Diwali in Sindhudurg is celebrated with the same spirit as every other metropolitan city. However, it has the warmth of cozy and quaint weather surrounded by greenery. I have been seeing a lot of videos of Narak Chaturdashi in Sindhudurg. Every area has a set of local people who start working on making Narakasura effigies for months and years. It takes immense hard work and pure talent to make these huge effigies.
I was super excited to show my little one these gigantic Narakasura. This was also my first time seeing them. Read this interesting post to learn more about the traditional way of celebrating Narak Chaturdashi in Sindhudurg.
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Narakasura Vadh Story
We are all familiar with the tale of Narakasura, the mighty demon son of Mother Earth, Bhoomi Devi. He ruled over the kingdom of Pragjyotishpura and wreaked havoc across the three worlds. His cruel deeds tormented the gods, including Indra Dev, who sought the aid of Lord Krishna.
At the time, Krishna was accompanied by Satyabhama, an avatar of Bhoomi Devi herself. Narakasura, cursed to be slain only by his mother as per her wish, was eventually defeated in a great battle between him and Krishna. Following the victory, Krishna rescued 16,000 women who the demon had imprisoned. These women, fearing societal rejection, were married by Krishna to restore their honor. The Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata state that 16,000 women were rescued and they were scared about the society’s acceptance. This is why Krishna married them all to restore their honor. Some references state 16,000 and others 16,108.
Evening Celebrations Narak Chaturdashi in Sindhudurg
The night before Narak Chaturdashi in Sindhudurg is quite interesting. Every village here has its Narakasura effigy on the streets standing tall. These effigies are all handmade and unique from each other, they often scare kids as they look super realistic. My little one was scared and cried a little but I was adamant about showing her some of them to remove that fear for next year’s celebrations and till today she remembers them. She knows the real one has been killed by Krishna and this one is to celebrate the victory for good over evil.
At several places these effigies are brought for participation in the Narakasura competition and the best one which is probably out of the box wins the competition in the form of cash prizes. Now the main thing here is everyone getting together as a team to build their very own version of Narakasura. If you are not from Sindhudurg I would request you to visit the place to experience these unique celebrations before Diwali.
I’ve even heard that these effigies can also be stolen by people so some members of the gang stay awake to avoid this. These huge effigies have firecrackers filled in them so later early morning before sunrise these are burnt.
Early morning Narak Chaturdashi in Sindhudurg
Every family in Sindhudurg wakes up early in the morning before sunrise. We get home a bitter cucumber also known as Kareet a day before Narak Chaturdashi. These are usually available in our local markets. Every family member stamps and breaks this kareet with the left toe/foot early morning by saying, Govinda Govinda. This basically signifies Lord Krishna’s victory over Narkasura.
We later taste this bitter cucumber and rush to the first Abhyansnan. It is said that Krishna had some blood on this body and this is why we do oil application and fragrant uban as the bath session. This is the day when we celebrate the victory over good over evil. In our case, we stamped three of the kareet, and the last one is broken and lit as a diya in front of the tulsi vrindavan.
Later everyone in the family relish the Diwali faral and sweets along with sweet pohe (jaggery and coconut with locally available red Pohe) and boiled sweet potato.
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