Magic and Mystery in Karpawand

Very few people travel in Chattissgarh and the guide book is thin on advice but it does encourage a visit to a tribal market or Haat. Being very remote and as ever on the hunt for unique experiences, I opted for a couple of DIY touring days including a day out to Chitrakote Falls, India's widest waterfall (which was a bit low on water this time of year).

My second day, however was with Awesh, a genuine and passionate guide. I had wanted to visit some handicraft villages but as luck would have it something very special was happening elsewhere, so I took Awesh's advice on how best to use my day with him and a rather opulent 4x4 and we set off on Thursday morning for Karpawand via a great dosa shop (Dosa is a South Indian breakfast which broadly consists of a crispy rice flour pancake stuffed with spicy potato/onion, served with a number of scrumtious dips).

Off the main highway it was the old capital of Bastar's haat (market) and tribal villagers from miles around were bringing in grains from the forests and their fields to sell to wholesalers, with this money they then bought what they needed for the week from other tribes people and a plethora of fabulous-if-rather-practical stalls. The closest thing to leisure or recreation represented at this market was hair slides! 

The most common item beyond food seemed to be water carriers and despite the fact that everything is carried on the head around here, terracotta was the overiding material of choice - a bit of a liability I thought!

The tribal people, largely women, were delightful and engaging and it felt a great honour to be able to converse via Awesh rather than just smile at them. They were really happy to be photographed and to show me what they were selling. I saw what I presume was calcium carbonate chunks for sale (Awesh said it was a mineral good for bad stomachs), I ate a bunch of channa (split peas) straight from the pod and tried puffed rice, split peas and Bobos which are deep fried potato and gram flour with a super spicy dip ...yum!

From Bastar haat we visited a temple which was oddly hindu in this animist land and carried on through cashew groves and pretty little villages towards Karpawand.

As we drew nearer, ribbons of luminous ladies with children and men on bicycles were being sucked into the centre of the settlement by some kind of human capillary action, our huge car was embarassingly incongrous, yet there were nothing but smiles and festive cheer cast my way once I climbed out into the sunshine.

Another market was in its full throes here, this time with a healthy dose of fun and frivolity. Bangle sellers and plastic toy stalls abounded although the dolls that these stalls sell are badly moulded hollow effigies of fat blond children in mini dresses which stare out boogle-eyed from acetate wrappers. I have had a few of these dolls waved at me by excited little girls since I arrived in India ...I hope its not becasue they think I look like them!

(Knutsfordians we are not alone - the Bastar region is also known for sanding outside their houses ahead of their drunken festivals!)

Beyond the market, which I left with a pair of lovely ankle bracelets to adorn my pretty Indian suit, was a shrine and a couple of men with a drum and a pipe, this was where the numbers were about to escalate and the action was about to take place...

By means of invitation, the priest of Karpawand a week previous had sent the leaves of a special bay tree to all of the surrounding villages and the priests of each of those villages had accepted the bay leaves, thus accepting an invitation to Karpawand's festival on behalf of their village's Godess. Having accepted, each village was then obliged to bring its godess to the festival along with a Laat or two and a load of entranced Dolis. Laats are long poles which represent all kinds of elements of life and spitituality and Dolis are the pole bearers who have a load of shamen, musicians and dancers with them some of whom were painted up in rice flour paste.

As the godesses (Empty tinsle decorated wooden boxes carried on more poles) arrived at the shrine housing Karpawand's godess, women would go and axe open coconuts and bless the godesses with the milk. I have seen bus drivers do this at shrines in some places too, apparently the inside of a coconut is pure because the husky outside ensures that it cannot be touched (and made impure) until it is used for a blessing.

The laats, dolis and their entourages kept proccessing in, I think about 20 villages must have attended and there were about 100 laats in total, 10 of which were heavily decorated tree trunks which were swung around the shrine area dodging the brand new electicity cables and almost wiping out several members of the excited growing crowd as the music continued to crescendo. The Dhol (big) and Tudbudi (small) drums created an underscore of frenetic beats which soon began to rouse the medicine men and dancers into trances, the Mohri (pipes) twisted and curled these men as a charmer plays his snake, the energy was truly incredible.

The entire gathering then formed a procession to the market square, dancing and trancing as it went. Being part of the procession was unnerving, I had my bum groped and the dancing men who were clearly off their heads were waving machettees about and cutting their chests all around me. I would have been able to just drink it in without a second thought but I had just been informed that these tribal people will regularly kill one another (even a brother) over a single rupee! I was glad that I had spent most of the day chatting with the ladies, on the sidelines of this madness.

In the square, more rituals ensued including a lot of compulsory hooch drinking at the apparent request of the godesses or some of the other sacred furniture. The medicine men, who were by now supercharged with the spitir of the godesses and exhausted from their trances, sat in their "god chairs" some of which had upturned iron nails as cushions (nice) and were hoisted high as the throng again paraded, this time disapearing into the market to spread the godesses blessings with the people.