THE BHUMI-DEBOTA CYCLE

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Several major festivals are devoted to the Deities of the Earth. The most significant one is the Pons festival, a complex sequence it which all cycles meet. But the bhumi-debotas are in the centre of the festival ; at all altars under the trees (gactola-thakur) sacrifices are performed and cooked food is offered. The gods receive cooked food only twice a year, at the Pous festival and two months later at the Sarasvati festival, Otherwise no annual celebrations are observed. But it may happen as in the case of the Manasa pujas, that several days are set aside for annual worship, and then other deities are not left out. There are pujas of Bhairab, Sanyasi, Khettrapal, Baram, Marang Buru (male deities) and Candi. Manasa, Khudrasini, Kali, Sitala, (female, consort-like figures). Manasa is specifi­ cally worshipped in the wet season when snakes are about. Her festival is held over four days and all castes participate, thus her rites cut across the cults of the other three divisions. Her major puja is in the Jhapan festival when her ritualists play with cobras and black snakes in her honour. Sacri­fices are often performed at the pujas of bhumi-debotas, the food offered being consumed by the people of the locality.

There are many other festivals and pujas. Some, such as Ganes puja on new year day in April, define the year, others occur during the last days of the year. Then there are special pujas of different castes, the Milk-man­caste's Krsna puja, the Fisherman's Durga puja, the Spice-merchants' Gondesvari Durga, the Bauri earthworkers' Baram, the Keot Fishermans' Manasa, the Bisvakarma and Agasthamuni pujas of the Blacksmith and Shell-working castes. These are distinguished by jati affiliation, but the worship enters other cycles as well. The caste basis is not exclusive. Occupation is also being linked to pujas nowadays, and caste links are becoming less important.

Pujas of the sun also define the unity and division of time ; the end of the solar month is a good day for pujas. The Sun, Itu, itself is worshipp­ed in Agrahayan (November-December) and phases of the sun and moon provide auspicious occasions for the pujas of other deities. In this case the sun and moon are also offered puja since they make the day sacred. Beyond these there are all thepujas of the different sects and devotional groups, with their own annual cycles.

Festivals of gods and goddesses complement each other in the calendar. The lunar and the solar calendars separate these pujas in most cases. The six seasons of the Bengali year do the same (Figure 3).

Each season is associated with a divinity. The Spring is the time of the gracious Basanti Durga Debi but it is also time of plagues and the terrible aspects of the Goddess, Candi Debi. All the gajans of Sib occur in this season. In the cold season are the pujas of Sarasvati and Lakkhi, complemented by the festival of the Bhumi-debotas (Bhairab and Roram especially) and those of Ganes, Sib, and Krsna (all male deities). In the hot and wet seasons are the pujas of Manasa and Mahaprabhu, and the festivals of Krsna and Dharama Thakur. The sarat-kal is the season of Debi pujas ; the winter is the Festival of the Sun.

A season holds either the complementary festivals of male and female deities or is known entirely for the puja of a particular deity, male or female.