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It’s time for revelry

BHUBANESWAR: Combining the ancient and the contemporary, the nine-day ‘Khandagiri Kumbh Mela’ and the week-long national ‘Kharavela festival’ would kick off at the Khandagiri foothills here on February 13.

Although the Khandagiri-Udaygiri caves are internationally known as Jain heritage sites, the centuries old ‘mela’ has been an immensely popular religious and cultural affair for the local communities, who host it with unbound enthusiasm. And what intrigues the historians and researchers is the age-old car festival of Anant Keshari, the presiding deity, who visits the aunt’s abode like Lord Jagannath of Puri once in a year. Once upon a time the car festival was being held for nine-days, claims Bichitrananda Jena, who has undertaken research on the religious tradition of the site. Leaders and followers of various Hindu religious sects assemble here in large numbers from far and wide every year during the ’mela’. They participate in the four-decade-old ‘yajna’ that continues through the nine-day fair here. The ‘mela’ has been the much awaited affair for the women, who prefer to buy a wide variety of house-hold goods from the fair from the large number of artisans and crafts persons coming here from different parts of Orissa.

For the past five years, city-based Kalu Nanda Memorial Foundation in association with different departments of the State Government and Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata is hosting a week-long annual festival of dance and music here.A high-level meeting was held recently, chaired by the Culture Minister and representatives of various departments.

Different classical and folk dances of India would be showcased, the hosts informed.

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