Manabasa Gurubar: Goddess Lakshmi against Untouchability

Bhubaneswar: Odisha worships Goddess Lakshmi on Gurubar (Thursday) during the lunar month of Margasira.

This occasion is correlated with cultivation and harvesting, which are the main profession of the people of the countryside. By this month, farmers, who had toiled hard in the fields for the past few months, fill their reeks and barns with freshly harvested paddy. They consider it as the grace and blessing of Goddess Lakshmi and worship Mana filled with freshly harvested paddy as her icon. Mana is a pot made of bamboo canes used in the olden days for measuring paddy.

It is believed that the Goddess visits every house during Manabasa Gurubar and therefore, the female members perform this puja with devotion.

THE LEGEND

The Legend of Manabasa Gurubar is based on the ancient scripture “Laxmi Puran”. In ancient times, the untouchables were not allowed to pray, worship and conduct rituals. Pleased with the devotion of a scavenger woman named Sriya Chandaluni, Goddess Lakhmi, however, visited her home.

This act, however, angered Balaram, the elder brother of Jagannath, and she was turned out of Jagannath Temple, Puri, at his behest.

The Goddess was shown the door for ending discrimination on earth by encouraging even untouchables to conduct rituals and worship. While leaving the temple, she cursed her husband and elder brother-in-law saying that they would have to go through a prolonged ordeal without food, water or shelter. The curse of Laxmi has had a severe impact on both brothers for 12 years. Soon they realise her importance and Laxmi too agreed to return but on one condition, there will be no discrimination of caste and creed on earth.

The 15th-century text Lakhmi Purana written by Balaram Das is the first text against the practice of untouchability and caste discrimination. It also stresses the importance of feminism and empowers the female to resist male hegemony.

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