Toki Parba

Toki Parba, also known as Pusha Parba or Meria Parba and sometimes colloquially known as Poda-mara, is a religo-cultural festival of the Kondh Adivasi community spread out over the eastern ghats of southwestern Odisha, touching on the erstwhile Kalahandi and Koraput districts of the state. Dharani Penu or the Earth goddess is the great benefactor of the Kondh people who engage in cultivation along the sides of streams and rivers, shifting cultivation on the side of the hills or foraging in the Dongar or forest.
Pusha Parab is essentially a harvest festival celebrated during the start of spring and summer. While initially the festival included the practice of religious sacrifice of a toki or tukel—a young girl—to the Earth goddess to ensure a bountiful harvest, it has, in present times, evolved into a cultural festival, which has become can occasion to renew kinship relations and for the youth to get together and find their partners as well as pay respects to the Mother Earth through the sacrifice of chicken, goat or buffalos.
The rituals are led mainly by the village shaman or bejuni over a five to seven-day period in each Kondh village, from household to village community level, while the larger Meria Festival happens in a local area decided upon by the shamans consensually, on a rotational basis.

This film, directed by Bhargav D was made as part of the Sahapedia Film Fellowship 2020, which is supported by H.T Parekh Foundation.

Видео Toki Parba канала Sahapedia