Kakatpur: Jhoti drawn on road for about one km during the Dola Festival in Patapur village in Kakatpur area of Puri district in Odisha. This feature makes the Dola Festival of Patapur unique.
There are many festivals in Odia tradition. Most of these traditions come from the matha and temple traditions, while the festivals are rooted in spiritual consciousness. Dola Festival is one of them.
Dola festival is celebrated in the month of Phaguna. While there are many mathas and temples in the state, the deity worshiped there is taken out of the temple once a year in the month of Phaguna and placed in a palanquin and taken to different villages, Sahis and Padas.
Radha Madhav, who is taken out of the temple in the palanquin, visits from door to door and gets worshipped by the devotees. The deity also gets offering from the devotees.
This Nagara Parikrama of the deities commences from the Phagu Dasami Day to continue till Dola Purnima. Later, the Dola Melana begins.
While this ancient tradition is getting extinct in many places, in the Patapur village of Kakatpur area, a unique kind of Dola Festival is observed. This is organised by the Patapur Ashram.
On this occasion girls of the village wash the road from the Dola Melana field to the Laba Kusha Ashram, a patch of about one kilometre. Later in the evening, the palanquins (called Dola Bimana) are gathered at the Barunei pitha.
The villagers of Patapur have started efforts to continue this tradition. As soon as the evening sets in, multiple palanquins arrive at the shrine of Devi Maa Barunei, the prime deity of Patapur village. Decked up with colorful lighting, the palanquins look very attractive.
Kakatpur Tehsildar and IIC of Police Station grace the occasion as the chief guests.
The guests are escorted to the Dola Melana field by the villagers amid traditional music, dances and fire crackers. The guests reach there and offer prayers to the Dola Bimanas. After that, the melana parba begins. Amid sound of various traditional music and dance, the palanquins along with the established deities are taken to the Labakush Ashram in a grand procession.
All the villagers of Patapur happily participate in the Dola Festival. They escort the palanquins to the Dola Mandapa of their village. This festival is well known as a traditional festival of Patapur village.
Ms Kalinga