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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
An ethnographic approach comparing how the festival of Dasaĩ unfolds in various ancient kingdoms of western Nepal reveals the unique elements particular to each site. It also reveals the way in which violence, order and disorder are combined in singular arrangements, like the various elements of a sort of transformative group which we can observe changing as we move across the country. The festival of Dasaĩ (The Ten Days) otherwise known as the Durgā pūjā (Worship of the Warrior Goddess) is an annual celebration which takes place during the first ten days of the clear fortnight of the month of Asoj (September–October). It is a combination of family celebration, a gathering of the bloodline and/or village, and a royal ceremony, so that the practices associated with each collective intertwine at different levels. The ten days of the ritual are divided into a preliminary phase lasting seven days dedicated to the worship of the Goddess and the reading of her Celebration, followed by two days of sacrifices, first of goats, in private houses and clan temples, and then buffaloes, which take place in ancient palaces and the great temples dedicated to the Goddess. The tenth day closes the rite, and is an occasion for the renewal of positions of power and hierarchical relationships, as a prelude to the final warlike rejoicings.
The reclusion of the first days
From its very beginning, the ritual suspends the ordinary passage of time. Throughout the country, all activities grind to a halt, with schools, universities, administrations, banks and most businesses closing for the duration of the festivities. Even the farmers interrupt their work in the fields, the only time they do so all year. The days before the ritual trigger a vast migration within the country, marked by the departure of three million people from the Kathmandu Valley alone.2 All over Nepal people huddle together in crowded buses, hoping to get back to their villages in time. The rite is a symbol of prosperity and abundance, marked by the distribution of the Dasaĩ kharca, the equivalent of a thirteenth month of pay for civil servants and to a ‘New Year's bonus’ for private employees. It
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