Boat Festivals of Eastern India: Rituals Associated with Maritime Activities with South East Asia
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)
Paper Abstract: India had trade connections since the 3rd millennium BCE. Throughout history trade and political relations were maintained between India and South-East Asia, Arab, Gulf, Europe, and Africa which made its culture diverse. India has a coastline of 7517 km, surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Arabic Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. Eastern India was directly connected with South-East Asia and had several ports in historical times. Festivals are part of the vibrant Indian culture, continued from ancient times, and are deeply associated with the beliefs of local communities. There are various boat festivals celebrated at different times of the year by different communities. Though each ethnic community is different from others, the common element is the 'Boat'. These boat festivals originated in ancient times, are deeply associated with maritime trade & sea voyages, and are still popularly practiced by the local communities after all these years, Social aspects associated with boat festivals are crucial to understanding the impact of trade and transportation for cultural amalgamation as these festivals are intangible evidences of historical phenomena. In this paper, two contemporary festivals from contemporary eastern India will be discussed. These two festivals are 'Bali Jatra' which means voyages towards Bali in Indonesian from the modern state of Odisha and 'Bera Utsav' from the state of West Bengal, representing Eastern Indian history and tradition.