Bhubaneswar: Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya urged the Centre to declare the weeklong Dhanuyatra festival of Bargarh as a national festival.
To make the festival more lively and attractive, a decision has been taken to select the actors to perform in various roles for which a selection committee has been formed. The committee would have the responsibility to nominate all actors of Mathuranagari.
“The festival of Dhanuyatra, a great mass festival held annually at Bargarh in Odisha is based on the noble deeds of Lord Krishna who symbolizes virtues and righteousness. Dhanuyatra depicts the story of Lord Krishna from the point of marriage between Devaki and Vasudeva until death of the tyrannical King Kansha in hands of Lord Krishna,” the MP from Odisha mentioned it in a notice in Rajya Sabha dated December 7, 2019.
During the 11-day long festival, Bargarh town will be decorated as Mathuranagari, the capital city of king Kansa, while Ambapalli will deck up as Gopapura, where Lord Krishna spent his childhood.
Kansa, who is the central character of the Yatra, will hold his Raj Durbar (king’s court) at Hatpada for seven days. Revealing significance of the festival, Acharya said that Dhanuyatra started in 1948 amidst the festive mood of India’s Independence to mark victory over unjust British rule i.e victory of Lord Krishna, the embodiment of truth, justice and righteousness over Kansa, who personifies arrogance, tyranny and wickedness.
As Dhanuyatra has mythological importance and cultural values, the parliamentarian demanded a national tag for the festival with adequate financial assistance.
PNN
