The Sixth Day: The Mahakali/Mahalaksmi Jatra

The previous day had continued the themes of struggle and still problematic unification, portrayed in ambiguous sexual and aggressive images. The events of the next two days echo these themes in an imagery which is said to show the "cooperation and friendship" of adjoining mandalic^[*] sectors of the city.

The sixth day is the day for the special jatras of two of the Mandalic^[*] Goddesses, Mahakali and Mahalaksmi^[*] . In the morning of the day there are two important jatras in two nearby towns that are visited by many people from Bhaktapur. These are at Thimi, where there is a Ganesa^[*] festival in which thirty-six chariots are paraded, and Bode, where there is an important Mahalaksmi^[*]jatra . In Bhaktapur, in the afternoon, the jatra images of the two Mandalic^[*] goddesses, Mahalaksmi^[*] and Mahakali, who protect the two adjacent mandalic^[*] zones of the north and northeast, are taken from the "outside" placements where all the Tantric deities had been brought on the fourth day of the cycle and taken on a jatra to their respective pithas . Their jatras resemble the Varahi and Indrani^[*] Jatras, which we have described above, with an important addi-

tional feature. The Mahalaksmi^[*] image is taken on the usual traditional path between her god-house and her pitha , but the Mahakali image is taken out of its usual path so that she encounters the Mahalaksmi^[*] image just before they reach the border of the city. On their meeting the palanquins bearing the two deities are bumped together three times. This, it is said, is not considered a fighting, but a mating, signifying the bringing together or unification of the two zones. There is no doctrine as to which of the two goddesses is male or female during their intercourse.^[52] The goddesses then part, and continue on their respective jatras . That evening there are feasts in the households within these goddesses' mandalic^[*] zones.