PARV 3 OF 30 · CHAITRA
Mahachandi Yagya 2018
महाचंडी यज्ञ
March 2018, a once-in-a-generation event
"जय माँ चंडी, जय मलीनगर"
PARV 3 OF 30 · CHAITRA
महाचंडी यज्ञ
March 2018, a once-in-a-generation event
"जय माँ चंडी, जय मलीनगर"
Katha · The story
A Chandi Yagya is the great fire ritual to the Devi in her fiercest and most protective form, the one who killed Mahishasur, Chand and Mund, Shumbh and Nishumbh in the Durga Saptashati. Each of the seven hundred verses is offered into the fire with an ahuti; a Mahachandi Yagya multiplies this a hundredfold, with many kunds and many pandits reciting together for days. Villages hold one when they want the land cleansed and the community united, often after a long gap and with the whole diaspora contributing.
In March 2018 Malinagar did exactly that. A bamboo and cloth pandal went up near the temple with rows of havan kunds. Naga sadhus came and sat by their dhunis. A murti kala pradarshini showed Sheshshayi Vishnu, the Ram Darbar and other scenes. A mela ran every evening with jalebi, chaat and the toy stalls, and people came home from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru for it the way they come for Chhath. The photographs in the gallery are from those days.
Mahatva · Significance
For the village it was a reunion as much as a ritual: families who had not been back in years met in the pandal, and the funds, the bamboo, the cooking and the crowd management were all done by Malinagar people themselves. It is remembered as the biggest gathering the village has seen.
"या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Bhandara: puri, kaddu ki sabzi, chana, kheer and the mela's hot jalebi.
Nobody has fixed the date of the next one. When it happens, this page will say so first.