Making of the Little Gods ~ My Photowalk Diary

The biennial Thakurani Yatra is going on in the silkcity of Odisha (formerly known as Orissa) in India. And you can see a world of changes in the cityscape and there are many a good things that one can notice about this yatra and one of them being the visuals of kids dressed as various mythological characters roaming in the various streets of the city on cycles, bikes and vehicles. Various characters like Krishna, Balram, Ram, Hanuman, Parshuram etc can be seen in most unexpected ways in the city. You can come across a human tiger cycling in the city while a little krishna is being taken home by his parents on the bikes, while Hanuman is walking in the streets.

The thakurani yatra, during which the reigning goddess of the silkcity maa budhi saantani comes to her parental home for a brief visit for about a month. And during this the citizens of the city visit the maa in her makeshift temple in the Desibehera street for paying their visit, devotion and to also to thank the goddess for her blessings. Some people however have an other way to do this by decorating themselves or their children in various mythological and some common characters and bring them to the temple. This a form of Manasika (a promise that the devotee makes to maa for blessing him or her that he or she will dress up or make his or her kids dress up as some gods or goddesses and bring them to the temple for blessings.

There are a dozen or more number of chitralays in city which cater to the needs of such devotees and they take the responsibility of dressing the kids and adults in different characters for some brisk business during this festival in city. Normally while these establishments charge about 200-300 rupees for dressing a kid as Lord Krishna, demand a whopping 800-1000 during this festivals.

The process of dressing the children begins with the children coming over to the Shop and then the experienced artists make up the kids to look like Krishna, Balram, Radha, Hanuman etc. And then some other artists put fitting clothes on the kids and they are good to go.

It takes almost 20-30 minutes to make up someone as Krishna or Radha and a little more for Hanuman and other characters. Some characters like Pilakhai Dahani may take upto a couple of hours and some more characters like Tiger may take almost half a day of time and labor.

The artists who have been decorating the people for almost decades are in need and demand during this festivals. And they make a good earning during the festival too. On an avarage a dozen or more number of kids come to each chitralaya to make up on the first few days of the festival and on sundays the number may reach half century or more and during the later part of the festival each day hundreds of people come to the chitralaya to make up.

This is a rich cultural tradition which has been popular in the silkcity for more than a century and the people who have been in the business of make up artists have been the silent spectator of the events.

This in future will also flourish as the devotion amongst people for Maa Budhi saantani will never end tells one of the eldest artists. Whatever may be the tradition is truly a beautiful one and it should be continued with the same spirit and devotion as it has been continuing for the last more than a century.