Chaiti Ghoda Nata
It is the most important festival of the fishermen of Orissa. Goddess basuli with a horse shaped head is worshipped from the full moon day of lunar Baishakha. According to the myth in Kaibarta Purana, the supreme god slept on the leaf of a banyan tree which was buffeted in the sea. He created a man out of the dirt of his ear to hold the rudder firmly and thus keep his leaf-bed steady.
When he was dozing, the man was swallowed up by a gigantic fish. Again the leaf bed swerved and god angrily captured the fish and brought the man out. The man and his descendants became the inveterate enemies of fish. They were ordained by god to earn their livelihood by catching fish. A part of the leaf was transformed into a horse. Under god's orders Vishwakarma built a boat and the man and his horse has become the presiding deity of the descendants of the first Kaibarta or fisherman and boatman.
The divine horse breathed its last on the eighth day of Baishakha and God consoled the first Kaibarta that this horse was goddess of Basuli and her worship would bring him salvation.
The representation of goddess Basuli is made of well-decorated horse-head made of wood attached to a trunk built of bamboo pieces and is coloured brown and decorated with garlands of red flowers.
A man enters through a hole in the trunk and holds his head giving the appearance from a distance as he is riding a horse. Holding the reins he dances and the horse dances backward and forward to the beating of a drum. He sings songs composed by the folk poets.
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