Ranchi: Karam festival will be celebrated on Friday. Devotees keeps fasting and worship Karam Dal. According to former minister Devkumar Dhan, National Vice President of National Tribal Indigenous Religion Coordination Committee, India, this festival is mainly a festival of teenagers. On the day of worship, unmarried girls from all over the village come to the place of worship with new nuggets (baskets) of worship items such as cucumber, Jawa flower, a lamp made of earthen pot and vermilion.
Karam sits around the cast with devotion. Nagus or Pahan asks Karam Raja for a boon for these unmarried girls for their bright future. Devotees pray to Karam Raja that there should be plenty of food and money, there should be happiness and peace among the people.
According to the book ‘Oraon’ by the director Dr Prakash Chandra Oraon published by Tribal Welfare Research Institute, the rule of celebrating Karam has been throughout Chotanagpur and hence it is called Raji Karam. In the course of time, its date changed in many villages.
When someone died in a village on the exact same occasion, the festival of this occasion did not flourish, believing that it was customary to celebrate it on another occasion. In this way, Karam is celebrated with different names on seven occasions in the whole of Chotanagpur, but the method of celebrating it is the same. The names of the seven Karams are: Raji Karam, Ind Karam, Kadru Karam, Jitiya Karam, Dasai Karam, Adhwari Karam and Sohrai (Karthik) Karam.
(EW correspondent)
