Gopinatha Jatra [6]

This event is the first in the bright fortnight Kachalaga in November. While many calendrical events are associated with movement of people to one or another temple or pilgrimage site in a more or less haphazard manner some calendrical events are characterized by systematic and formalized movements through some unit of space. Sometimes a deity is moved through space, sometimes and more rarely devotees move to a temple or shrine, or to a series of them, in some prescribed order. Both the carrying of the deity and the more formalized movements of worshipers through the city is called, as it is elsewhere in South Asia, a jatra (from the Sanskrit, yatra , "journey, festive train, procession, pilgrimage"). These processions—most typically lead by special jatra images^[12] of the focal deity carried in the arms of a priest or in a palanquin, or sometimes in an enormous chariot—move over prescribed routes. The route is often the main festival route of the city, the pradaksinapatha^[*] , but for many festivals it is one of the less extensive routes within some other significant unit of the city (chap. 7). The paths by which the image and the major participants move from a temple to join the festival route are themselves conventionally prescribed. It should be noted that the extensiveness of the jatra route is no necessary indication of the importance of the festival. Minor jatras may follow the main pradaksinapatha^[*] , while important ones that become foci of interest for the entire city may occasionally move only through a local area.

Gopinatha Jatra is an example of a minor jatra that follows the main city route. "Gopinatha" is an appellation of Krsna^[*] . The organization of the procession is the responsibility of the temple priest, the pujari , of the Krsna^[*] temple in Laeku Square. Some men of the Jyapu Rajcal (also called "Kala") thar , members of families that had been granted tenancy of land in exchange for this service, accompany the image playing flutes, drums, and cymbals. Observers are usually casual bypassers who often must ask who the deity being carried is. Bypassers often give coins as offerings to the deity, and the members of the procession give them flowers as prasada in return. (Minor.)