Dola Melana of my Village Palasudha, Cuttack

Palasudha Dola Melana 2022
Dola Yatra or Dola Melana or Dola Festival is the festival of getting together of Lord idols from different villages or Sahi’s nearer to our Palasudha village.
In this melan the centre of attraction is the "Thanapati", the lord of our village "Shree RadhaMadhaba" & "Shree Raghunath Jiu". Thanapati bimana's are beautifully decorated on this special occasion. Deities from different Villages / Sahi Bhagabat Ghara come to the Melana Padia ( Field) by 15 to 20 Dola/ Bimana, a specially designed Temple-like structure made up of Wood.
All the idols visit the house of devotees to give darshan in the Bimana/Dola with a big procession .It is believed that throughout the year the devotees visit the temple for darshan but on the month of Phalguna, the Lord visits the devotees’ place. Smearing the heads with Abira (a violet coloured powder) the people take round the idols of Raghunath Jiu and Madanamohana in richly decorated palanquins known as Veemana. The procession is led by village drummers, pipers and the Sankirtana Mandalis.
The procession halts in melan padia for entire day and each household and the deity is offered Bhog.
At end of the day All the idols come for HariHara bheta where Bimanas are made to swing to the accompaniment of devotional music sung in chorus and every one greeted each other with smearing the heads with abira for successful competition of the dola yatra festival.