Festival of rains to begin in Chamba

SHIMLA: During the monsoon season festivities engulf the beautiful Chamba valley. And not without reason, for it is time for the Minjar fair, said to be a harbinger of prosperity, in which the people celebrate the bounties with which nature has blessed the region and pray for a good harvest.
Himachal Pradesh governor V S Kokje, will be the chief guest at the inaugural function of the fair this year scheduled on July 27, whereas chief minister Virbhadra Singh will be the chief guest the concluding ceremony on August 3.
Often known as the ‘‘festival of rains’’, there are various folklores associated with it. Story is that the fair was started by Raja Sahil Verman around the tenth century, to mark the diversion of river Ravi (Iravati), which helped the people visit the Harirai temple located at the opposite bank.
The king, it is said had persuaded a sage to use his divine powers to divert the river. The sage, it is said prepared a seven-coloured rope having different colours for each day of the week and named it Minjar. A ‘’havan’’ was performed for a week, and on the seventh day, the river changed course marking the beginning of the Minjar celebrations.
According to another school of thought, an old woman wanted to pay her obeisance to the ruler of Chamba. Having nothing, she plucked some of silken strands (minjar) on the small maize corn from a field, and offered them to the king. Pleased with the affection, the king ordered the day to be celebrated in the form of Minjar fair.
The fair traditionally starts on the last Sunday of Shravana at the historical Chamba ‘‘chaugan’’ with traditional zeal and fervour. Prayers are offered at the famous Lakshmi-Narayan temple, where people attired in silk and golden tassel come in large numbers for the week-long festivities.
The festivities conclude on the first Sunday of August every year. A procession of the idols of Raghuvir and various other local deities in chariots are taken out from the historical ‘’Akhand Chandi mahal’’, joined by thousands, many of them carrying royal flags and symbols of the local ‘‘devtas’’. The procession culminates at the Manjari garden on the banks of the river Iravati, where the people offer minjars, coconuts, fruits and prayers to ‘’Varuna’’, believed to be the ‘’god of prosperity’’, for a rich kharif crop, specially maize. Incidentally, people from the adjoining areas of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir participate in the festivities with the same vigour.
After the prayers on the banks of the Iravati, the fair comes to its grand finale with the idols of gods and goddesses and royal flags going back to the ‘’Akhand Chandi mahal’’. The fair adds to the splendour of Chamba, where in the shadow of high snowscapes lie the green ‘’chaugans’’ (meadows), ideal pastures for the nomadic ‘’gujjars’’ shepherds. Flanking these are verdant slopes of oak and pine, grassy promenades, frolicking streams and placid lakes and the picturesque tourist destinations of Dalhousie, Khajjiar and Bharmour enticing visitors.