Dancing with sticks to worship Saikumari

BY OUR CORRESPODENT

Rukum (West), Nov. 10: Devotees in Rukum (West) have performed the famous stick dance to pray to the goddess of the Digre Saikumari Temple. The religious and historic dance, also called Sagal, is performed for five days every year at the temple. It starts on the day of the Haribodhani Ekadashi and continues till the day Kartik Purnima.

People from the Sankha village of Musikot Municipality Ward No. 7 go to the temple every day for the five days with sticks in their hands and dance with them on the open ground near the Saikumari temple while playing traditional music. 

As part of the dance, they also beat each other lightly with the sticks. But no one gets hurt. Kedar Gautam, secretary of the temple’s management committee, shared that the dance was believed to have started in the Dwapar Yuga, the era preceding the present Kali Yuga in Hinduism, as per the wishes of Saikumari Bhagwati herself.

Lal Bahadur KC, former president of the committee, shared the lore that Saikumari Bhagawati appeared at the place where the temple stands today at the end of the Dwapar Yuga and asked local Brahmins to establish a temple for her worship. 

The stick dance is a way of praying to the goddess that many in the area regard as their patron deity. According to the committee, a bell dated 1641 BS (1584 AD) has also been found on the temple premises.

People believe that worshipping the goddess and sacrificing a billy goat to her will get their wishes fulfilled.