Baresaharia Bhaona

BARESAHARIA BHAONA

A UNIQUE INSTITUTION: SOCIO-CULTURAL & RELIGIOUS

Nilutpal Gogoi focuses on Baresaharia Bhaona of Jamugurighat -- a veritable reflection of the typical medium of masses entertainment and the cultural mosaic that Assam represents …

Baresaharia Bhaona is unique in the world.

Baresaharia Bhaona is a typical Assamese cultural heritage.

Sonit Konwar Gajen Barua (of Tezpur) was the pioneer.

The Baresaharia Bhaona is being celebrated at the same venue at a particular time of the year since 1797.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: JAMUGURIHAT HERITAGE

The people of Jamugurihat (in the Sonitpur district of Assam) have been organizing this festival of ankiya nats – the objective of the organizers of the Baresaharia Bhaona.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: REPRESENTS THE VAISHNAVITE TRADITION

The Vaishnavite tradition in Assam was propounded by Sri Sri Sankardeva.

Sri Sri Sankardeva is the Vaishnavite apostle and the main person who brought about a revolution in the Hindu religion and his apostles in the erstwhile undivided state of Assam

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: THE NOMENCLATURE

An institution in itself, the institution of Baresahariya Bhaona has reflections of the Sankari ethos.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: THE SANKARI ETHOS

The Sankari belief is that the sole lord of the universe is Lord Vishnu and his 10 various incarnations.

And yet, it cannot be identified solely with the Vaishnavite Bhaonas.

The tenets of these communal concerts are guided by ‘Bhakti rasa’.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: ANKIYA NAT PLATFORM

The ankiya nats depict mythological scenes in the Vaishnavite tradition.

The ankiya nats are literary and cultural one-act plays.

The actors of ankiya nats are known as the bhaorias.

These bhaorias act out particular episodes of the Kirtana.

The Kirtana is the main Vaishnavite religious tome. The Kirtana extols the qualities of Lord Vishnu and his ten avatars or incarnations.

According to Hindu mythology, these avatars came to the earth to root out evil and establish peace at various ages.

These bhaorias also act out episodes from any of the two Indian epics – the Mahabharata or the Ramayana – in one ankiya nat. 

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: BHAKTI RASA

‘Bhakti rasa’ represents a community’s religious or ethical mores and beliefs.

Besides the ‘Bhakti rasa’ there is also the element of entertainment in the ankiya nats enacted in Baresaharia Bhaona.

The performances are more attuned to capture the festive environment.

This is the distinction between this form of bhaona and the traditional bhaona enacted in the naamghar (the congregation prayer hall of the Assamese communities).

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: WHEN TO ENJOY

The Baresaharia Bhaona has been organized after every five years for the last three centuries.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: THE NOMENCLATURE

Since several such plays are staged simultaneously at the venue under the same roof, it came to be known as ‘Baresaharia Bhaona’.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: A MILESTONE

It has also happened that residents of 25 villages have staged as many plays within a single night during a Baresaharia Bhaona.

These ankiya nats can be enjoyed by as many as 30,000-40,000 spectators during a single presentation of these socio-economic and religious plays.

The villages around Jamugurihat take up turns in organizing the mammoth fest of plays.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: ANKIYA NAT PLATFORM

The plays are staged at the ‘Khola’ that is built around the sanctum sanctorum of the Baresaharia doul.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: HERITAGE PLANS AFOOT

Of late, an ambitious plan at an estimated cost of Rs 22 crores has been mooted to set up a permanent complex for the 300 years old culturally rich Baresaharia Bhaona of Jamugurihat in Sonitpur district of Assam. Interestingly enough, this mission has been undertaken by the masses of that region.

As per the plan, there would be a three-storied guest house and an equally sprawling auditorium.

The project is being implemented under the aegis of Baresaharia Bhaona Nirman Samiti with active participation of the people of Assam in general and those of Jamugurihat in particular.

The blueprints of the permanent complex and the special stage have been already finalised.

The 200-page details of the Rs 22 crore 35 lakh and 91 thousand project has been drawn up by the Guwahati-based firm – Clean Consultants. It details not just the historical significance and data on the Baresaharia Bhaona but also on Jamugurihat besides breakup of the phasewise construction work of the project.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: TRACING THE ROOTS

Many try to trace its roots to the ‘Hejar’ or ‘Hajar’ bhaona tradition as observed in the Kaliabor area of Nagaon in Assam.

Noted critic and linguist late Maheswar Neog in his essay on this Vaishnavite tradition states that it was during the tenure of Ahom vassal Salal Gohain in this part of the kingdom that this form of bhaona was first organised in the Sootea-Jamugurihat area. He also finds similarities of Baresharia Bhaona with the Hazare Bhaona as practiced in Kaliabor. However, there are several others that feel strongly that Baresaharia Bhaona originated in Jamuguri.

The roots of this typical cultural art form are to be traced to the Vaishnavite tenets as propounded by Srimanta Sankardeva.

Indra Prasad Hazarika of the Assamese department of Jamuguri College, has been one of the personalities intimately connected with Baresaharia Bhaona. He analyses connotation of the term ‘Bare’as ‘many’ and ‘Sahar’as hamlets, basically Vaishnavite satras.

Hence ‘Baresaharia Bhaona’ essentially means the enaction of several nat (plays) by the people of several villages at a particular stage. On the last day of the fest, artistes from the other six States also congregate at the venue. Nowadays, it is on the second day that this congregation takes place, he added.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: THE 1920s

This form dates back to 1921. Several leaders of Assam Congress were present on the occasion. In the post-Independence era, this art form was first held in 1950. Till 1961, this form was staged in Jamuguri only on two occasions – 1951 and 1961.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: GAJEN BARUA’SCONTRIBUTION

It was primarily owing to the untiring efforts of Sonitkonwar Gajen Barua that it became a masses’ movement. He popularized it even outside the State with his write-ups contributed to various magazines and newspapers. Credit is again due to him for organizing the festival in the present format that stretches out to three days. Since 1861, Baresaharia Bhaona has elicited a very enthusiastic response from the conscious artistes and connoisseurs of folk art form all over the country. It is against this backdrop that the authorities concerned can chalk out a cultural agenda to woo the tourists not only from within the country but also abroad.

This festival such a mammoth scale is organized under the aegis of the central executive committee and the various sub-committees formed to manage different aspects of the fest. Funds are culled from the public and organizations.

With the stalls and exhibition units established in the premises some distances away from the stage, the environ takes on a festive aura.

The souvenir brought out on the occasion not only helps in shedding light on the unknown, hitherto vague aspects of the institution, but also remains a documentary of the festival.

Hazarika pointed out the intricacies involved in the construction of the pavilion. “The construction process of the sprawling circular mandap with the golden kalasi (crown) starts almost a month prior to the D-Day. Locally available materials like dry straw, bamboo and betel nut stumps are made use of.

BARESAHARIA BHAONA: THE UNIQUE ARCHITECTURAL MARVEL

The architecture is typical as all the participating villages construct their own pavilions. However, the process involved and the measurements required for the purpose have to tally with the prescribed specifications.

Each robha (pavilion) must have the 14 pillars symbolising the 14 parishads (councils) of Lord Vishnu in Baikuntha (heaven). These pavilions finally merge to constitute the massive pandal or the shamiana. On the open space beneath each of these pavilions are the stages constructed; while around them are the spaces for the spectators.

An ideal metaphor for the pandal is a blossoming lotus. The stages and the spectators  spaces represent its petals. At the centrestage is the space for the singhasan or the throne where the Bhagawat (A) is kept.

The area is also characterised by the Chandratap (white cloth) covering it at a certain distance above the singhasan. The Chandratap is put up in the shape of a gambuz (a dome) and is topped by a kolosi (crown). The pavilions upper portions must touch the Chandratap’s lower portion. Offerings to the Almighty (Prasad) on sarai (bell-metal stands) are kept all around the singhasan. On specially designed multi-pronged wooden or iron posts are lit the saki (earthen oily-wick lamps).

The Satradhikars and the Mahantas initiating the naam-kirtan take up their positions surrounding the centrally located (B) portion. The (C) sections are the paths for the bhaorias, gayans and bayans (artistes). It is along these paths that the artistes proceed from one rangabhumi (stage) to another marked as (D). The dotted elongated lines with arrow marks indicate the direction through which the artistes move around the stages. The spectators’ spaces (E) are marked out from D by a bamboo barricade of about one-and-half feet height. The darkened sections (F) at the circumference of the circle are the green rooms (sughar) with the gaps (G) in between being the entry and exit gates. For the free movement of spectators are the sections marked as ‘H’.

The artistes move from the sughar (F) into their respective rangabhumis, then proceed to ‘C’ and then in a clockwise direction to the remaining stages. As they thus move around, the spectacle is arresting. The entire mission is carried to clockwise precision.  The directions laid down are meticulously carried out. Finally, each troupe returns to its original stage and performs ‘nat-bhaona (Vaishnavite plays on the Bhagawat) there.

Crescendo of the many ‘nat-bhaona’ performed simultaneously before the ocean of keen spectators have granted a special status to this form of mass entertainment. Its popularity can be gauged from the immense response Baresahariya Bhaona has been able to evoke not just from the people of Assam but also from outside the State. This is notwithstanding the invasion of the electronic media.