Gajan (festival)

2026-04-13T01:46:41Z

198.90.11.25: typo fix

{{Short description|Bengali Hindu celebration}}
{{For|disambiguation|Gajan (disambiguation){{!}}Gajan}}
{{Infobox holiday
| type = Cultural
| holiday_name = Gajan
| nickname = Shiva Gajon
| observedby = [[Hindu Bengali]] and [[Adivasi|Tribal]] people of East India
| significance = marriage ceremony of Lord Shiva and Harakali
| celebrations = open air drama
| date =
| frequency = Annually
| duration = 1 week
| begins = last week of Choitro
| relatedto = [[Lord Shiva]]
| image = Celebration during Gajan 1.jpg
| caption = Gajan festival at the village Narna of Howrah
}}
'''Gajan''' or '''Shiva gajon''' is a [[Bengali Hindu]] folk festival celebrated mostly in the [[India]]n [[States and territories of India|state]] of [[West Bengal]] and [[Bangladesh]]. It is associated with such deities as [[Shiva]], Neel and [[Dharmathakur|Dharmaraj]]. Gajan spans around a week, starting at the last week of [[Choitro]] continuing till the end of the Bengali year. It ends with [[Charak Puja]] on the last day of Chaitra, the last month in the [[Bengali Hindu]] calendar. The next day is [[Poila Baishakh]], the first day of Bengali New Year. Participants of this festival is known as [[Sannyasi]] or [[Bhakta]]. Persons of any gender can be a participant. The complete history of the festival is not known. The central theme of this festival is deriving satisfaction through non-sexual pain, devotion and sacrifice. {{citation needed|date=December 2017}}This Gajan festival is one of the ancient festivals of West Bengal. The festival is seen in parts of Malda, Murshidabad, a few parts in Nadia and large parts of Burdwan. The gajan of Shrikhand village in Burdwan is famous as the gajan of Bhootanathar but actually it is the gajan of Baba Dugdha Kumar Shiva. This gajan was launched by Shri Chiranjeev and Sulochan Anad among the Vaishnava Parshad gajans.

==Etymology==
The word ''gajan'' in Bengali comes from the word ''garjan'' or roar that [[sannyasi]]s (hermits) emit during the festivities.<ref name=Mitra1>Mitra, Dr. Amalendu, ''Rarher Sanskriti O Dharmathakur'', First published 1972, 2001 edition, pp. 165-169, Subarnarekha, 73 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata</ref>[[File:Faces of gajon festival.jpg|thumb|Body and face painting during the Gajan festival is an ancient tradition of West Bengal. Today, this tradition is followed with equal devotion.]]
Alternatively, the word ''gajan'' is considered a combination of parts of two words - ''ga'' is from the word ''gram'' meaning village and ''jan'' is from the word ''janasadharan'' meaning folk. In this sense gajan is a festival of village folk.<ref>Ghosh, Binoy, ''Paschim Banger Sanskriti'', (in Bengali), part I, 1976 edition, p. 67, Prakash Bhaban</ref>

==Significance==
The Gajan festival is for bringing fertility back in the spring. The rituals can be performed by any person who performs austerities to gain eligibility to make offerings to the deities.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Nicholas |first=Ralph W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wo3XAAAAMAAJ |title=Rites of Spring: Gā̄jan in Village Bengal |date=2008 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-81-8028-035-1 |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Shiva Gajan ===
[[File:হাজরা নৃত্য - Hazra Nitrya - Kharua Rajapur, West Bengal, India.webm|thumb|''Hazra Nitrya'', Kharua Rajapur, West Bengal, India.]]
The Gajan of Shiva takes place in Chaitra (April–May), the last month of the Bengali year.

In Shiva's gajan Shiva is married to Harakali on this day. The sannyasis form the ''barjatri'' (bridegroom's party). In Dharma's gajan Dharmathakur is married to Kamini-Kamakhya in Bankura Dist.or Mukti.<ref name="Mitra1" /> The most recent studies on the gajan festival are: 1) Nicholas, R. ''Rites of Spring. Gājan in Village Bengal''. New Delhi: Chronicle Books, 2008; and 2) Ferrari, F.M. ''Guilty Males and Proud Females. Negotiating Genders in a Bengali Festival''. Calcutta and London: Seagull, 2010.

=== Dharma Gajan ===
The Gajan of Dharma takes place in Baisakha (May–June), the first month of the Bengali year.<ref name=":0" />

=== Common elements ===
The Shiva and Dharma Gajan have three common aspects.

# renouncing worldly life during the ritual
# undertaking physical ordeals
# making offerings to [[Surya]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Cite journal |title=The Dutch East India Company through the Local Lens: Exploring the Dynamics of Indo-Dutch Relations in Seventeenth Century Bengal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318292060 |journal=Indian Historical Review |year=2017 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=62–91 |doi=10.1177/0376983617712811 |pmid=30369711 |via=[[ResearchGate]]|last1=Sur |first1=B. |pmc=6187071 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Satpati |first=Lakshminarayan |title=Habitat, Ecology and Ekistics |chapter=Gajan: A Cultural Heritage of the Marginalized People in Kulpi CD Block, West Bengal |series=Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research |chapter-url=https://research.caluniv.ac.in/publication/gajan-a-cultural-heritage-of-the-marginalized-people-in-kulpi |year=2021 |language=en |pages=193–204 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-49115-4_11|isbn=978-3-030-49114-7 |s2cid=226320030 }}
* {{Cite web |title=Becoming Shiva: The Gajan Sanyasis celebrate the blue gods marriage to Harkali |url=https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/becoming-shiva-the-gajan-sanyasis-celebrate-the-blue-gods-marriage-to-harkali-6405251.html |access-date=2022-03-08 |website=Firstpost |date=9 April 2019 |language=en}}
* {{Cite news |date=2020-04-17 |title=Extreme piercing: A festival of self-inflicted pain |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-52328213 |access-date=2022-03-08}}

{{Birbhum topics}}
{{Bankura topics}}
{{Bengali Hindu people}}

[[Category:Festivals in West Bengal]]
[[Category:Hindu festivals]]
[[Category:Religious festivals in India]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindu festivals]]
[[Category:Hindu festivals in Bangladesh]]

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Gajan (festival)