The next minute, drums start rolling and the procession sets into motion. Gond women gather around the elephant, singing Gondi songs, and take turns to bow before their lord. A Gond man, holding the idol tightly in his grasp, cautiously climbs a makeshift ladder and sits on the animal’s back. Then in sync, everyone - men, women and children - bursts into a staccato of chanting, their arms flung into the air: Jai Gondwana! Jai Seva! Jai Raja Ravan! Raja Ravanna Seva!Īmid this chanting, the deity is carried out of the tent and carefully mounted on to his chosen ‘vahan’, the elephant. Some Gond elders assemble near the idol in obeisance, while a ‘bhuma’, the Gond priest, sprinkles rice grains and turmeric powder around the idol, uttering chants. A ‘sulla-shakti’ crown adorns his head while a garland is placed around the neck. In Gond tradition, yellow signifies both creation and destruction, and is the definitive colour of the day. The deity wears a white kurta and a silky golden-yellow ‘sela’, the traditional Gond shawl. A group of tribal men and women in colourful attire huddle around the 10-feet elephant next to a broken drain. While the Greeks used their horse to conquer the Trojans, this elephant made of grass and mud and a coat of paint, symbolises a cultural conquest of a different kind.Įvening is setting in and the air resonates with chants of Jai Seva! and Jai Gondwana! A few yards away, sheltered by a vividly coloured pandal, a two-and-a-half-feet tall idol of a man with striking features - his yellow face with a handlebar moustache - is the centre of all veneration.

It stands like the Trojan horse, clamped upon high iron wheels but sans the ominous boding of Greek subterfuge. In Paraswadi, Gond festivities begin with a procession of Ravan on an elephant float.

Ravan mafia script