Dr Pradeep Mahapatra’s Blog on Berhampur Thakurani Yatra 2013

I am born and brought-up at Berhampur, a small city with over 4,00,000 population in Odihsa State at the eastern coast of India. Berhampur is about 340 years old. It has grown as the administrative epi-centre of south Odisha and leads the region in trade, education, healthcare etc.

            Bada Thakurani is the reigning deity of the city as per Hindu faith and Berhampur Thakurani Yatra which is about 240 years old tradition has woven emotional linkage with people of the city. The biennial Yatra attracts thousands of visitors to its carnivals organised daily at the busy market place Bada Bazar for about a month during the summer evenings in April.

            I am participating in the Yatra since my childhood. Conventionally the people of the city try to involve themselves in organising the Yatra as per their capabilities. I have put efforts to publicise the Yatra in the media since I could attain accessibility to it during my college days. Mostly, I have written columns on the Yatra in local newspapers, participated in regional television and radio programmes. I started reporting the Yatra since 1982 and compiled the reportages of first 12 years in an article published in 1994. The present effort of blogging aims at disseminating information about the Yatra gathered by me for about three decades and sharing personal experience enjoying the carnival.

I welcome feedback. I would request the netizens to share information, experience and reaction by posting them in the Blog.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY : Rudra Prasad Patro

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