Bastar Dussehra begins with Pat Jatra ritual.....!

Like every year in Bastar, this year also Dussehra has started with the ritual of Pat Jatra. Dussehra is being celebrated in Bastar for the last six hundred years. The Dussehra here lasts for a total of 75 days, which is the longest Dussehra in the whole world. In Dussehra, where there is a tradition of burning effigies of Ravana all over India, in Bastar, the chariot is pulled in Dussehra without burning the effigies of Ravana.

Bastar Dussehra is being celebrated from 1408 AD till date in Jagdalpur city with great enthusiasm and pomp. In this, lakhs of tribals of entire Bastar are involved. The Dussehra ritual starts 75 days before the Pat Jatra. A two-storey chariot is pulled in Dussehra. In which the umbrella of Maa Danteshwari resides. Every year Maiji ki Doli goes from Dantewada to attend Dussehra.

Bastar Dussehra is the biggest festival of Bastar. Every year on Hariyali Amavas, as the first ritual under this festival, the law of Patjatra is fulfilled. The first wood of Bastar Dussehra construction is called Turlu Khotla and Tika Pata in the local dialect. The first wood of chariot construction to be prepared for Bastar Dussehra was brought from village Bilori in front of Danteshwari temple.

According to tradition, the rituals of Pat Jatra were completed with worship legislation and goat sacrifice in the presence of local people's representatives with the cleverness of the members of the villagers and artisans who built the chariot with the law.

In Pat Jatra Puja Vidhi, the artisans of Jhar Umargaon Fleet Umargaon by whom the chariot is to be made. They bring with them the tools for making chariots and the first wood for making chariots is worshiped along with the tools. According to tradition, this ritual was performed with the sacrifice of Mongri fish and goat. In which the villagers also participate.

Bastar Dussehra holds its own identity in the world with the unique tradition of Bastar, which foreign tourists come here to see and understand. In this Dussehra, the primitive tribes holding the strings of faith and belief, keep the umbrella of their adorable goddess Maa Danteshwari for hundreds of years. Sitting in a giant wooden chariot, she pulls the chariot in the form of a circumambulation of the whole city.

Bastar Dussehra is the festival of collective expression of devotion to the Ishta Devi of the royal Chalukya royal family from the former Chitrakot princely state to Bastar princely state and the goddess of devotion to Mother Danteshwari, the presiding deity of all the folk life of Bastar region.