Bhagoria
Haat, Jhabua
This colourful festival of the Bhils and Bhilalas, particularly in the district
of West Nimar and Jhabua, is actually in the nature of a mass svayamvara, a
marriage market, usually held on the various market days falling before the
Holi festival in March. As the name of the festival indicates, (bhag, to run),
after choosing their partners, the young people elope and are subsequently accepted
as husband and wife by society through predetermined customs. It is not always
that boys and girls intending to marry each other meet in the festival for the
first time.
In a large number of cases the alliance is already made between the two, the
festival providing the institutionalised framework for announcing the alliance
publically. The tradition is that the boy applies gulal, red powder, on the
face of the girl whom he selects as his wife. The girl, if willing, also applies
gulal on the boy's face. This may not happen immediately but the boy may pursue
her and succeed eventually.
Earlier, the Bhagoria haat was also the place for settling old disputes; open
invitations were sent to enemies for a fight in the haat. Bloody battles used
to be quite common in the past but today police and administration do not allow
people to go to the haat armed.
The Bhagoria haat also coincides with the completion of harvesting, adding to
it the dimension of being an agricultural festival as well. If the crops have
been good, the festival assumes an additional air of gaiety.
In the life of the Bhils and Bhilalas, Bhagoria is not merely one festival but
in fact a series of fairs held one by one at various villages on their specific
market days, commencing eight days before Holi.
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