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Adding steamy spice to Jagannath's journey

Bibhuti Mishra in Puri

In the Hindu pantheon Lord Jagannath is a unique deity. The god's earthiness is the most important aspect of his cult and this is most visible during the annual ratha yatra (car festival) which is being celebrated here today.

Among all the rituals associated with Jagannath the one that has kicked up quite a storm in recent years is the practice of the 'charioteers' singing 'holy' limericks during the deity's ritual journey from the temple to his aunt's house where he stays for eight days and returns on the ninth.

This charioteer is known as dahuka and his sexually explicit songs are known as dahuka geeta . According to popular belief no chariot would move an inch until the dahuka perched atop belts out songs full of ribaldry, naughty references and titillating allusions often accompanied by coarse body movements.

It is a hereditary profession. The dahuka , as per legend, was been born in a family of prostitutes. He got trained in his 'profession' by his father and he is supposed to pass it on to his progeny for whom travelling atop the chariots and seeing their father at work is the best way to pick up the trade.

The songs are loaded with rich local slang and the dahuka establishes a direct rapport with the onlookers with his famous cry of he bhagato (O devotees!), after which he goes on to mouth obscenities. A mild example would be: "do you see that girl there? She is my hotbag at night." And this is followed by a whole gamut of suggestive gestures.

No wonder many people, including some temple administrators, have taken strong exception to such bawdy songs in public. It is pointed out that since the celebration of ratha yatra is no longer confined to Puri the argument that without these songs the chariots would not move does not hold water, as nowhere else, not even at the ISKCON car festival, is this practice resorted to.

But the traditionalists vehemently oppose any ban saying it is a practice sanctioned by tradition and hence sacrosanct.

Debadatta Samant, an expert on the Jagannath cult, says that the practice might have originated as a form of encouragement to the thousands of devotees tugging at the heavy chariots. The sight of the charioteers and their lusty chorus might continue in the foreseeable future since the mass of devotees in their frenzied adulation of Jagannath cannot contemplate its being discontinued.

What do the charioteers themselves say? Says an old dahuka : ''the temple administration pays us a meagre amount and some land is also allotted to us. But the land is unsuitable for cultivation. We are very badly off but we are known as the charioteers of Lord Jagannath and our service to the Lord is our passport to heaven. It is an age old practice that we are carrying forward."

Many of them are not very happy with their sons carrying on in this field but with unemployment so rampant anything that keeps hunger at bay is not to be disdained. A ban on this ritual, however, could become a blessing in disguise if they are absorbed by the temple administration in some other capacity.

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