‘The Rain God’ Rato Machhindranath
‘The Rain God’ Rato Machhindranath
Popularly revered to as the god of prosperity, rain and harvest,Rato Machhindranath is widely believed to have alleviated the valley from the great 12 year drought laid upon by the curse of the Hindu saint Guru Gorakhnath Baba because of not having received alms from the valley denizens.
This auspicious festival is celebrated just before the onset of monsoon so that the valley will be able to get ample amount of rain. The procession consists of mounting the sacred idol of Bunga Dyah on a tall chariot of more than 60 feet high and is pulled to various places in the valley for a month.
A ceremony called Mahasana is carried out about 15 days before the chariot festival is celebrated. The divine God is taken to a place called Lagankhel approximately 200 metres from the temple of Machhindranath. 4 silver kalash(vessels) containing mixtures of milk, honey and water is brought by priests that is used to bathe the holy god. Towards the construction of the chariot no nails are used while connecting the various parts, instead only ropes and veds are put into use. The only part that actually does use iron in the entire chariot is the mechanism that holds the wheels in place. At the completion of the construction, the divine god is put on top of the chariot exactly 3 days prior to the pulling day of the chariot. The celebration starts at Pulchowk and takes the chariot to the places like Gabahal, Sundhara, Lagankhel and finally ends at Jawalakhel.
Once the chariot reaches Jawalakhel, another ceremony called Bhoto Jatra is performed that translated directly into ‘vest festival’. During the ceremony, a sacred jewel studded vest is held up for everyone to see it.
At the completion of all these festivals, the chariot is disassembled and Rato Machhindranath is taken to a temple nearby a place called Bungamati which well known as the second home of the rain god. Rato Machhindranath spends the next 6 months in that temple.
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