Whenever I hear drum beats, I am reminded me of another day, another time – when I had been 7 or 8 and living in Nagpur. A time when the sound used to strike an inexplicable terror in me and I would have gladly done anything to escape it. Well, not the sound itself but what accompanied it. It happened around Dussehra/Durga Puja.
And now it is the same time again and I thought it about time I shared my terror of all those years ago with you all.
We had a lot of Durga puja pandals in various localities in the city and they were grand affairs. The huge idols of the goddess, decked in all finery and with a beautiful, benevolent expression on her face despite the trident piercing the demon at her feet, used to mesmerize us kids. We used to go to see the various Durga deities and partake of the prasad but underlying all the excitement was the dread of the drums.
They started days before the actual installation of the goddess’ murtis. I knew it was irrational – even at that age, but was helpless to prevent the slow creeping of the terror which intensified with every passing day and drumbeat.
Now why would anyone — even if that anyone was a child — be scared, of all the things, drums? It was not just the drums but the dancing and hooting crowds that accompanied it. I can see you laughing. Well, laugh all you want. Let me tell you that was not all; there was more.
The dance was not by any benign girl/boy/man/woman. It was by a tiger! And now, if you have finished laughing I will tell you about the dancing tigers.
They had blood red tongues hanging out and they jumped and whirled on the streets to the accompaniment of drum punctuated by blood curdling (or at least what sounded like that) roars and yells. They looked very very scary to the timid young girl that I was back then. They went from street to street and collected money for the festivities in their respective localities.
Huli Vesha
The tiger is the ‘vahan’ (mount) of the goddess Durga and it is a tribute to that beast that this ritual was performed as part of the festivities.
It is not only in Nagpur that this custom prevails. Elsewhere, too tiger dance is performed during festivals. Called ‘huli vesha’ in Kannada, it is a folk art form performed in south Karnataka during Dushera and Krishna Janmashtami. Puli vesham as it is known in Andhra Pradesh is performed by both Hindus and Muslims during Dushera and Muharram respectively.
Coming back to my childhood, these tiger dances started several days before the actual festivities began and my cousin, (who was younger to me by a year) and I would begin avoiding the streets these tigers danced in. We walked to school together and our older cousins usually had no patience for us kids to accompany us for ‘protection, even making fun of us for being scared. We had nothing to fear in the mornings when we went to school since the ‘tigers’ were still asleep at that time, probably tired after the previous day’s ‘hunting’. It was when we returned in the mid morning that terror overtook us.
We had to go through several localities, each with its own puja pandal and that meant as many tigers to dodge while we gingerly made our way home. The moment we heard the sound of the drums we would start running blindly in the opposite direction, which happened to be towards the school! The problem with this was that we had to not only face them again on our eventual return but also get a royal scolding from our mothers for being late.
There were only two roads to come home and one of the roads — the cement road — as it was called, was lined by affluent homes which were not disturbed by the tigers and was the longer way home. But who cared about distances so long as we could walk in peace? We would dart in and out of the side streets of the road panting, while hitching the school bags on our shoulders.
Most of the days we would manage to reach home without encountering one of them but imagine our shock one day when we miscalculated the direction of the sound and its proximity and ran bang into one of the processions. The ‘tiger’ could sense our terror and tried to pounce on us while his companions and a small ‘tiger’ laughed at us. My cousin had already burst into tears and I was close to, but I had to act the brave older sister, and so pulled her by her hand and blindly rushed out of the crowd and kept running till we reached our house and collapsed in a heap. Whew!
We both knew the ‘tiger’ of our locality who lived next door and had a cycle repair shop. He was a nice friendly ‘bhaiyya’ as all older boys were addressed in those parts – all till he donned the traditional dress of the tiger. He magically transformed from a good-natured young man into a ferocious beast, and though we knew it was just a mask, we were scared of the terrible looking teeth and blood red tongue. Come to think of it, his make-up didn’t look so scary and we would laugh at ourselves nervously telling each other that no tiger danced on two feet and had two human hands – all till the drums started and then he almost became a tiger for real!
I don’t remember other kids being as scared as we both had been. In fact crowds of them would follow the procession, dancing and clapping with the drumbeats.
Over the years the customs associated with Durga Puja have changed and I myself had seen the dancing tigers disappear in the city a decade or so later. I would have loved to see the ‘tiger’ dance with the drum beats and without any fear, but alas!
Can anyone tell me if these ‘tigers’ still dance?
Image courtesy: www.daijiworld.com
The Cybernag 
You have portrayed the tradition as well as your fears so well.Strange are our fears in childhood, but we owned them and they are as real to the child as the grown up fears for adults.i remember being scared of the labourers who would tie a red bandana around their head..and go in lorries.i was scared of trucks too.
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Thank you Asha. Fears are real and sometimes leave a lasting impression in some form. But they do look irrational whether they are childish ones or adult ones, except to the one going through them. Unless they are abnormal fears that could have psychological basis, I guess. And lorries! I used to be scared as hell of them – especially as they came towards you on the road. In fact, they still scared me when I was learning to drive – in my 30s!!
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I can imagine how two young girls would be frightened by those ‘tigers’!
I have never seen them- not during Navaratri, nor any other festival. If I had, I would probably have been scared of them, too, as you were! 😏
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Oh, they are hardly to be seen even in Nagpur from what I hear. Folk arts are increasingly becoming designer and going places, much like local produce getting exported and the locals having no idea about their own food.
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Hi Zypher. Your post brought us childhood memories back.I remember well having seen the tiger dance called pulivesham in our lane . whole body painted with yellow and black color, looks exactly like a tiger. Mostly done by rickshaw pullers,cycle repair wallas. Of course now it looks very stupid , when i vividly remember,how i use to get scared,especially when they come to house to collect money. Its also said,its a kind of vow, to perform such dance during Navratri,,if somebody suffers from chronic diseases in the family or the person himself.
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I didn’t know this about the pulivesham dance. Thanks for the info. We lived in an upstairs house so didn’t have to face them at close quarters!
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I have seen these ‘tiger dance’ in my younger days may be around a temple festival.But drum beats is one thing everyone looked for during Durga puja in Kolkata where I spent my best years.The drummers specially hired from districts would deftly create a sublime magic, with their practiced hands holding short bamboo sticks, of sounds in myriad rhythms and patterns making the crowd sway and dance along with drummers in the divine ambiance..Even now I rejoice whenever I hear a sound clip of puja drums.
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Agree about the drum beats when they are not accompanied by a fearsome tiger 🙂 Great to know that this post brought back your joyful memories connected with drums and drumbeats and puja.
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[…] droves. I have written about the drums and tiger dance during Durga Puja celebrations in Nagpur here. However, this post is about how Tamilians celebrate the festival with vignettes from my […]
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Come over, I’ll take you around. It’s actually a delightful place if you can ignore those monkeys.
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We have the much hyped Kingdom of Dreams near our place. And the Culture Gully has quite a few two legged monkeys meant to amuse. They are irritating to say the least, prancing around you with their monkey antics.
Next time, I might just end up hitting them!
And thankfully I have never seen the tiger dance. The fear you experienced as a child, is so vividly described. Could almost feel it.
And no I didn’t laugh even once 😛
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Go ahead and hit the two-legged monkeys 🙂 Honestly these jokers can reduce the best of something into a farce and culture is not above their antics. Imagine calling something culture gully and doing such crass stuff. If I come to Gurgaon, I would like to see it, or is it a seasonal thing?
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Gosh, that does sound scary… I bet you’ll remember it all your life!!
Btw, if you like my post, please vote for it at Indiblogger
http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=34664
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Hmm…..I guess that ‘tiger dance’ activity has been discontinued here in Nagpur now. Haven’t seen any(at least in the area we live in!) since our move here. Would have loved to watch them tigers dance !
Back in Calcutta(when we were school children) we used to have this ‘Shiv-Kali’ dance…the same loud, hard rhythmic drum beats !Shiva all covered with ‘bhasma’ toy snake round his neck, ‘jataa dhari’, Kali – painted all black, long black flowing tresses with a long red toungue(false one no doubt) sticking out of her mouth – both dancing with great abandon to the beat of the drums….some sight it was !I remember we used to watch it with great intrepidation and thrill!
Your post brought back those memories……
Good one.
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Hey Chits, missed you here for sometime. Where have you been?
wish we had had cameras to capture those events, right? I couldn’t find anything on the net except the Karnataka ones and even those probably because they are done by regular troupes who know how to promote it,
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Yes! He was missing and so was Puli Vesham from the street show!
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Any other country would have minted money on merchandise of Shera and here he himself was missing. Sad, isn’t it?
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Yes, during childhood days we too were scared of those tiger dancers!
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I miss all those times, don’t you?
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hehe..nice post..yes I too have seen it when I was very young..but not today in my place…well,I liked when you said that the tiger had a shop near the house …..overall good post :)..chk me too
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Thanks umpoems and welcome here! Our folk art forms are slowly getting endangered, out of the streets into the hands of ‘organisers.’
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hahahaha… i have read abt this, seen in tv and movies.. despite being a hardcore chennai-vasi i am yet to witness it 😦
psst: Papa says i was afraid and crying when i saw a cheetha statue at Vrindhavan gardens.. he even has photographic proof (which i kidnapped during the last vist :P) so u can see what my condition would have been has i saw puli aatam in real 😀
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Welcome to the club Ratzzz. I remember stuffing my fingers in my ears when I entered the railway station, so scared was I of the whistle of the train! A true scaredy cat, I was then!
Pliss, pliss, mail me the photo.
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emailed you… ok don’t laugh now amma 😐
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My granddaughter is too! She would run into another room and stop her ears when she saw the pressure cooker being switched on!
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this is indeed funny. i used to be scared of the whistling pressure cooker as a kid.
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Blogging is a good way to file our memories, I guess 🙂 Would be a great link for our grandchildren to know their grannies’ lifestyles….hahhah…good one Zephyr. I remember of getting scared of lorries when I was a child. How funny it seems now. Best wishes!
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shera must have been kidnapped by kalmadi to make some more money….
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that sounds just like what Kalmadi would do! 😀
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These things do scare us when we are kids….it all seems so irrational and stupid now 🙂 Cute post.
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Hey nice to have you back here, Vinita. Thanks.
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