Exploring the Madai Festival of Bastar

Session 103 summary

Bastar a district in the state of Chhattisgarh in Central India with Jagdalpur as the district headquarters. The district is blessed with the blend of unique tribal people in odia culture. The tribes of Bastar region are known for their unique and distinctive tribal culture and heritage. Each tribal group in Bastar has their own distinct culture and enjoys their own unique traditional living styles, each tribe here will have its own diverse dialect. They differ from other tribes in their costumes, eating habits, customs and tradition. The high-lands of Bastar region in southern Chhattisgarh are home to three important Gond tribes: Maria, Bison Horn Maria and the Hill Maria. Gonds are one of the largest tribal groups in India and one of the features of the community is the celebration of the Madai festival. Madai is one of the many popular festivals of Chhattisgarh, the festivals are celebrated from the months of December to March and towards from one place of the state to the other. Upendra Sinha, shares a visual journey of the Madai festival celebrations through the various images he has captured as a part of his project to document the culture of tribal communities in Bastar.

Bastar is a southern region and the first time Upendra went there he was unable to forget his first interaction with the tribal people of Bastar – their colorful attire, their smile, their welcoming face, their strength and patience and the dense forests of Bastar. Those were the first things he noticed while visiting Bastar.

In 2017 when Upendra went to Delhi on the pretext of competitive examination preparations but on reaching there he invested that fees in the photography course diploma and from there he started his photography career. After completing his photography diploma he realized that before he was a very shy person but after holding the camera he feels quite powerful and responsible. There is a saying in photography by Dorothea Lange; “A camera teaches you how to see without a camera” which he feels is quite relatable to his documentation process. In 2018 when he returned to Chhattisgarh and went to Bastar for the first time for a short period of time, the first thing he did was Google Bastar and the top results shown was the widest waterfall in India – Chitrakoot. Upendra went there first but apart from Chitrakoot he also went to some other places and got the opportunity to click some pictures where he felt more connected to the people, the culture, the tradition, the attire and the people’s acceptance. After seeing and meeting the people, Upendra felt quite joyful as being a city person and living in a city he never felt a sense of being free which he was feeling there and that the people were so accepting, they did not hesitate to interact with a person who was new to their place. Everyone was accepting of the fact that, there was no fear of talking to new people. In 2018 when he first went there, there was a Gonja festival, there were a lot of tribes present. Upendra was not aware of the festival taking place, he was just there for a visit and felt that the people’s life was quite sustainable. When he was going to Chitrakoot, on the way to the destination there were many places which he wanted to enter and explore. He was also able to take some pictures in those places which awakened his inner sense of what he feels with the nature, the connection which he never felt in the city. When he was visiting a village in Bastar he found some scenes which left him in awe and made him feel pride that he was able to look at those places.

The community’s life is very simple, the peopele spend their life fulfilling their needs with the things found around them. He took a picture of a memory pillar which was erected in the memory of the deceased family member, it is usually erected in the “aangan” of the house and together with the pillar they put the deceased’s belongings so that it stays as a good memory.

He did a lot of research, thinking how he can explore Bastar more – its culture, its people, its tradition, etc. Then in 2019 he decided that he wanted to see Madai because he felt that it is a festival where he would get the opportunity to see the community’s tradition and culture better than any other places. Almost 70% population of Bastar is comprised of tribals – Gond, Maria, Durwa, Alba, Durla tribes and he would be able to observe them all during the festival.

The Madai Mela in Bastar begins when during agand mahina, ‘dhaan katai’ is complete (rice harvest). The harvesting season ends and soon after the madai mela begins. After a good harvest it is a form of thanking the gods and goddesses. It is also held to dispel the yearlong struggles, efforts and tiredness through music, dance, interacting with the community. The village’s ‘sirah’/head and ‘pujari’/priest together decide when and on which dates madai should begin and they make sure that the madai of different places don’t clash together. Early in the morning, a person starts calling the people, soon people come with their instruments and then the entire village starts gathering in one place. It all begins in the Kesharpal village. The people are not just there for a get together, they are there to show their gratitude to their gods and goddesses for a good harvest. When Upendra was there he came to know that the festival is not celebrated each year. Long ago when there was a drought there and not a good harvest then they had postponed madai until the next year as they believed that their gods were angry with/at them and because of that they didn’t have a good harvest. Upendra got to see the deep devotion of the people towards their culture which gave rise to their belief that their gods and goddesses come descend there and hence they show their gratitude. Even though Upendra had been a part of the festivals in the city but he never felt a connection to them as he felt with the madai mela.

Since upendra was solo traveling, he continuously asked the villagers where and when the next madai mela is. This is how he came to know about a place called Netanar, where the durwa tribe were holding the festival. He took picture of the durwa tribe men; the clothes they were wearing are called durwa fata, they worship ‘mata netarin’ and ‘gundadur’ who was a leader of Omkar Vidroh 1910. Since the madai travels through many villages in the sequence of Kesharpal -> Bastar -> Nagarnar -> Gotpal -> Narayanpur ->Jagdalpur, Upendra was able to go to some of those places and get a chance to see it. He also took pictures of women from Netanar where the durwa tribe was celebrating madai. It was the month of February when he was traveling there so he was just trying to visit the people in different villages as much as possible. Then he met a photographer from Jagdalpur who told him that in Gotpal madai was taking place and they could go there since it is a nice place and they would be able to get some interesting clicks. On reaching Gotpal, Upendra wasn’t able to comprehend what was happening there. At the entrance of Gotpal, there was a big ground at the center of the village where people slowly gathered together from 11 am. When people were starting to gather, they were without any instruments but after the ‘sirah’ and ‘pujari’ began their ‘puja’, then slowly people started bringing their instruments to the center ground. Then from different villages people with their own gods and goddesses began gathering in one place. The people brought their gods and goddesses’ jatra to the appointed place and they also brought some things from their houses to offer the gods. Some brought the harvested crop from their fields, some eggs, cocks-hens, etc. they were the things which they could offer. In Gotpal the mudia community is prevalent hence the mudia community held madai there. As the festival began, slowly the crowd increased and people continued dancing from afternoon till evening, their energy never decreased. Upendra felt a sense of divine which showed how the people were devoted to their gods and goddesses. Apart from offerings to the gods and goddesses and dancing, the people are also able to do get-togethers there and a mela is also set up. Upendra also got to know that the youths were also introduced to each other and they got a chance to interact with people from other villages and tribes. The madai continues from the evening to night and then till the next morning after which the gods and goddesses are cooled down in the nearby river.

After Gotpal Upendra went to Narayanpur the next day. The atmosphere there was similar to what he found in Gotpal. During the festival there was a time when the electricity went out, the people were bemoaning and getting angry of the fact that the electricity went out. But Upendra was the only one who was happy because in the darkness as he looked up to the sky he was able to see thousands of stars which were not visible to him in the city and he felt that those stars justified the madai mela, they shone its divine light into the madai as if the gods and goddesses were present there through the stars.