Madai festival [1] is one of many popular festivals of Sanskritik Chhattisgarh. The festival reflects the rich culture and tradition of the state. The Madai Festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and excitement by people belonging to the Gond Tribe. It is celebrated from the month of December to March and tours from one place of the state to another. The Charama and Kurna communities of Kanker district, tribes of Bastar and people of Bhanupratappur, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Pakhanjore and Antagrah celebrate the Madai Festival in the state of Chhattisgarh.
The local tribes of the state along with other communities worship the presiding deity during the festival. In the beginning of Madai Festival, the tribal people of Chhattisgarh launch a procession on an open field where a large number of devotees and general tourists gather to witness the rituals. After the end of the procession, the priest or similar figure starts worshiping the goddess. While the Puja ceremony goes on, the onlookers maintain silence and also offer prayers to the feet of the deity. When the worshiping finishes, several cultural events like folk dance, drama, songs etc. start taking place in the open space. As a huge number of villagers come to enjoy the occasion, the Madai Festival is always organized on a vast stretch of land. The Bastar region of Chhattisgarh marks the beginning of the Madai Festival. [2]
From Bastar the festival goes to the Kanker district of the state from where it moves to Narayanpur, Antagarh and Bhanupratappur. Keshkal, Bhopalpattnam and Kondagaon welcome Madai Festival in the month of March when it comes to its final end. Since the Madai Festival goes from one location to another, each and every tribe and other human groups of Chhattisgarh enjoy the unique pleasures of the occasion. Derived from the old customs and traditions of the state, the Madai Festival today has become a popular religious event in particular of Chhattisgarh and also India in general. [3]
Chhattisgarh is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Pradesh to the northwest, Maharashtra to the southwest, Jharkhand to the northeast, Odisha to the east, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to the south. Formerly a part of Madhya Pradesh, it was granted statehood on 1 November 2000 with Raipur as the designated state capital.
Bastar is a district in the state of Chhattisgarh in Central India. Jagdalpur is the district headquarters. Bastar is bounded on the northwest by Narayanpur District, on the north by Kondagaon district, on the east by Nabarangpur and Koraput Districts of Odisha State, on the south and southwest by Dantewada and Sukma. The district possesses a unique blend of tribal and Odia culture.
Dantewada District, also known as Dantewara District or Dakshin Bastar District, is a district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Dantewada is the district headquarters. The district is part of Bastar Division. Until 1998, Dantewada District was a tehsil of the larger Bastar District.
Jagdalpur is a city in Bastar district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Jagdalpur hosts one of 52 shakti peeths called Danteswari Shakti Peeth and also has religiously significant shiv linga in Kotumsar Cave. Jagdalpur is the administrative headquarters of Bastar District and Bastar Division. It was earlier the capital of the former princely state of Bastar. Bastar district has multiple scenic waterfalls that is popular for tourists throughput India. It is the fourth largest city of Chhattisgarh.The city is one of the most important commercial, financial and political hub in Chhattisgarh after Raipur.
Bastar division is an administrative division of Chhattisgarh state in central India. It includes the districts of Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Sukma, Kondagaon and Kanker.
Uttar Bastar Kanker District is located in the southern region of the state of Chhattisgarh, India within the latitudes 20.6-20.24 and longitudes 80.48-81.48. The total area of the district is 6432 square kilometers. The population is 748,941.
Halba are a tribal community found in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha in India. They speak the Halbi language. They are primarily agricultural community. Halbas are mixed tribes or tribal caste, descended from the unions of Gonds and Hindus. Linguistic evidence also points to the fact that the Halbas are an aboriginal tribe, who have adopted Hinduism and an Indo-European language. They were cultivators and farm servants whose home is the south of the Raipur District and the Kanker and Bastar States; from here small numbers of them have spread to Bhandara, parts of Berar and also into Koraput in Odisha.
Nuakhai is an agricultural festival mainly observed by people of Western Odisha in India. Nuakhai is observed to welcome the new rice of the season. According to the calendar it is observed on panchami tithi of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada or Bhadraba (August–September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. This is the most important social festival of Western Odisha and adjoining areas of Simdega in Jharkhand, where the culture of Western Odisha is much predominant.
Danteshwari Temple is temple dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari, and is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, shrines of Shakti, the divine feminine, spread across India. The temple built in the 14th century, is situated in Dantewada, a town situated 80 km from Jagdalpur Tehsil, Chhattisgarh. Dantewada is named after the Goddess Danteshwari, the presiding deity of the earlier Kakatiya rulers. Traditionally she is the Kuldevi of Bastar state,
The Muria are an indigenous Adivasi, scheduled tribe Dravidian community of the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, India. They are part of the Gondi people. Traditionally, they are economically homogeneous and strive to work as a collective. They have mixed-sex dormitories where adolescents are sent to practice premarital sex, sometimes with a single partner and sometimes serially. They have an omnivorous diet, with liquor playing is a polutry fighting key role in their society.
The proposed Dalli Rajhara–Jagdalpur rail line, on paper for almost three decades, once completed, would connect Dalli Rajhara to Jagdalpur, both towns being in Chhattisgarh state in India. It would also connect Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh, to Jagdalpur by rail via Durg. Jagdalpur, which is about 300 km from Raipur, is currently meaningfully connected to it only by road. There is though a roundabout rail route to reach Raipur from Jagdalpur via Koraput and Rayagada in Orissa; it is much longer and takes much longer time to be of any utility. In view of this, almost all the transport, in relation to both people and goods, between Raipur and Jagdalpur, happens only by road.
Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. They are held annually during festivals in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The term also refers to the popular annual Ratha Yatra of Puri. that involve a public procession with a chariot with deities Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshana Chakra on a ratha, a wooden deula-shaped chariot.
Shaheed Mahendra Karma Vishwavidyalaya - (SMKV) or Bastar University , is a State university located in Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India. It is a teaching-cum-affiliating university which affiliates 30 college and has 10 University Teaching Departments (UTD). It was established and incorporated by Chhattisgarh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam No. 18 of 2008 on September 2, 2008.
Bastar Dussehra is the unique cultural trait of Chhattisgarh. Celebrated by the local people of the state with sufficient vigor, the festival of Dussehra connotes to the supreme power of goddess Danteswari, the revered deity of all the existing tribes of Chhattisgarh. During Dussehra, the inhabitants of Bastar organizes special worship ceremonies at the Danteswari temple of Jagadalpur. On this occasion rath is made in which goddess sits
Bastar Lokotsav is a festival of Chhattisgarh that involves the representation of the folk culture of the state of Chhattisgarh. The lokotsav, which occurs after the end of rainy season, attracts large number of tribal groups who come to participate in this festival from remote villages of Chhattisgarh. Handicraft items are exhibited in the Bastar Lokotsav. Connoting the festival of the folk people of Chhattisgarh, lokotsav of Bastar starts with an array of cultural events. The Jagadalpur area of Chhattisgarh organizes a special program called BastaParab in which dance and song variations of the tribal communities can be seen.
Kanker State was one of the princely states of India during the period of the British Raj. Its last ruler signed the accession to the Indian Union in 1947.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Chhattisgarh:
Chhattisgarh embraces a diverse cultural and traditional practices in India. As the state government has taken meticulous steps to preserve the tribal culture, these festivals and the traditions are celebrated almost from the time of ancient India.
Antagarh is a town and a Nagar Panchayat located in the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of its eponymous development block, tehsil, and Assembly constituency.