This year’s Dashain festival began on Monday with Ghatasthapana.
On Monday morning, Ghatasthapana was marked according to Vedic rituals amid a special ceremony at the Dashain Ghar of Hanuman Dhoka in Kathmandu by worshiping Goddess Durga and sowing barley seeds to prepare jamara.
A band from the Nepal Army played the Mangal Dhun on the occasion.
After the Ghatasthapana at the Dashain Ghar, daily animal sacrifices are offered and worship is conducted following the rituals. On the day of Mahanawami, 54 male goats and 54 female buffaloes are sacrificed at the Kot in Hanuman Dhoka.
Ghatasthapana marks the beginning of the 15-day Dashain festival, the biggest and longest festival of Nepali Hindus. It falls on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada, or the first day of the bright fortnight in the month of Ashwin, according to the Hindu calendar.
On the first day of Dashain, Ghatasthapana is performed in every household by installing diyo (oil lamps), kalash (sacred vessels), and Ganesh. In the worship room or Dashain Ghar, the invocation of Goddess Durga, is made according to Vedic rituals, and worship begins.
On this day, sand or soil is brought from a nearby river or clean place and placed in the worship room or Dashain Ghar, smeared with cow dung. Then, (barley is sown on the bed of sand or soil according to rituals. Since jamara (sprouted barley) is a favorite offering to Goddess Durga, barley is sown on Ghatasthapana and offered to her. Then, on the day of Bijaya Dashami, the 10th day of Dashain, the yellow jamara, symbolizing prosperity, is received along with tika and prasad.
Devmani Bhattarai, a religious scholar and member of the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti, says that according to scriptures, no other grains besides barley should be sown for jamara. However, some people sow other grains along with barley based on their family traditions. Jamara is also used as an Ayurvedic medicine.
