A STRANGE LOCAL CUSTOM AND BLIND FAITH

          One day, while we were posted at Joshimath, my husband came home from office to announce the exciting news of an “event” which was to take place at the Narsingh Temple located in the heart of town. He was talking about a strange local ritual which takes place only once a year in April, a week or ten days before the opening day of the Badrinath shrine. Thousands of people from neighbouring villages throng the temple on this day to witness a bizarre sight – one of the priests, upon being possessed, eats a raw goat mixed with raw rice! Though the thought of seeing such a gory sight was revolting, I was equally excited about the whole thing.

We had been staying in Joshimath for the past two years and absolutely nothing ever happened here. There were no social gatherings or outings to look forward to. People hardly met each other because in the mornings, everyone was busy with their own routines and in the evenings it was frightfully cold to go out anywhere, with temperatures dipping to minus 20 or minus 25 degrees!! There weren’t even any restaurants to eat out because during the six months when the shrine of Badrinath is closed, the small town of Joshimath too becomes a ghost town. It is mainly a gateway to Badrinath and caters primarily to tourists during the six months May – October/ November every year when the temple is open. Therefore, the news of something happening right in the middle of town was exciting enough for us to overlook our fears for the moment and actually look forward to some activity in our dull drab lives!

Narsingh Temple is one of the oldest temples in Joshimath which is dedicated to the Lord Vishnu in his lion form. This brightly painted temple is 2500 years old and has nine different idols of Lord Vishnu depicting him in his various avatars. The main idol of Narsingh is made of black onyx stone which has an interesting story behind it. The left wrist of the idol is receding year after year, and the local gentry believe that it signifies the coming closer of “kalyug” or the end of the world as we know it. They believe that once the wrist snaps completely, the two mountains of Nar and Narayan which nestle the Badrinath Temple will fall down and close the pathway to this famous dham. Lord Vishnu will then be worshipped at “Bhavishya Badri” temple which is located around 18kms east of Joshimath in Tapovan. The temple also houses the seat of the Guru Sri Shankaracharya, who is said to have established Joshimath in the 8^th century. Devotees worship the Guru’s seat, which is brought down here when Badrinath is closed from Oct – May each year.

When we eventually set out to go to the temple, this lingering fear started creeping up slowly inside me. I thought to myself, “Look at you, you are going to witness someone eating raw goat’s meat, there is going to be blood and gore all around, and you are dressed up as if you are sightseeing! You can’t even marinate chicken without feeling repulsed by the sight of raw flesh! Why are you trying to fool yourself? What if you feel nauseous and giddy there? What will you do?!” Halfway to the temple I was ready to jump out of the vehicle! I asked my husband to return but alas we had almost reached! All my insecurities and fears surfaced and I was cursing myself for saying yes to witness this madness! When we were approaching the temple, we realised that we would have to park the vehicle some distance from the actual temple because there were a mind-boggling number of people present there! We could not even see a few meters ahead over the sea of anxious faces all around. Dodging our way in the crowd, we managed to reach the courtyard in front of the temple where all the excitement seemed to be taking place.

There was a lot of muttering of chants and shouting of slogans in the local “garhwali” language and someone was also beating a drum. There were policemen all around, trying to contain the boisterous large crowd. All we could see was a long flagpole being brought with a red flag wound around it. After much ado, what looked like a black and yellow goat’s fur was hung on one end of the flagpole. There were too many people surrounding the actual priest who was supposedly possessed. We could not even see him. There was a huge container filled with 3 kgs of rice, which was soaked in water. This rice was eaten along with the goat. After almost an hour, the chanting suddenly seemed to be over and the flagpole was taken inside the temple doors. It was then that we realised the ritual was over! All that for nothing! We did not even see the goat being devoured or spewing of blood all around, as we had imagined! I must add that I actually heaved a sigh of relief and was thankful to God that I did not get to see anything at all, for once!

This event takes place year after year and people are willing to wait for hours to get a glimpse of something, anything that they can see! I personally don’t believe anything until I see it with my own eyes. A lot of questions still remain unanswered. Who is this priest and why does he get possessed only for a day? Does he eat raw meat even on other days? Has anyone actually seen this person? The list is endless but it just goes to show how deep rooted “blind faith” is in India.