The humble flattened rice or chira may not be the preferred food for city kids anymore, but there is a 500-year old festival in my hometown Panihati, which carries the name of “chira”, as we call the item known as poha/chura/chidwa in various states.
Traditionally, people in parts of Eastern India, including Bengal, eat chira with milk or dadhi/dahi (curd), sweetened by jaggery. Panihati Chira-Dadhi Utsab or “Danda Mahotsab” witnesses tens of thousands of Vaishnava devotees assembling in Mahotsabtala ghat on the banks of the Ganga every year in the month of Jyestha on Shukla Trayodashi, and having an auspicious feast of chira-dadhi, along with naam-sankirtan and other festivities associated with Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Colloquially called “chirer mela”, the festival commemorates the Panihati visits of Bhakti movement icon Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his friend and disciple Shri Nityananda Mahaprabhu, together called "Gaur-Nitai" by devotees, in and around 1515 A.D.
Why chira-dadhi and why it is called Danda Mahotsav or the Festival of Punishment? The legend has it that Shri Chaitanya devotee Raghunath (later famous as Raghunath Dasa Goswami), the son of a wealthy landlord of Saptagram, wanted to renounce worldly affairs and join the Mahaprabhu, but was sent back by him. Once, Raghunath came to know that Shri Nityananda was in Panihati and went to him. Seeing him sitting under a banyan tree on the banks of the river, surrounded by disciples, Raghunath was hesitant and paid his obeisance from a distance. But he was called by Shri Nityananda, who told him in a tone of humour that he will have to accept a punishment for hiding like a thief, and treat all devotees to chira-dadhi, a direction Raghunath followed happily, and received the blessings of the lords. It is mentioned in Chaitanya Charitamrita, a biography of the Bhakti movement leader by poet Krishnadas Kabiraj.
কৌতুকী নিত্যানন্দ সহজে দয়াময়।/রঘুনাথে কহে কিছু হঞা সদয়।।/নিকটে না আইস,চোরা ভাগ' দূরে দূরে।/আজি লাগ্ পাঞাছি, দণ্ডিমু তোমারে।।/দধি চিঁড়া ভক্ষণ করাহ মোর গণে।/শুনি আনন্দিত হৈল রঘুনাথ মনে।।
A banyan tree in Mahotsabtala is believed to be the same under which Shri Chaitanya and Nityananda rested and is venerated by Vaishnavas. Shri Chatanya's first visit to Panihati from Puri in the month of Kartik in 1514 is also celebrated every year. Shri Ramkrishna was a regular participant in Danda Mahotsab. Mahatma Gandhi, who often used to stay in nearby Sodepur Khadi Pratisthan, visited Mahotsabtala in 1946.
(In pic: The revered banyan tree; for information, help taken from Panihati municipality website and some Isckon sites)
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