Cashew nuts and raisins decor for mata-ki-chowki

ALLAHABAD: This Dussehra, be prepared for a mata-ki-chowki tableau decorated with dry fruits. These days skilled hands are busy adding cashew nuts, pistachios and apricots to the chowki, to be taken out under the auspices of Pawaja Ramlila Committee.Dinesh Mishra isthe main person behind the concept of making `Shringar Chowki' with dry fruits.Talking to TOI on Tuesday, he said that every year we introduce a novel conceptregarding decoration of chowki. Last year, we decorated the chowki with cerealsand pulses. Dry fruits which are being used in chowki include cashewnuts (kaju), raisins (kishmish), watermelon seed (tarbooz beej), walnuts(akhrot), pistachio soft (chironji), pistachio nuts (pista), pine nuts(chilgoza), cantaloupe seed (kharbooja beej), apricot dried (Khubani)etc.In the chowki, various forms of Lord Shiva have also beendepicted. Natraja, considered as the god of dance in India, is one of the formsincluded. Even the 12 famous Jyotirlingas found in various parts of the countryare being depicted in the chowki. These 12 jyotirlingas are found at Somnath inSaurashtra (Kathiawad), Gujarat, Mallikarjun in Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh)Mahakal or Mahakalaswar at Ujjain, Omkar in Mammaleshwaram (at Omkareshwar onthe river Narmada), Vaijnath in Parli (Vaidyanath at Deogarh, Bihar), BhimaShankar in Dakini north-west of Poona, in Dhakini, Maharashtra, Rameshwaram inTamil Nadu, Nageshwar in Darukavana (Maharashtra, Vishweshwar in Varanasi (UP),Trimbakeshwar near Nasik on the banks of river Godavari , Maharashtra,Kedarnath/Kedareshwar in Uttarakhand and Ghurmeshwar in Shivalaya or Grineshwarin Visalakam, near Ellora caves.Mishra said that he has a dedicatedteam of about 12 members who have been given the duty of preparing thecomponents of the tableau. The chowki would be taken out in its fullsplendour on October 15, said Sachin Kumar Gupta, head of the finance committeeof Pajawa Ramlila Committee. In the background, various forms of Shiva would bedepicted. The chwoki would be driven by Lord Rama and his brother, Lakshman.Even the crown and the bow being used by the brothers have been decorated withdry fruits. Pajawa Ramlila Committee is one of the oldest committees of the citywhich takes out different tableaux on the occasion of Dussehra.