Aashish Mishra

Panauti is the centre of attraction this month. The city is hosting the famous once-in-12-years Makar Mela this Magh. But while Makar Mela may be the biggest festival of the city, it is not the only one. One of the most important festivals is Jya Punhi or Desh Jatra where Panauti residents pay homage to their main protecting deities Indreshwor Mahadev, Bhadrakali, Unmatta Bhairav and Brahmayani. Similarly, this historic town also plays host to a number of visiting festivals, of which, the Harisiddhi Pyakha and the Nava Durga Pyakha (Pyakha means dance) are especially noteworthy because they serve to show the special relationship, even extending to the point of kinship, Panauti shares with the people and the settlements of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

To understand this relationship, first let us shed light on a bit of history. Long ago, before the Kirants and the Mahispals ruled the Kathmandu Valley, perhaps even before the Gopals, there were a group of settlements around two kilometres northwest of present-day Panauti collective called the Jela Desh (country). These were thriving communities with flourishing economies, intricate social hierarchies and divisions of labour. Life was good in Jela Desh and it remained good for centuries until one day, a disaster struck. The author of this article was not able to determine exactly what disaster decimated the prosperous country but conversations with the locals of Panauti and some elders of Harisiddhi revealed that it may have been an earthquake or fire or an outbreak of cholera.

Whatever the disaster was, it destroyed Jela completely. The country was rendered uninhabitable, its residents believed that it had been forsaken by the gods. So, those who ruled the settlements decided to move. But move where? Many did not want to leave the area. After all, this was the place of their ancestors, this was the only place they had ever lived in. Therefore, deciding not to leave the larger sphere of Jela, they decided to move to a nearby location under the shadow of Kunjagiri on the banks of two life-sustaining rivers Leelawati (Roshi) and Padmawati (Punyamata).

Many others though wanted to go as far away from the city that they now considered cursed. One group migrated to Bhaktapur and settled around what is today the square of the Dattatreya Temple. This group named their new abode Jela after the country they came from. To this day, the locals of Bhaktapur refer to some of the alleys beside the Dattatreya Temple as Jela Tole or Jela Galli, galli is the Nepali word for alley. That is why, every year a group of dancers and musicians associated with the Nava Durga Temple of Bhaktapur perform the Nava Durga Pyakha in front of the royal palace of Panauti, acknowledging the ties members of their community (Jela Tole) share with the people of this city.

One group also came from Jela to settle in Harisiddhi of Lalitpur. They also brought the patron deity of their former domicile, who had the name Jela Dya (Dya in Nepal Bhasa means God), with them and established it in their new home. The people of the surrounding areas of Lalitpur could not quite seem to grasp the name of this new divinity that had been consecrated in their neighbourhood and hence, called it Jala Dya and the place Jala.
Later, when the people of Jala (Harisiddhi) began performing the Harisiddhi Pyakha, they wanted to have their ancestors, now at Panauti, be a part of it. That is why, once every 12 years, dancers come all the way from Lalitpur to stage the Pyakha for their distant relatives at Panauti.