The Eighth Day: Kalaratri

The Mandalic^[*] Goddess of this day is Mahalaksmi^[*] , at the northeast, and her pitha is the focus of the day's morning and

evening processions. But now additional activities are added to the continuing daily processions to the mandalic^[*]pithas . On this and the following day in the Na:la swa(n) rooms in individual homes and at the Taleju temple the climactic mythic events will take place which reflect the two days of battle and the eventual cosmic victory of the Goddess over Mahisasura^[*] , as recounted in the Devi Mahatmya .^[48] And on the final tenth day this victory, now completed, will be celebrated.

On this day in most of the Na:la swa(n) rooms in the city an image of Bhagavati in the form of Mahisasuramardi^[*] , the warrior goddess of the Devi Mahatmya, raised sword in hand, foot on the body of the defeated Asura in his water buffalo form, is introduced into the room. This warrior image is thus brought together in the same room with the kalasa , representing Devi. The Bhagavati image, usually a painting on paper, often supplemented by a second metal image, is placed not on but in front of the area of earth in which the barley is growing and on which the kalasa had been placed. The Bhagavati image will be offered a blood sacrifice on this day in temples and Aga(n) houses, and on the next, the ninth day, in homes—and blood cannot be spilled on the soil. At this time Devi as the full creator deity seems in the barley shoots and kalasa on the soil to represent fertility, while her partial manifestation as Bhagavati represents her ferocious warrior form who protects the gods and the city against their enemies.

If possible one or more swords are also put into the Na:la swa(n) room, and Bhagavati is decorated with tiny flags. Bhagavati is preparing for her great battle against the Asuras which will begin during the approaching night. In addition to the worship that has been repeated daily in the Na:la swa(n) room since the first day, the newly introduced Bhagavati image and the swords are worshiped with an offering of the meat-containing samhae . In the Tantric temples and Aga(n) Houses, in contrast to homes, preliminary blood sacrifices are offered on this day. In these Tantric settings blood sacrifices are routinely made and the sacrifice on this day does not have the special meaning that the unusual—and, for many households, unique—domestic blood sacrifice will have in private homes on the following day.

In the course of the evening of this eighth day, fitted in among the evening's other events, large feasts are held in people's homes. This is the first^[49] of three major household feasts, which take place on this and the following two evenings. In the feasts on these three days, there is much drinking. People who are drunk sometimes joke that they have become the warrior goddess through their intoxication.

On the approach of the night between the eighth and ninth days the focus of events moves to the Taleju temple. Large numbers of goats and buffaloes are to be sacrificed. A flock of some thirty goats^[50] is first brought to the temple. The lead goat, called "Nikhudugu,"^[51] must be of an unbroken black color and without physical defects.

A male water buffalo, called "Nikhuthu,"^[52] which like the lead goat, the Nikhudugu, must be all black and without blemish or defects, has been kept in a special shelter in the Byasi area of the Kwache(n) twa: . On this day the buffalo is given alcoholic spirits to drink, and is made drunk.^[53] In the Byasi area local women station themselves along the main road holding lit sukundas , whose oil has been taken from the Taleju temple. At Laeku Square, a Taleju Brahman dressed in traditional Newar clothes and carrying a sword and who represents the Malla king seats himself at the outer Golden Gate of the Taleju temple. It is now evening, perhaps seven or eight o'clock. The king sends three members of the Taleju staff, one of whom is a Nae, or butcher, the traditional sacrificers of water buffaloes, to fetch the buffalo and conduct it to him. When the envoys arrive at the house where Nikhuthu has been kept, his Jyapu keeper worships him and flicking sacred water on his body, asks him for assent to what is to follow, which will lead to his sacrifice and death. The buffalo signals his assent by shaking his body (which is the buffalo's usual response to being splattered with water). Then the staggering buffalo, accompanied by these functionaries and large crowds of people, is run through the streets to Laeku Square. Twenty-four other water buffalo bulls have also been brought to the square, and the Nikhuthu joins them. Now a formalized dialogue takes place between the king and the Nae, in which the Nae, on being queried by the king, swears six times to the identity and proper condition of the Nikhuthu.^[54] The lead buffalo is now brought into the temple. Now, one by one, twenty-four other buffaloes are brought by the Nae to the king. These are said to represent the twenty-four twa: s that are believed to have traditionally constituted Bhaktapur.^[55] Some of these buffalo are given the names of particular twa: s; others are not named. The Nae is queried by the king about each buffalo in turn, and each time the Nae swears, six times, to its proper condition. The formula used for Nikhuthu is repeated for each. The lead buffalo, Nikhuthu, represents the Asura king, Mahisasura^[*] . Each of the other buffaloes is said to represent one akshauhini^[*] , or army, of Asuras.

The sacrifice of the goats begins in the Taleju temple on the afternoon of this eighth day. The goats are sacrificed in the various areas of

the temple where its host of Tantric deities are located and represented. A major site for goat sacrifices is the Na:la swa(n) area of the Kumari courtyard, where the true Taleju image is—and where the heads of the goats sacrificed on the previous day had been left. Some goats are sacrificed in the Mucuka, the main inner courtyard where the principal buffalo sacrifice will later be held. These goat sacrifices are said to provide strength for Bhagavati in her continuing battle. The buffaloes, meanwhile, are tied to stakes in the main courtyard.

Now the inner courtyard of the Taleju temple begins to fill up as people come to witness the climactic events of Kalaratri. These begin before midnight of this eighth day and last until dawn, thus spanning the ending of the eighth day and the beginning of the ninth day. They represent the two-day battle described in the Devi Mahatmya . The preparation for battle starts with the sacrificing of two goats at the threshold of the now open inner Golden Gate that separates the main courtyard from the inner, central and most sacred parts of the temple. After asking for (and receiving a sign of) their permission to be sacrificed, and after then worshiping them and dedicating them to Taleju, the throats of the sacrificial goats are cut and their blood sprayed on, that is, offered to, the jatra image of Taleju. These sacrifices, like the previous ones, represent the strengthening of the Goddess in preparation for her battles, and thus Taleju is here conjoined with Bhagavati. After each goat dies it is decapitated.^[56]

At about this same time throughout the city in the upper thars ' Aga(n) houses one member of each phuki , or an Acaju (if there is no one with the proper initiation among the phuki ) sacrifices a male goat as an offering to the lineage deity. The phuki's Aga(n) Goddess is here, like Taleju, identified with Bhagavati, who herself is identified more and more clearly with Mahisasuramardini as Mohani proceeds.

Now in the Kumari courtyard, first the Nikhudugu, and then the remainder of the goats are being sacrificed. They must be killed by a Brahman or Josi, and not by an Acaju surrogate. The sacrifice of the goats takes several hours, the puja prior to the sacrifice of the Nikhudugu lasting, perhaps, some two hours. Each goat in turn must be asked permission to be sacrificed, and then be dedicated to Taleju and worshiped and then sacrificed with the proper ritual. The preparatory puja for the first sacrifice is considered to be the true beginning of the Kalaratri, the black night, in which in the mythic time of the Devi Mahatmya the goddess battles the Asuras.

In the main courtyard it is now time for the sacrifice of the buffaloes.

Two men from the Maha(n) Jyapu thars (which had provided the charioteers of Biska:), dressed only in short, apron-like loincloths and with their bodies rubbed with oil, stand on the elevated ledge that adjoins the two sides of the inner Golden Gate. These men are called the Hipha : men, the "receivers of blood."^[57] When these men are performing their ritual actions, they are called the "Hipha: gods." As Gods the two men represent a dangerous goddess and her consort whose names are esoteric secrets. (This goddess is represented elsewhere in Mohani as a member of the Gana^[*] Kumari and also as a form of the goddess in Taleju's Na:la swa[n] area.) They also represent the "right and left hands" of the Malla king and of Taleju. In their hands each holds a kalasa .

The same procedure will now be followed with each of the twenty-five buffaloes, starting with the Nikhuthu. The Brahman-king is the offerer of the sacrifice, but now the killing is done by the low-status Nae. This is a public sacrifice and as we have noted in chapter 9, blood sacrifice is only done by Brahmans (and Josis) in nonpublic settings.^[58] The king must ask the assent of the buffalo to the sacrifice.^[59] The king throws uncooked husked rice, flowers, and sacred water on their heads and bodies, which usually produces the shaking motion that signals assent. If this does not work, a flower is placed in the buffalo's ear, which invariably causes the necessary motion. The sacrifices begin with the sacrifice of the Nikhuthu. He is led to the open gate leading to the inner temple. The jatra image of Taleju is in front of him, just behind the open gateway. The two Hipha: Gods stand facing the buffalo, at each side of the gate. The buffalo's throat is cut by the Nae. His blood is sprayed first on the Taleju jatra image, and then into the kalasas of the two Hipha: Gods,^[60] who become splattered with blood. The Nae then decapitates the animal. Now, in turn, one by one, the remaining twenty-four buffaloes are sacrificed in the same way.

The sequence of sacrifices and their accompanying ceremonies last until dawn. After the last buffalo has been killed,^[61] people leave the Taleju temple. The sacrificial area and adjoining parts of the courtyard are now soaked with blood. The purification and cleaning of the temple that now follows is considered to be deeply secret. It is said that if unauthorized people were to see this it would be extremely dangerous to them, that they would die. The Hipha: men go to bathe in a bathing place in an inner courtyard of the temple, said to be a pond associated with the goddess Dui Maju.^[62] Taleju representatives from several different thars (particularly from among the Jyapus) come to do the traditional cleaning up. Also at this time a Po(n) untouchable comes to the

temple and "does something" that facilitates purification by transferring some of the impurity onto himself This is the only time during the year that a Po(n) can enter the inner parts of the Taleju temple.

Now the jatra image of Taleju is just inside the inner Golden Gate, which has now been closed, surrounded by twenty-five water buffalo heads and by two goat heads. The true Taleju image is in the Kumari court surrounded by more than twenty goat heads, from some of the goats that had been brought in a flock to the temple, plus other ones that had been offered and sacrificed by Taleju priests and by Chathar families descended from Malla kings. All the buffaloes are now considered to be representative of the Asuras, which have now been thoroughly vanquished in the setting of the Taleju temple, although the battle is still to be resolved later in the day elsewhere in the city.