The five-day Keslapur Nagoba Jatara, a religious event of the Buigoita branch of Mesram clan of Raj Gond and Pardhan Adivasis, got underway in Adilabad district on Tuesday amid unprecedented security. The area of the fair, which is half a kilometre in radius, resembled a fortress what with the presence of a heavy posse of policemen.
As many as 50 officers headed by Adilabad Superintendent of Police Vishnu S. Warrier are leading the round-the-clock security bandobast which has 400 personnel including 110 policewomen drawn from neighbouring districts too. Three sections of the armed Telangana State Special Police and two Special Parties of policemen are manning the area in three shifts.
The tightest ever security for this jatara is the result of the ongoing discord between the Adivasis and Lambadas and the chances of Maoists trying to filter in taking advantage of the situation. The strategy of the police apparently is to avoid possible trouble by deploying law and order machinery in huge numbers.
“Last year, the government had provided free wi fi in the jatara. This year we have no Internet services since a month,” recalled Sidam Madhukar from Pataguda as he threw light on the present circumstances by drawing a parallel.
About 1,000 families of Mesram Raj Gonds and Pardhans have already arrived at Keslapur to participate in the religous festival from different parts of erstwhile undivided Adilabad district and from villages lying across the border in Maharashtra. Though the clan elders seemed to be worried over the prevalent conditions, the pilgrims were evidently oblivious of it.
All the rituals, starting with the 180 km walkathon of the Mesrams to Godavari to fetch holy water went with clockwork precision. All the families which had camped under the sacred banyan tree about 400 metres away from the temple of the serpent god, the clan god of the Mesrams, shifted to the govad, closer to the temple.
The clan katodas or priests brought the holy water to the temple on schedule which helped in the ritualistic making of boula resembling an anthill possible. The mahapuja was held around 11 p.m. with top officials like Adilabad Collector D. Divya and the SP attending it. The aesthetic ceremony of bheting was also held following the mahapuja. Bheting or introduction has all the daughters-in-law who got married into the clan being introduced to Nagoba ceremoniously.
