Puri: People across Odisha celebrated Kartik Purnima, the full moon day of holy month of Kartik, with religious fervor by setting sail to tiny boats in ponds and rivers.
People, cutting across age lines, started thronging the water bodies near their villages and towns with decorated tiny paper and banana-stem boats early in the morning to celebrate the festival. Before worshipping and setting sail to their boats, they were seen putting non-boiled rice, areca nuts, grass and lamps on their boats. Then they uttered the traditional lines, ‘aa kaa ma boi – paana gua thoi – paana gua tora – maasaka dharama mora’, while trying to sail their boats.
This scene was common at sea beach and Narendra tank in Puri; Daya river, Kuakhai river, Bindusagar tank and several other tanks on the premises of temples in Bhubaneswar; and all the river banks in the state.
On this occasion, devotees also made a beeline at Puri Jagannath temple to have glimpse of the deities. Widowed women, who had been camping at Puri for the month, ended their month-long ‘habisa’ ritual after having a darshan of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra.
While this festival has religious roots owing to the widely-held belief of piousness of Kartik month, the tradition of setting sail to miniature boats is to remember the ancient rich maritime heritage of Odisha.
Centuries back, the daring merchants of the state, known as ‘Saadhabas’ used to sail across the seas in boats to trade with the merchants of present day Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. The wives of the ‘Saadhabas’ known as ‘Saadhaba bohus’ would first sanctify the boats and worship it by breaking coconuts and pray for the safe voyage of their husbands.
PNN
