Paruveta Utsavam

• Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is making efforts to get the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to declare the annual ‘Paruveta’ (mock hunting festival), celebrated at the Sri Narasimha Swamy temple in Ahobilam in Andhra Pradesh, as an ‘intangible cultural heritage’.
• The matter of UNESCO’s recognition of the centuries-old festival is currently being reviewed by Sangeet Natak Academy, the nodal agency.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

• According to folklore, Lord Vishnu, upon his incarnation as a man-lion (Narasimha) in Ahobilam, married Maha Lakshmi, born as a tribal girl Chenchulakshmi.
• The Kurnool District Gazetteers, published by Government Press in 1881, records several beliefs of the Chenchu tribes, including their reverence to Ahobila Narasimha as their brother-in-law and inviting Him home for Makara Sankranti.
• This festival stands as a symbol of communal harmony where the deity from the temple’s sanctum sanctorum is taken to the 32 Chenchu tribal hamlets around Ahobilam for 40 days.
  • While Paruveta is commonly observed in many temples during Vijayadasami or Sankranti, it is only here that it is conducted for a ‘mandala’ (forty days).
• Chenchus take ‘Narasimha Deeksha’ by wearing yellow robes and ‘Tulasi Mala’ and observe celibacy during this period.

ABOUT

• The intangible cultural heritages are those traditions, festivals, and skills inherited from ancestors and passed on through generations.

LIST OF 15 INDIAN ELEMENTS –

• The tradition of Vedic chanting
• Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana
• Kutiyattam, Sanskrit theatre
• Ramman, religious festival and ritual theatre of the Garhwal Himalayas, India
• Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala
• Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan
• Chhau dance
• Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region, Jammu and Kashmir, India
• Sankirtana, ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur
• Traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab, India
• Yoga
• Nawrouz, Novruz
• Kumbh Mela
• Durga Puja of Kolkata
• Garba of Gujarat