The Fifth Day: Taking Down the Yasi(n) God—Beginning of the Solar New Year

The fifth day of Biska:, the central day of the sequence, is a sankranti^[*] , the first day of the solar month, the day that begins the new solar year. Its ceremonial beginning will be at the fall of the yasi(n) in the late afternoon toward sunset.

On the morning of this fifth day everyone who can—that is, many thousands of people—go to the Hanumante River at the Cupi(n) Ga, which is the location of the tirtha associated with Bhadrakali^[*] . There, in what is a kind of mela , people enter the river for a ritual bath.

During the course of this New Year's Day there are a number of esoteric activities in the Taleju temple. Among these is the worship by the "king" and his Guru-Purohit of the dangerous deity Dui(n) Maju, a deity said by some to be Taleju's own pitha goddess, and a deity of special historical interest (chap. 8). She is worshiped on this day as a "sister of Indrani^[*] ," a deity to whom this day makes special reference. On this day, also, those Jugis who during the year play their special instruments at the Taleju temple come to the temple and are offered food on which the king throws masala (a mixture of betel nut, nuts, cinnamon, raisins, etc.), as a token of gratitude for their work.^[42]

This is the day of the Indrani^[*] Jatra,^[43] which involves, exactly like the Varahi Jatra of the previous day, the taking of the deity from its outside resting place to its external pitha . In addition, in the course of this jatra

the procession brings the Indrani^[*] image to the front outer gate of the Taleju temple, opening on Laeku Square, where she is met by the king and the Guru-Purohit and worshiped by them.^[44]

Now the king, carrying the royal sword, the Guru-Purohit, and the two Maha(n) charioteers, accompanied by musicians, the royal umbrella, and the ornamental sukunda , return to Yasi(n) Field, and meet the remainder of the chariot passengers there. All seat themselves on seats to the north side of the Cyasi Ma(n)dap. Meanwhile the Bhairava chariot has been turned around to face the west.^[45]

The leader of the Bhairava guthi makes an offering of yellow pigment to the Yasi(n) God, and then gives some of it as prasada to bystanders. Now the Bhairava jatra image is placed in the chariot. All the passengers and the charioteers mount the chariot and take their proper positions in relation to the Bhairava image. Meanwhile the Bhadrakali^[*] chariot has been readied near her pitha and her image put into it, and the riders of her chariot have mounted and entered the chariot. The secret Bhariava image and the Jaki Gwa had earlier been returned to the Bhairava jatra god-house (where the jatra image of Bhairava will later join them) by the same group of men running in the same order who had brought the two images down to Yasi(n) Field on the first day.

Now it is the time for bringing the Yasi(n) God down. First the Yasi(n) is rocked back and forth in an east-west direction, in a motion called "rocking to sleep." The god is said, as we have noted, to be tired for "he has been standing up all year." At the time of the rocking the eight ropes representing the Astamatrkas^[*] and the two patas representing the Tantric guru and his wife move, and this is interpreted by religious specialists as representing the sexual intercourse of the Astamatrkas^[*] and the Yasi(n) as Bhairava, and of the two nagas with each other. The pole is slowly rocked back and forth, and finally, after perhaps ten minutes to half an hour of swaying, eased down to the west so that it falls outward through the opening of its retaining wall. People who wish a son try to pull one of the leaves from the yasi(n) or its crossbar, and if they get one they will not only have a son, but he will be an important man. When the pole falls, the new year begins.

When the Yasi(n) God is down, the Bhairava Acaju and guthi leader decorate the Bhairava image again with yellow pigment, bhuismba(n) , which is then given as prasada to the other chariot riders. Now there is the beginning of a unique episode—the Po(n) untouchables become integrally involved with the sequence. The Bhairava Acaju and guthi leader, standing on the chariot, place some yellow pigment as prasada

taken from the Bhairava image, on the foreheads of Po(n)s who crowd around the chariot to receive it.^[46] At any other time this contact would be greatly contaminating to these two men, but at this one time in the year it is not.^[47] Now some of the Po(n)s take hold of the ropes at the back of the chariot, and other men, mostly Jyapus,^[48] take hold of the ropes at the front. Again a tug of war begins to determine the direction in which the chariot will move. The Jyapus are trying to pull the chariot back toward the city, while the Po(n)s are trying to keep the deity in Yasi(n) Field, which adjoins the "Po(n) twa: ," the area where they live, just outside of the symbolic boundaries of the city. This struggle does not (at least in the memory and expectation of present informants) lead to fights, and gradually the more numerous Jyapus with the advantage of the two extra ropes at the front of the chariot prevail. At the top of Yasi(n) Field, where the road to Ga:hiti enters it, the Po(n)s let go of the ropes, and return to their own area. The turning back of the Po(n)s indicates that the chariot is now within the symbolic boundaries of the city. The Bhadrakali^[*] chariot, pulled only from the front, is drawn up after the Bhairava chariot is on its way. The chariots are hauled up the road that they had descended at the beginning of the sequence in the direction of Ta:marhi Square. But when they reach Ga:hiti there is an essential episode, a further interruption to Bhairava's civic journey.

The chariots are arranged in Ga:hiti Square, with the Bhairava chariot facing north toward Ta:marhi Square and the Bhadrakali^[*] chariot moved in front of him blocking his path and facing south, in the direction from which they had just come. They are placed near the stone deity Swatuña Bhairava, which represents (among other things; see chap. 8) the body of Bhairava, at the place where Bhadrakali^[*] first recognized him, where he sank into the ground in an attempt to escape, and where Bhadrakali^[*] ordered that his head be cut off.^[49] Now the two chariots, with their passengers aboard, are pushed toward each other. Most of the movement is by the Bhadrakali^[*] chariot, which is crashed into the comparatively immobile Bhairava chariot. This is in keeping with Bhadrakali's meaning as a Sakti, for the banging together represents sexual intercourse, and the Sakti is the active partner. Each time the chariots crash together the people in and on them throw flowers out into the crowd, and people rush to gather them as important prasada . The chariots are banged together three times. There is a certain hesitation in the interpretation of the meaning of this banging together between sexual intercourse and aggression. It is said by upper-status informants that the esoteric meaning is sexual intercourse. Although, such informants

say, lower-status people often understand this meaning, they also may be unaware of this, and may misinterpret it as the two gods fighting. The banging together is, in fact, called lwakegu , from a verb meaning "to fight, to quarrel" as well as "to collide, or to hit against each other."^[50] Even among those who hold the "correct" interpretation of sexual intercourse, however, it is believed that at the time of the sexual banging together Bhadrakali^[*] becomes angry with Bhairava for reasons that are unclear to present informants. Perhaps, it is believed, her anger is for someting that Bhairava has done wrong—for he will later try to atone for this and quiet her by means of a gift.^[51] Now Bhadrakali^[*] "returns in her anger to her home"; that is, her chariot is removed first from Ga:hiti to an area near Bhadrakali's jatra god-house where she will remain in angry seclusion until the seventh day of the sequence, when Bhairava will have to send her a present to placate her.

The Bhairava jatra image is now taken to its jatra god-house in Lakulache(n). His chariot is left in Ga:hiti, where it will remain until the ninth day. The evening of this New Year's Day, following the banging together of the chariots, is the occasion of major feasts in most households, with guests from other cities and towns who have come to watch the festival.