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Social Folk customs of the Sonowal and Thengal Kacharis

by Suravi Gohain Duwarah | 2022 | 50,902 words

This essay studies the customs and folk traditions of the Sonowal and Thengal Kacharis of Assam—both of Mongoloid origin and part of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic family. These tribes possess rich customs, traditions, and oral histories. This study explores the similarities and differences between the Sonowal and Thengal Kachari tribes by emphasizin...

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Part 1.11 - Description of Burha Burhi Puja

The Sonowal Kacharis consider “Burha Burhi Puja� to be a worship of lord Shiva and Parvati. There is a legend about the origin of burha burhi Xaal in Xadiya. Lord Shiva & Parvati in the name of Madhopurukh and Hureswari was in a forest–Madhopurukh disguised himself as a cowboy and along with the other boys played with Hureswari. The other boys who accompanied him were hired of chasing the cow. So they sent him to Hureswari for remedy. Hureswari said that she just have some khud kon and cooked these. The boys made fun of so little rice being cooked. But where it was ready they were not able to finish the food and the leftover rice was kept wrapped under a mudori tree. The next day a �mo-mo-to-to� smell came out of the rice and they were happy eating that rice. This mo-mo-to-to smelled things came to be known as mod or madhopurukhor ras. Since it was prepared in the house of Madhopurukh, so it was named as madhopurukhor ras as and since it was prepared by Hureswari it was named as hura. The boys drank this raas and were relieved from their tiredness and got excited so they were warned that they are not supposed to drink more than �Nolor sungare dusunga� else they will lose their balance and may speak anything leading to a chaos.

Burha burhi was then brought from that place and they said that while coming they cannot stop at any place. Accordingly they were brought in a dula but they stopped at a place. Burha-burhi turned into a stone where they were stopped. The Sonowal Kacharis believe that the ‘Burha-burhi than� was then made at that place. So this community worships a store considering it to be Lord Shiva and Parvati.[1]

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Op Cit, Sonowal, 2013, p145-146

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