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Gogo/Gogro~ Naagpanchmi Food and Rituals

Alka Keswani — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 06:36:31 +0000

Gogo or Gogro is a Sindhi festival celebrated in honor of the God of snakes, named Gogal Devta. It is celebrated as Nag panchmi by many Indian communities. Gogo is now observed only by a small percentage of Sindhi families and many are not aware of the rituals as well. But for those who wish to know why and how this festival was celebrated, here I am, with some details about the Gogo festival. The Legend: Gogo (Gogal), as per a legend, was the grandson of King Gopichand who ruled a place in Thatta (Now in Sindh, Pakistan). Gogo’s mother inhaled the aroma of a flower carrying the ‘soul’ of a saint and got pregnant. No one in her family and around, believed her and to save his family from embarrassment, the King abandoned her. She gave birth to a son named Gogo, in the forest. Gogo grew up in the forest and the legend says that he was immune to snake poison as he was probably bitten by many snakes (many believe that snakes would feed him poison) and when he grew up he started treating snake bites just by his powerful gaze. He also started extracting more venom from snakes to feed his seven disciples. The snakes were offended as no one was afraid of snakes any more and hence one of the snakes decided to kill Gogo. It borrowed venom from a Python and bit Gogo on his jaw where his own gaze won’t reach and hence Gogo couldn’t treat himself and succumbed to the snake bite. When King Cobra came to know about the death of Gogo, it got furious and immediately killed the snake . King Cobra also cursed the Python that it won’t be able to produce venom any more. The legend says that from that moment onwards Pythons turned non poisonous. A logical reason behind celebrating Nag panchmi: Most of our ancestors were either farmers or lived in villages around jungles. In the monsoon when it rains, the burrows where snakes live are often filled with water and hence snakes tend to move out and find shelters around causing fear and anxiety in people living in the vicinity. Also during rains many frogs are found around the ponds and in the fields and snakes like to feast on the amphibians. More the snakes venture out in the field, more scared people would feel. In the mode of panic, even the non-poisonous snakes were/are killed. But our ancestors were aware of the fact that snakes are farmer’s best friends as snakes kill rodents and pests that often destroy the crops. When snake population declines, rodents increase in number causing harm to the crops and the ecosystem is affected too. In olden days many people would collect snakes and keep them covered in huge earthen pots, during monsoons, particularly during Shravan month, feeding the snakes from time to time so that neither villagers are harmed by freely moving snakes nor the snakes get killed. So to sensitise the people about the reptiles and to remove the fear of snakes from their minds, Naag Panchami was celebrated where people would bow down to the otherwise scary reptiles, offering milk to the snakes to seek blessings! In most of the temples or around, on this day, you will find snake charmers carrying non poisonous snakes in baskets. People offer milk to the snakes and money/food/fruits to the snake charmer. Sadly, eventually, this became a business for some people. Ideally snakes do not drink milk but are actually forced to drink it by the charmers to appease people for the sake of money. Urban population is clueless about how to tackle snakes or snake bites so it is not advisable for them to visit snake mounds to offer milk or grains, without a local guide. Considering this situation many Sindhi families no longer observe Gogo. The Food: Sindhis cook food on the eve of Gogo and eat only ‘stale’ or Thadho (cold) food on Naag panchmi. The food made on Gogo is same as that made for Thadri (Satain) but the Pooja rituals are bit different. The stove (Kerosene stove or gas burner) on which Lola are made on the eve of Gogo is not lit for the whole day on Gogo. The food cooked is as follows: (Please click on the name of the dish for its recipe) 1) Lolo : Jaggery sweetened whole wheat flat bread. 2) Koki. : Savory whole wheat roti spiced with onions, chillies, coriander leaves, dried pomegranate seeds etc. 3) Besani : Same as Koki, but here, gram flour is used instead of whole wheat flour 4) Dal paata: Mung dal stuffed paratha. To make dal paata phulka, rinse well and soak moong dal for an hour. Drain and roast slightly with some oil in a pan, add salt, turmeric powder and green chillies (optional) and boil in little water till al dente. Drain if there is any excess water. You can add a tempering of cumin seeds, coriander powder and red chili powder and add some amchoor too. Cool properly and use this to make stuffed parathas, the way aloo parathas (or any other stuffed paratha ) are made, using whole wheat flour dough. Around 1 cup of dal is needed to make 4-5 parathas. Apart from the flatbreads, fried vegetables like Okra, potatoes etc are also made. Urad dal vada are made and are added to beaten curds to make dahi vada on Gogo. Many prefer boondi raita over dahi vada. Some make fritters ( mostly Mirchai pakora i.e Chilli fritters are preferred) while other cook subzis with better shelf life. Stir fried methi, spinach etc are often made for the occasion, along with stuffed bitter gourds. Green chutney, boiled potatoes, beetroot, bread etc are kept handy for those who cannot consume the heavy food for all the three meals and vegetarian sandwich is a nice option for them as it involves no cooking. Pickles and home set curds are mostly had on this day to add to the probiotic quotient of the food. Khatto bhat~u or Kanbo bhat~u is also made in some homes, for this festival. It is basically boiled rice, cooled and mixed with some milk and curd starter (jaaman) along with a little of mustard powder. The mix is allowed to set overnight and is had in the morning, with some fresh curds and a garnish of mustard and pepper powder. Rituals: After making all the food, seven ( the number varies from family to family) Akhryun/Akhdyun are made. A portion of Lola dough is kept aside (or some people make the dough for Akhryun/Akhdyun, separately) and at the end of the cooking process, a small earthen plate called daangi is kept on the stove. The reserved dough is divided in to seven portions. In some families the Akhryun/Akhdyun are cooked on the earthen plate, while in other families, it is left uncooked for the Puja. In some homes these are deep fried. Basically Akhryun are flattened dough balls and are an integral part of Puja rituals. The puja rituals vary considerably from family to family. As mentioned earlier, most of the families follow the same rituals as that of Thadri and you can read all the details about it in this blog post! Now, mostly, on this day, Sindhis offer a mix of milk and water to the snake idols in the temple instead of going around looking for the real snakes.

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Jeth Ji Sesa~AlifBe~12

Alka Keswani — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:31:45 +0000

The 12th consonant in Sindhi Alif Be is ڄ, a unique one, because it is used in very few languages, one of it being Sindhi (Saraiki is another language where this is used). In Roman Sindhi it is written as J^ and as ॼ in Devanagari. ڄ is a Voiced (vocal chords vibrate when you utter this) Palatal (middle of the tongue touches hard palate) Implosive ( you breathe in instead of breathing out while uttering this). You can check this link to know how ڄ is pronounced! There are limited number of Sindhi words starting with this alphabet. Some examples are j^aari (the net), j^ibh (tongue) and j^ethu. J^ethu is the third month in Lunar calendar, also known as Jeth or Jyeshtha. There are barely any Sindhi dishes that start with the letter ڄ. So I thought to share a food ritual related to a lesser known festival of Sindhis, called J^eth Ji Sesa ! Sesa festival is observed on J^eth ji Ummas i.e Amavasya (No moon day) in Jyeshtha month as per lunar calendar . The festival is known as J^eth Ji Ummas or Khumbh or simply Sesa! Some Sindhis do observe it on the next day of Ummas which is a New moon day (Chand)! Some festivals or rituals stay close to your heart and you derive from it a certain warmth, some comfort and a feeling of being loved and cared for. Scientifically this ritual may not have any valid point but if you believe that faith can move mountains and calm the wild seas then you do believe in rituals like Sesa too. The festival reminds me of my school days, when the new academic year would start around this festival and so would rains, mostly! The thrill of reuniting with school friends after summer vacations, the pre monsoon showers bringing temporary respite from sultry summer heat and the feeling of happiness in the chaos of festivities were some of the things that would make the Sesa a special day, then, and the memories of those lovely moments still warm the cockles of my heart! Khumbh or Sesa or J^ethu Umaas/J^eth Puja, is, kind of, a patriarchal ritual followed by (generally) Sindhi ladies for the well being of male family members, in olden days. Now the ritual is either not observed at all or many Sindhis do observe it even for the girl child in the family. In olden days the male clan would often travel overseas for business purposes and the family would be worried about their safety, particularly if they happen to travel during the times when the turbulence in sea or rivers would pose a threat to the human lives. At the beginning of J^eth month a vow was taken to offer a sweet dish to the Sea/river and prayers were done for the safety of the family member/s and on the Amavasya of the J^eth month Sesa ritual was done. Elderly ladies in the family would dedicate a sweet dish to each male member and that same sweet was/is to be added to Sesa every year. I find it amusing as how our feelings and thought processes change with time. While as a kid I loved the Sesa ritual, as a headstrong teenager I disliked the aura of patriarchy this festival was surrounded by! Years later we started including sweets or dryfruits/ nuts for girl child too and that’s when I started observing it again! I remember how my mother would get busy since early morning to make the feast for J^eth Pooja and then we would accompany her for the pooja rituals in the neighbourhood. Ladies would gather and chit chat while preparing for the rituals and kids would anxiously wait to hog on the puris and pakora, mangoes and sweets. Lunch on this day, in most of the Sindhi homes would be Chola chaanwar. After reserving some boiled chole for prasad, the rest of it would be cooked in an onion tomato gravy and was had with turmeric laced rice…such a bliss! In the Thali : Whole wheatflour Puri, shallow fried potatoes, Gulabjamun (home made), Seyun, B^aat Jo seero (Broken wheat halwa), mangoes and turmeric laced rice. Ps: Updating the blog posts with fresh pics from J^eth Ji Sesa – 2021 We generally add Mesu (Mysore Pak) too but couldn’t find it in the shops around. A Sesa i.e a prasad/offering of boiled kabuli chola ( Garbanzo beans) and peela chaanwra ( Turmeric laced rice) along with seyun (sweetened vermicelli), fried potatoes or pakora, Puri, Mesu (Mysore pak), Gulab Jamun and dedicated sweets, is plated in a Thali. The ladies gather at the water bodies. Though traditionally the ritual was done near a river or sea, nowadays the urban ladies perform the ritual around taps in the home or a temple and then the food offerings are either fed to birds/cows or collected by volunteers and immersed in a lake/pond or river nearby. Sesa or J^eth ji Ummas’ Ritual: Some grass is collected and mounds are prepared of grass and some Puri, shallow fried potatoes, pakora, seyun ( sweet vermicelli) along with the respective dedicated sweet/s, coconut etc are taken from Thali and are placed on the mound . A portion of the mound is then taken and tapped with other had and a small prayer is recited: “Aamra Leemra ( aamro leemro) khayi bharyosein paet, Jiyan muhinja Putra, potra, dhotra, jin rakhaayo J^ethu. J^eth seyun khaaraye, J^eth mesu khaaraye…( Include all the names of sweets offered).. J^eth maal khaaraye ” Roughly translates as: (had) Mangoes/ lemons (or does it mean ‘lim’ i.e neem?) and filled our tummies, Long live my sons and grandsons who made me observe J^ethu rituals. J^eth feeds seyun (sweet vermicelli), J^eth feeds Mesu (a sweet), J^eth feeds us a feast. Please note: I may have erred while translating this so if you know it better, please leave a comment on this post and I will rectify! The mounds are then collected and fed to birds/cows or as done in olden days, immersed into a water body. The rest of the food brought by ladies is collected, mixed and then distributed or shared with neighbours. Another Sesa Thali, with Mesu (Mysore Pak)! At our home we pray for all the family members and particularly for Sesa ritual a sweet/dry fruits/nuts are dedicated for children irrespective of gender. Please check the following links if you seek the recipe! Seyun and Patata Gulabjamun B^aat Jo seero Atta Puri Ps: Adding this small video that I made on Sesa (2021)! And finally check this video to known or learn the formation of Sindhi letter ڄ!

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