Karam/ Karma Parv/ Karam tree
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A backgrounder
Shriya Murmu, Sep 18, 2024: The Indian Express
At the heart of the Karma festival is the Karam tree — traditionally seen as a symbol of Karam Devta or Karamsani, the god of strength, youth, and vitality, and the object from which the festival takes its name.
Tribal populations in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, and Odisha celebrated the harvest festival of Karma or Karam Parv.
At the heart of the Karma festival is the Karam tree — traditionally seen as a symbol of Karam Devta or Karamsani, the god of strength, youth, and vitality, and the object from which the festival takes its name. The festival is popular especially among the Munda, Ho, Oraon, Baiga, Kharia, and Santhal peoples. It is traditionally celebrated on the Ekadashi tithi (eleventh day) of the lunar fortnight in the month of Bhado/ Bhadra, which corresponds to August-September in the Gregorian calendar. (Sakshi Singh and Keya Pandey, ‘Festival and its Symbolic Interpretation: An Anthropological Study of the Karma Festival of the Oraons in Ranchi District of Jharkhand’, International Journal of Humanities Social Science and Management, July-August 2024)
This year, the festival was celebrated on September 14-15.
The sacred Karam tree
The Karam tree is the focus of the festival. The precise ways in which the tree is worshipped may differ slightly from region to region.
According to Hare Krishna Kuiry’s account, about a week before the festival commences, young women bring clear sand from the river, in which they sow seven types of grains. On the day of the festival, a branch of the Karam tree is planted in the courtyard or ‘akhra’. Devotees come with jawa (hibiscus) flowers, and the pahan (priest) worships the Karam Raja. Dancing and singing of traditional Karam songs follow. (‘Mundari Culture and Festivals: An Ecosophical Study of Ramdayal Munda’s Adi-Dharam’, New Literaria, January-February 2022)
The festival concludes with the immersion of the Karam branch in a river or pond, and the jawa is distributed among the devotees. Towards the end of the Karam festival, branches from sal or bhelua trees are often planted in the fields with the hope that the Karam Raja/ Devta will protect their crops, according to the study by Kuiry.
Myths of the 7 brothers
Among the origin myths of the festival is one about seven brothers in Odisha who neglected to worship the Karamsani, and were punished by the deterioration of their health, withering of their fields, and sickness among their cattle.
On the advice of a village elder, the brothers repented, restored the Karam tree, offered worship, and received Karamsani’s forgiveness.
Anthropologist Hari Mohan describes a similar myth, also featuring the story of seven brothers. (‘The Chero: A Study in Acculturation’, 1973) According to this story, the brothers’ wives one day failed to bring them their lunch in the fields, and upon returning home, the men found them dancing near a Karam tree. The brothers were furious, and one of them threw the Karam branch into the river.
Soon afterward, the situation of the brothers started to change. They were visited by hardships and poverty, and they were told by a priest that this was the punishment of Karam Rani. The repentant brothers went looking for Karam Rani, and worshipped her.
Culture and farm practices
Parwati Tirkey, an assistant professor of Hindi at Ranchi University in Jharkhand who has done fieldwork on Karam, said the origin of the festival can be traced to the beginning of agriculture by tribal communities.
As the Oraon/ Kurukh community cleared the forest and started cultivating fields, they aligned their cultural practices with seasonal agricultural cycles. They watered the fields in the autumn rains, and celebrated Karam, the festival of dhaan/ anaaj (grains), she said.
People danced and sang, and the pahan prayed for a good harvest. Along with the branch of a Karam tree, they also planted the stem of Chirchitti (chaff flower) and Sindwar (chaste tree) in their paddy fields, which, according to Tirkey, acted as natural insecticides.