नाना

"नाना बुढा त गएछन् नि आज"पल्ला घरका दाइको परबाट यो बोली मेरो कानमा च्वास्स पस्यो अनि एक्कासी मुखबाट निस्कियो-कठै! नाना (राजबंशी/थारु आदि जातमा मावली हजुरबुवा) करिब एक महिना अघि जेठी छोरीको जेठी छोरीको घर गएका थिए। नाना बुढा निकै बुढो भएका थिए।ठूलो सिसावाला चस्मा हातमा एउटा लौरो र काधमा कालो छाता अड्काएर पछाडी झुन्ड्याउँदै कहिले जेठी छोरीको घर त कहिले कान्छी छोरीको घर पैदल नै आउँथेँ।छोराको घर प्राय जादैन थिए।नानाको आँखा कमजोरी भएतापनि जेठी छोरी र कान्छी छोरीको घरसम्मको करिब छ किलोमिटर को मूल राजमार्गको बाटो हुत्तिदै हिँड्थे। उनका दुइ छोरी र एक छोरा थिए।पूर्व,तराइको मध्य दक्षिण क्षेत्रमा नानाको बिशाल बिर्ता थियो।उनलाइ सबैले देउनिया भन्थे।वल्लो छेउमा उभिएर पल्लो छेउको साँध देखिन्नथ्यो।पहाडबाट मान्छे क्रमश तराइ आउँदै जाँदा यि लगायत अन्य देउनियाको(प्राय सबैको प्रशस्त जमिन थियो) सीमाना साँधुरिदै गयो।आफ्नो परम्पराले पनि हुनसक्छ ,यो

Rajbangshi- Bangladesh

A small tribe of the Bhotbarmi group. They entered Bangladesh territory from the Himalayan region and the Brahmaputra valley. Rajbangshis are people of a mixed race, although identified by many as a branch of the Ksatriyas known as the Kotch. They are short and have flat noses and raised jaws. They are followers of Vaisnavism. Some of them now adopted Islam and some Christianity. In Bangladesh, they live mostly in Rangpur, Dinajpur and Rajshahi districts and a small number of them in the districts of Bogra and Mymensingh. In the censuses conducted in 1941 and later, they were treated as part of the Hindu community and as a result, their number could not be properly ascertained. Rajbangshis are now a declining community in Bangladesh area. In 1991, their total population was a little higher than five thousand. 

Agriculture is the main profession of Rajbangshis. They also catch and sell fish. Rajbangshi women are skilled in handicrafts and cottage industry. In their community, the father is the head of the family. Only male children inherit the property of their father after his death. Rajbangshis worship Hindu gods and goddesses

Cooch Behar’s blonde queen From the London swish set to the empty royal palace

London-born Gina Narayan loves Cooch Behar more than any other place in the world. The beautiful Cooch Behar palace, her handsome husband on a horse, tennis or badminton in the afternoon… the images flash through her mind, 27 years after she left India.

Gina was Georgina Egan before she married Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur of Cooch Behar in 1956. “We were introduced at a dinner party in London and married secretly after a three- month courtship,” recounts the 76-year-old, sitting in a room bedecked in oil paintings and black-and-white photographs of royal family members at the Dev Burman residence on Ballygunge Circular Road.

Gina Narayan in front of a portrait of her late husband, Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan, at the Dev Burman residence. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Maghe Sakrati

Maghe Sankranti is the beginning of the holy month of Magh, usually the mid of January. It brings an end to the ill-omened month of Poush (mid-december) when all religious ceremonies are forbidden. Even if it is considered the coldest day of the year, it marks the coming of warmer weather and better days of health and fortune.This day is said to be the most significant day for holy bathing despite the weather. This ritual usually takes place at the union of sacred rivers and streams.

A BRIEF NOTE ON RAJBANSHIS

Actually, the first work on Rajbansis was done by C. C. Sanyal, 1965, who wrote on the Rajbanshi community of North Bengal, with its own cultural heritage and their origin and important position even at the Indian context. According to him, these peoples were basically indigenous in nature, but involved in peasantry and associated with various agriculture related rituals, often acted as permanent agriculturists, established marital relationships with other sub-ordinates, underwent through the processes like Vaishnavization and Kshatriyaization, highly affected by Nathism, modified their traditional folk rituals so as to incorporate them into the Hindu fold, created the category of Kamrupi Brahmans, and transformation of