BALI YATRA AT ORISSA IS GOING GLOBAL

BALI YATRA AT ORISSA IS GOING GLOBAL 7/11/2011
ORISSA UPDATES:-

Bali Yatra literally means "A JOURNEY TO BALI". This festival is held in Orissa, particularly in the city of Cuttack, to mark the day when ancient Sadhabas (Oriya Sailors) would set sail to distant lands of Bali, as well as Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines and Sri Lanka for trade and cultural expansion.


This festival of Bali Yatra is celebrated in October-November for five consecutive days before the full moon to memorize the maritime legacy of Orissa. Bali yatra also marks the culmination of all religious festivities held during the month of Karthik.
Others opine that Sri Chaitanya MahaPrabhu, the great Vaishnavite Saint, first landed in the soil of after crossing the sand-bed (Bali) of Mahanadi river on his way to Puri on this auspicious day. The date may have been the same but Kalinga’s Maritime tradition predates Chaitanya Dev’s journey by centuries.


Bali Yatra is celebrated as an open, fair near the Barabati Fort area. Children float toy boats made of colored paper, dried banana tree barks, and cork in the Mahanadi river, ponds, and water tanks, to commemorate the voyage of their ancestors to Indonesia. The toy boats with their small oil lamps light up the autumn evenings like a second Diwali. It is also known as festival of boats.

These days Bali Yatra is a high profile fair that is visited by many from Orissa and outside. And the popularity is attested by the fact that once a five day affair, Bali Yatra today has been extended to eight days in view of the huge influx of enthusiasts and visitors from across the country. The fair has all sorts of stalls selling almost everything. Visitors to the fair can lay their hands on almost everything from pearls and costly metals to local spices. And then there are throngs of stalls selling varieties of delicacies. From traditional dahi-bara- aludum to gupchups, biryanis and chowmeins , these stalls are real crowd pullers.


With time the Baliyatra has changed a lot but it still retains the traditional flavor for which it is known for. The unprecedented flow of visitors and tourists through the years has forced the organizers to expand the fair to near the banks of Mahanadi over and above the old yatra ground that lies near the fort.


What is pleasant to see in Bali Yatra even today is the fact that people still remain associated with their culture. Though the modern day fair has changed a lot with times, the historical event is still celebrated along the same objectives that made it such a popular affairs of the yore. Though the ports along the coast have become inactive due to gradual silting in the river bank, the pomp associated with the festival has only grown. And the festival today is more an opportunity for the people of the state to revive pleasant memories associated with long nourished tradition of glory that casts a halo around the festival.

There are certain measures taken by the Government and The Municipal Corporation of Cuttack as the Yatra is nearing. It will start from November 10th.

A formidable task is required to ensure a ‘Polythene-free Bali Yatra' in Cuttack where over 1,500 make-shift stalls are erected—half of which are food stalls—on an area of 40 acres with over two lakhs visitors throng to the city everyday for over a week. Measures will also be taken by the corporation and the district administration to make sure that no unhygienic and unpleasant food is served to people during the festival.

The organizers, particularly the district administration with active cooperation from the local civic body are doing a great job to make the Bali Yatra more successful.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA , SAMBALPUR