Rabha community celebrates traditional Baikho Festival with Grandeur in Hahim

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BOKO: The Rabha tribal people celebrated their traditional festival ‘Baikho’ along the Assam- Meghalaya border in Hahim, some 14 kilometers south from Boko in Kamrup district on Wednesday with daylong programmes. The Rabha tribal community’s annual colourful festival, Baikho, is celebrated every year in various places in Assam, Meghalaya, and West Bengal where Rabha tribal people are inhabited. Baikho Puja or festival is usually celebrated on the full moon of the English month of April-May and the Assamese month of Jeth. Baikho Puja or festival is an agricultural festival, where Rabha priestess propitiates the gods and goddesses for a good harvest and to get relief from diseases as well as to bring peace, unity, and prosperity to the society. The festival was organized by the Hahim Regional units of All Rabha Students Union (ARSU), All Rabha Women Council (ARWC), and All Rabha Sixth Schedule Demand Committee.

According to Rohini Kumar Rabha, the Head Priest of the Baikho Puja, they started their rituals by sacrificing a pig and twelve cocks. After that, all priests and the people of the area took blessings from the gods and goddesses. Rabha also mentioned that Ghila Guti (African dream seeds) and Soko (rice beer), among other things, were important for the Baikho Puja and Festival. Rabha also said, “This is our traditional annual puja. During the Baikho Puja, we worship our thirteen gods and goddesses for a good harvest, for children’s progress in education, for availability of water, for people to remain free from sickness, and to remove evils and misfortune. Moreover, we annually celebrate the puja for the comprehensive development of the Rabha tribal community. The names of the thirteen gods and goddesses are Mama Sibu Damrang, Aya Sisurani, Aya Tamai, Aya Sampai, Aya Sasuri, Aya Daduri, Aya Rangbudi, Aya Rongmari, Aya Sayamari, Aya Khusri, Aya Nakati, Aya juju, and Bahubali Marukhetri.” During the festival, a felicitation programme was organized by all three regional organizations that also felicitated ten students from the Rabha community who passed the HSLC and HS examinations from the Hahim area. The programme was organized at the Hahim Library premises where the leaders of the three regional units planted tree saplings on the occasion of the Baikho festival. The festival was attended by Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council Chairman Sonaram Rabha, Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council general members Sumit Rabha and Ajit Rabha, ARSU Vice-President Pradeep Rabha, Kamrup District ARSU President Ananda Rabha, Vice-President Namal Kumar Rabha, and others leaders of the three regional organizations.

Rohini Kumar Rabha, the Head Priest of the Baikho Puja, said that as part of the festival, the traditional Rabha game of ‘lewa tana’ (tug-of-war) was also organized among the priests and women of the area.

The ‘Barnakkai’ (fire-test) dance caught the attention of the audience in the evening, which was the most thrilling and the last part of the Baikho puja. Rabha tribal priests applied rice powder paste to their bodies just before the performance of the ‘Barnakkai’ dance. After that, they prepared a fire with charcoal, and performed the fire-test dance to fulfil their wishes by worshipping gods and goddesses. The priests also observed a ritual for power called ‘Killabhanga.’

Namal Kumar Rabha, Vice-president, ARSU Kamrup District committee, emphasized, “Though the festival is celebrated for the comprehensive development of the Rabha tribal community, other communities including Boro, Gorkha, Garo along with Khasi people from Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills district also take part in the festival every year and thus we live together in this area despite it being a border of the two states.”

Also Read: Rabhas observe colorful festival, Baikho, along Assam-Meghalaya border

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