Jhapan Mela : Of Cobras , Vipers and their Charmers

We live in a big country. A big, strange and diverse country. Rituals, landscapes, clothing, food, languages keep changing every few hundred kilometers. There is so much to know, so much to see and learn just within the geographical confines of our own country.

So when I heard about the Jhapan Mela, literally the festival of snakes and snake charmers I couldnt be more intrigued especially now knowing that it is celebrated in the same village that some of my relatives are from! Another example of how diverse our culture is, and how much there is to see for all of us, even for the most seasoned traveler!

Below is the article I wrote for Bizarre Culture on the Jhapan Mela.

Bishnupur. 140 odd kilometres from Calcutta. Known to have the highest number of historic temples in West Bengal, mostly made of terracotta. And yet another seemingly nondescript town in a country that is marked by one every hundred kilometres or so.

But with August and the post monsoon lushness and hopes of a good harvest, comes one of the most intriguing festivals celebrated in India, the Jhapan Mela.

On the last day of the Sharavana month of the Bengali calendar, scores of snake charmers gather to worship Manasa Devi, the serpent deity. Members of the Rajbongshi tribe appear with their small bamboo baskets with snakes to honour the fierce Goddess. Many gather to seek her blessings for a good harvest, fertility, prosperity and protection against diseases.  Though throughout the festival one may not actually see idols of the deity, instead followers worship trees, rocks and other aspects of nature. In fact most of the Manasa devi worshipping revolves around being one with nature.

While as per one school of thought, the word Jhapan seemed to have originated from the Bengali word Jhapi, meaning the bamboo basket in which the snake charmers (called the Jhapanias) keep their snakes, as per another school of thought Jhapan literally means a large stage erected to exhibit tricks with snakes.

The festival is celebrated with much fanfare, and for the Jhapanias it is a day to earn the extra income in an otherwise penury ridden life. Snake charming, like most traditional occupations in India have been carried on for generations now. Earlier the snake charmers had a profitable business owing to the demand for venom to be used to treat snake bites. This has now been replaced by synthetic venom being used by the government. Apart from this, with the Wildlife Protection Act making it a crime to own wild animals and use them for personal or commercial profit has further pushed these snake charmers with no alternate source of income into further destitution. Adding to it, in the recent years, the mela has seen a rise in Bangladeshi snake charmers participating as well, thus further reducing earning opportunities. As a result, for a greater part of the year one can mostly see these charmers proving a hit with tourists and cajoling them into taking pictures for a few extra rupees, and living true to the image of India still being a land of snake charmers!

However, for that one day in August, these charmers and their cobras, vipers, pythons take the centre stage as the rest of the public swoons in religious revelry.