Pahela Baishakh celebrations in Dhaka can be traced back to the early 1960s. Eminent personalities of the time organised special programmes at their residences. Chhayanaut started performing at the English Preparatory School while Bulbul
Academy performed on the bank of the Dhanmondi Lake. The Bangla Academy hosted musical programmes, recitations as well as fairs. Oikkyatan Shilpa Goshthi mostly held their programme at Bangla Academy. There would be probhat pheris around the capital and even in towns and cities across the country. There were programmes on Rankin Street also.
While Chhayanaut first elevated the celebrations to a higher level by taking their annual programme to the now Ramna Batamul in 1967, today many organisations including the Shilpakala Academy, National Museum, Shishu Academy, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote, Nazrul Institute, Muktijoddha Jadughar, National Poetry Association, Bangla Academy and the Bulbul Academy invariably host programmes on a grand scale. Numerous shilpa goshthis perform across the capital and other cities.
There are fairs at the Dhanmondi Club ground, Mirpur Outer Stadium and Manik Miah Avenue. There are numerous concerts. There are recitations, jatras, dramas and musical programmes at the Suhrawardy Uddyan, TSC, Ramna Park, Rabindra Sarabar at Dhanmondi, Engineers’ Institution and the Mahila Samity. There is big-time sponsorship for these events.
With Pahela Baishakh growing in scale every year, the students of the Institute of Fine Art added a new touch to the celebrations by initiating the Mangal Shobhajatra, a carnival-like procession which sets off from the art college every morning on Pahela Baishakh, since 1989. This has since become the next big event after the Ramna Batamul soiree to grace the celebrations around Dhaka.
On December 29, 1988 the students of the art college took to the street in front of the college and brought out a colourful procession on the occasion of the Zainul Abedin Janma Barshiki. There were four large horses, their structures carved out of bamboo poles (an ancient design originating from Muharram celebrations now used all across the world), small items like colour tubes and water colour brushes and the now legendary ‘masks’.
Only a few months later, in April, the students teamed up again, this time to try their hand at bringing out a procession on the eve of Pahela Baishakh. A large elephant, the form taken from rural folk art, was fabricated. Masks were made from carving out earth dice. There were 20 to 30 students at work, who also made crowns to wear in the procession.
On the morning of Pahela Baishakh, when a large procession stepped off the art college gate, the area was set abuzz. They took the route across the Suhrawardy Uddyan and, by time they reached the road parallel to the Ramna Batamul, the Chhayanaut programme was disrupted as the audience had left in crowds to see what was happening on the street.
By 1990, the following year, the Mangal Shobhajatra had swelled to its present humongous shape. The Chhayanaut and the art college people came to an agreement, and it was decided that the shobhajatra would start right after Chhayanaut had finished its programme at around 8:00am.
The shobhajatra organisers, subsequently, adopted a formal structure with a committee being formed 10 to 15 days before the occasion, a practice that still prevails today, with the current director of the Institute of Fine Art as the chairperson.
About 100 to 150 students, mostly of the first and second year, guided by senior students, former students as well as a number of teachers, would set to work. The groups would be divided according to their skills to make the masks, the different ‘sculptures’, and to paint them.
There were a few large sculptures. A huge bird was fabricated on one occasion, whose wings and tail spread a good 20 to 30 feet. There was a 30-foot snake, with a ‘fundamentalist’ face, chanting from a tape recorder as it went along. There was a white pigeon denoting peace, and a dark pigeon personifying protest. On one occasion there was a ‘theme’ rally — one end of the procession all black, another end all white.
There were smaller horses, to be worn around the body. There were large masks of tigers, and there were peacocks and crocodiles.
There were also a number of small things. On short sticks were stuck different indigenous items — lakhshmi shara, shokher hari, pankha, etc. There were different stalls inside the college as well as ones travelling with the procession, selling rakhis, masks, different local sherbets, artwork, indigenous items, tee-shirts and local food. On one occasion a bioscope was set up by a group of students. There were even wall paintings
on the surface of the college walls of different themes taken from local folklore and folk art, like the Mymensingh Gitika.
And of course, there were the masks. After working for a few years on the earth dice, Saidul Islam Juise, now a famous mask-maker and former student of the art college involved with the shobhajatra from its inception, introduced a unique method of mask-making known as paper folding. Out came masks of tigers, elephants, birds and all other kinds of beasts. At first their shape seemed somewhat borrowed from the West, but the colouring was exclusively Bengali, taken from our folk art.
Preparation itself would be a carnival in its own right. For 10 to 15 days students, teachers, ex-students and outsiders would work day and night. Work would continue till the late hours of the night and into early morning of Pahela Baishakh. Then in the morning all things were lined up in the order that they would leave the premises. The dhak players were distributed proportionately across the procession.
The procession is a sight worth watching indeed. The gathering crowd stretches from the gates of the art college to the Shahbagh crossing. Even the footpaths are filled up at both ends. The shobhajatra begins at the gates and processes across the Suhrawardy Uddyan. On a few occasions, the procession has taken the route in front of the National Press Club, right up to Kakrail, and back to the art college. The participants walk on one lane of the road to prevent the traffic from being stuck. It generally takes one to two hours to complete the shobhajatra.
‘There are people dancing all along the way — old, young, families, foreigners — even hours after the shobhajatra is over. I even see people in their cars and bikes on the other side of the street rock to the beat of the dhak. We even control the traffic ourselves as our boys on motorbikes travel ahead of us and clear the way,’ says Juise.
This year, the hub of the activities will be the area starting from Shahbagh, the art college, Mall Chattar and TSC, right up to the Bangla Academy, Suhrawardy Uddyan, Shaheed Minar and the High Court. Hundreds of thousands will throng the area from the break of dawn till the next day, some starting celebrations from the day before.
At the art college you can get masks, get your face painted, buy artwork, T-shirts and all kinds of local items. There will be baul sangeet and lokosangeet by different groups and shilpa goshthis in and around the university area. There are going to be various food stalls – the legendary panta-ilish on kolapata, luchi-tarkari and other traditional food.
And finally, a lot of colour. Colourful processions throughout the day – featuring boats, thrones, stage kings and queens, men dressed as bauls and boyatis, men dressed in dhotis, men dressed as theatrical characters, and women dressed in the traditional white sari with the red paar.
Cultural Programmes on Pahela Boishakh
Different cultural organisations have chalked up elaborate programmes on the occasion of Pahela Boishakh.
Chhayanaut:
Leading cultural organisation Chhayanaut will hold its most acclaimed music programme on the eve of Pahela Boishakh at Ramna Batamul, which will begin at 6:30am.
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy:
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy will organise a three-day cultural programme which begins on Pahela Boishakh and will feature songs, dances, theatrical performances and a traditional fair.
Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University:
Students of fine arts faculty of Dhaka University have also chalked up a three-day programme which begins at the faculty’s Bakul Tala on April 13 to mark the Chaitra Shangkranti or the last day of the Bengali month Chaitra. On the morning of Pahela Boishakh, they will hold the most colourful rally rich with traditional handicrafts of various sizes.
Hrishiz:
Another organisation Hrishiz will hold a cultural programme at the same place in the afternoon.
Source: http://www.newagebd.com/
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