Miscellaneous Events: Krsna^[*] Janmastami [49] and Sitala Puja [50]

On the eighth day of the month there is a small festival of Krsna^[*] . A Krsna^[*] image is taken from its god-house and carried around the festival route, and there is worship of Krsna^[*] in some homes and by some devotees at the city's Krsna^[*] shrines, which the devotees visit in turn in a procession. This jatra had, reportedly, been introduced into Bhaktapur only some eight to ten years before the study. The devotees were said to be the same people who had become bhakti devotees of Rama (compare Rama Navami [32] above). As is always the case with Bhaktapur's festivals for these avatars of Visnu^[*] , the contrast with other parts of India is striking. Thus Janmastami is "probably the most important vrata and utsava celebrated throughout the whole of India" (Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 128). (Minor.)

On the ninth day of the fortnight, the day of Sitala Puja [50], people, women for the most part, used to go to the statue at Hanuman Ghat^[*] of Sitala, the goddess who represents and protects against smallpox, to ask for protection for the family. This calendrical event is thought to he specific to Bhaktapur. In recent years with the disappearance of smallpox these visits are rare. (Minor.)

On the fourteenth day of the fortnight, Pa(n)cara(n) Ca:re, there is an important Buddhist festival, that of the five Dipankara Buddhas. Five giant and dramatic images of these Buddhas (supported by and enclosing the body of a dancer) march through the city, each coming from a different direction to a central point. These images are associated by local Newar Hindus with the Five Pandava brothers of the Mahabharata epic. Hindus make respect gestures to the images as they are moved through the streets and take prasada from their attendants.