Keeping alive a unique tradition
By D.C. Sharma

LIKE the Minjar festival of Chamba and the Dasehra of Kulu, Mela Dalyan Da is a festival peculiar to Kangra. It consists of a series of events comprising elaborate rituals.

Celebrated on the banks of the Beas in Mattaur, a small village 5 km north of Kangra, the festival has unique religious tones. Rali is another name of Parvati (consort of Lord Shiva) in these parts. Her marriage with Lord Shiva and her death in the agni-kund is the basis of this festival.

Celebrated on the first day of Baisakh (Indian month approximately in mid-April), the festival is eagerly awaited. Preparations for the festival begin a month in advance. The artists begin to design clay dolls of Rali and Shankar six months before the event. Maidens from various villages and towns form groups and mark the beginning of the festival by singing hymns.

Get up O’ sleeping doll
It’s thy hour to wake
How birds chirp and sing sweet
They too love to see thy face!

Then the lasses offer flowers to the pistus.While preparing to go to the garden, the girls sing thus:

Get up O’brother sweet
And gather flower containers,
Thy sisters pray thee
To perform this ritual!"

En route to fetch flowers, they sing thus:

Dear Bhabi and Igo
To collect sweet flowers,
Thou grow dear Bhabi
Like these buds of March!"

While passing through Kangra town, they sing:

Awake thou O’ sleeping town
The holy men are praying to Lord,
Only sinners sleep like that
At the break of day!

Reaching the gardens they collect the choicest flowers. They sing to each other:

All belles have brought flowers
Where did you get late?

And the reply comes from the other groups of singers:

Since Lord Shiva met me
My worship bore fruit!

Before leaving for the garden, the girls shut the doors of the room where the pistus are kept. Upon returning, the pistus are requested through a song to open the door:

Why this hustle and bustle

In the temple of Lord Shiva?

What does the prayer mean,
And what do the people say?
It is the prayer to Lord Shiva,
And people praise His victory!

Such activities go on until the last day. The virgins keep a fast every Sunday. Five days before the festival, the girls separate the male and female pistus and keep them in different rooms. Then they separate themselves into two groups, one belonging to Rali and the other to Shankar.

Another legend has it that Rali, the devoted daughter of a poor Brahmin, was a motherless child. She was very beautiful but her father couldn’t find a suitable match for her. Every groom had a dowry-tag. When Rali was 25, the village barber selected a 12-year-old boy called Shankar for her. His parents demanded no dowry. Rali felt aggrieved at the injustice done to her . When her palanquin bearers were crossing the Beas, she jumped into the gurgling river. In a bid to save her, Shankar lost his life.

Now on Baisakhi, the virgins celebrate the marriage of Rali and Shankar by enacting the sequence of events. They play different roles, sing the following lines:

Rali’s side: We have little flour
And little rice,
Why should we marry Rali
With your ugly Shankar?

Shankar’s side: Our Shankar had been to Lahore
And to Pishore,
He would bring a gold ring
To beautify thy Rali!

After the enactment of the marriage ceremony, the two pistus from each group are consigned to the river . Men, women, and children dance to the tune of drums as the pistus are immersed. The fair upholds the age-old tradition and culture of Kangra.