence, wherefrom it can be obtained. Following the instructions then, the tree is conveyed from forest to the site of puja and placed in the protected area lighting candles, burning incense sticks and paying floral tributes to the deity. The next dawn initiates with the songs and dances in praise of Lord Ardhanarishwar and the Charak Puja is celebrated in traditional discipline amid public enthusiasm and merriment.

Again the assemblage of people from all strata of society at Charak Puja ground lead to a fair like scene. People from near and far off places who come to visit the festival also enjoy the fair. The fair or mela enable small businessmen in making profit by selling pan, gutka, masala badam and the images of gods and goddesses to the visitors who become their customers on the day at the Charak Puja ground. The opportunity is availed by the younger generation inclined to attract attention of the opposite sexes in the covering frolic atmosphere.

However the main attraction of Charak Puja remains in piercing sharp hooks at the bodies of participating sannyasis without any cut or injury. The bloodless piercing of sharp metals in human body is undoubtedly a match-less tantric performance by the practitioner sannyasis. That the performers suffer no pain or agony is really surprising. The tantrics explain it as an act of stomvon, which allows piercing to happen painlessly. Stomvon in this case is like the application of anaesthetics in surgery, to the extent of preventing pain only, and moreover it does not allow blood to flow out of the practitioner’s body also. The quintessential part of Charak Uthshava thus occur before the conclusion of puja with all the stepped up activities in piercing, Urran, sacrifices etc. to its final consummation in the immersion of the Charak tree.

The excitement of Charak Puja gradually unfolds when large hooks of solid and sharp iron penetrate the back of four or five sannyasis; specially trained for the purpose. The penetrated hooks( at the back ) are tied to the long ropes by which they are hanged from a pole, placed horizontally at the top notch of the Charak tree. The hook held men then fly in circular path; by the ropes fastened to the pole, called ‘Urran’. The flying men catch the flying pigeons, sacrificed by people, and bite off the birds’ heads from their bodies, to suck the raw blood from the estranged necks of those dead birds. The blood-smeared faces of the men in ‘Urran’ look ghastly in the dark hours of evening, marking the climax of Charak puja. The puja at the stage is loaded with a kind of cruelty that the children cry in fear and the adults shiver; apprehensive of the anguish of a living bird.

Next there is a burial scene; a sannyasi is pitted in front of the crowd and kept in the grave for two to three hours, i.e more than enough time for a person to die due to suffocation. Surprisingly but, death does not come to the sannyasi performing the ritual in Charak puja because, as the man is raised from his grave later in full public glare after the elapse of his survival time compulsorily the man remains alive and fully conscious of the activities going around and involving him. He remains medically fit and active completely.

These extraordinary instances of tantric and yogic practices among the Charak sannyasis are the distinct elements in Hindu customs and ceremonialities, which need careful preservation to pass on to the progeny later. It can be noted that utmost acceptances in the society are yet to be felt about the Charak culture though many extraordinary features constitute the basic intake of Charak puja. In Charak system one finds the materialization of religious beliefs; the impossible feats come together in lucid and convenient ways to the practitioner sannyasi using the tool of mantra and tantra. It not only supports the enjoyment reeling round a puja, but more than this, as it can convert an atheist temperamentally to a theist by the power of faith deeply ingrained in its cult. It indoctrinates the idea that man and nature co-exist, and one influences the growth of the other in addition to the complementariness; that the man in his ascetical role stands strong and nature is often re-laid to augment his pleasure.

Lastly the puja concludes with the immersion of the charak tree in the river water, with sincere prayers so that the tradition continues year after year without any interruption and the blessings of Lord Ardhanarishwar is sought for the benefit and prosperity of the race.