BHAT KHUANI ଭାତ ଖୁଆଣି [ANNA PRASANA]

On the birth of a baby, it is the mother who first breast-feeds its child. Though the baby comes out of the womb of the mother, but it survives solely on mother’s milk for next six months. As the baby becomes five to seven months old, it needs to get higher quantity of food to keep the growth trend alive. That is when a mother searches for outer source of food to feed its child. It’s the time when the mother feeds its baby the first morsel of grain i.e. rice. In western Orissa there is an age-old custom when a baby-boy turns five months or a baby-girl turns seven months old  a family function is conducted which is called Bhat Khuani. This function is celebrated on other parts of eastern India as Anna Prassana.

Basically Bhat Khuani is a close-knight family function, which is celebrated in between its family members on an auspicious day. After birth of a baby the first ever function would be Eksia. It is celebrated on the 21^st day of the baby’s birth. The next important function is Namakaran, that is when the baby is given with a name. The third important function is Bhat Khuani. After this the only big event would be the  marriage function in the life cycle of any person.

On 8th February, 2010 the Bhaat Khuani function of Arshia Swain, the younger daughter of Mr.Pabitra Swain was celebrated at Phulapalli village of Bargarh district of Orissa. Mr.Pabitra is a telecom billing software engineer who works with Comverse at Melbourne, Australia. Despite his busy international schedule he had to take a week-long leave to return home to conduct this function.

Early morning arua bhat (rice) was cooked and placed in a dana ( a bowl made of leafs ) and taken to the Jagannath temple of Banjhipali, six kms off Phulapali. The rice was sanctified by offering to Lord Jagannath, the deity of Orissa. The interesting thing to be noticed is how the danna was made off. Fresh mango leafs were plucked from the farm and washed with water. The paternal grand-mother of Arshia was very particular to count ten mango leafs and stitched each other with bamboo chips and made a oval shape bowl.

When the Prasad was brought back to home, there started the ritual of Bhat Khuani. The brass-metal bell was played. The first person to feed the morsel of rice to Arshia was the younger nana (younger sister of Mr.Pabitra), the second one was the elder nana.  No sooner these two persons fed the baby, other relatives followed. The baby opened its mouth hesitantly to have the first grains of rice. After the turn of five persons the baby was uncomfortable and started crying, but each of these gaonlia maijhi (village folk women) wanted to feed their share of grains.

The two aunts gifted gold and silver ornaments i.e. hara (neck-lace), chudi (bracelet), mudi (finger-ring), kaanphul (ear-rings), panjhal (anklet) and dress materials to Arshia. As a return gift Arshia’s mother gifted Sambalpuri sarees to each of Arshia’s aunts. When the ritual of Bhat Khuani was over the feast started. The first batch was of children. There were some more than 25 village kids, who were creating usual child-pranks while having lunch. Arshia’s elder sister Annie though speaks only English, but able to communicate with these kids, in her own self-invented Sambalpuri language. These kids needs no language interpreters to communicate, because love ties there bonds. In the lunch first prasad was served followed by bhat (rice), dali,khata, subji, papad , bhaja and finally khiri (sweetener).

This ritual of Bhat Khuani shows how the LIFE sprouts out of a seed.

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E. KIRAN MOHAN

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Orissa, India