History of Charak Puja (Hook Swinging Festival of Hindus)(GORE)

 

History of Charak Puja (Hook Swinging Festival of Hindus)(GORE)

An anonymous 16th century Portuguese illustration featured in the Códice Casanatense, now kept at the Casanata Library in Rome. It depicts a Hindu ritual of self-mutilation, referred to by the Portuguese as enganchamento (“hooking”) circa 1540

The inscription reads: “Sacrifice that the gentiles do to their gods, [by] piercing their loins with iron hooks on such a pole, and cut their flesh with a dagger and put it in the tip of such bows and shoot them at the air, and thus they end their lives; the people that witness this take their flesh and keep them as relics”.

Hindu rituals were thoroughly described by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th century.

Charakpuja, the Hook-Swinging Festival painted by James Augustus Atkinson, 1831

Charak Puja or Pachamara Mela (also known as Chadak, Nil Puja or Hajrha Puja) is part of the Hindu folk festival of Gajan, held in honor of the deity Shiva or Dharmathakur. The Gajan festival includes numerous forms of austerities like walking on hot coals or piercing the body with metal rods. Charak refers to the practice of hook-swinging which generally is the last penance performed during the festival.

Charak Puja - Wikipedia
Charak Puja Also called Nil Puja, Hajrha Puja Observed by Hindus Type Hindu Related to Gajan Charak Puja or Pachamara…en.wikipedia.org

Charak Puja in modern day India can be seen here

Charak Puja : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Charak Puja in Hinduismarchive.org

Charak Puja 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Charak Puja Hindu festivalCharak Puja or Pachamara Mela (also known as Chadak, Nil Puja or Hajrha Puja)archive.org

https://archive.org/details/charak-puja-2023

Charak Puja being performed at village Narna, Howrah, April 2014.

Charak Puja in an East India Company era painting, at the Indian Museum.

Illustration of Charak Puja from Twenty-four plates illustrative of Hindoo and European Manners in Bengal (1832) by Sophie Charlotte Belnos (1795–1865)

Charak festival in Kolkata in 1849

Sirimanu festival at Vizianagram, Andhra Pradesh

Some modern photographs of Charak puja