one of the most fascinating features of the chariot festival of Rato Machhendra is the graceful company of Chakuwa Dyo during the entire period of the festival. Chakuwa Dyo is the most faithful and favourite companion of Rata Machhendra. Chakuwa Dyo, like Rato Machhendra, is also a Buddhist deity and has many names such as Meen Nath, Dharma Raj, Jatadhari Lokeswara, Padmapani Awalokiteswara and so on. Furthermore,, this deity also has a beautiful chariot but not as big as that of Rato Machhendra. However it is interesting to note that the Chariot of Rato Machhendra will never be pulled until the chariot of Chakuwa Dyo arrives at the ceremonial spot from where the chariot festival in the real sense starts. But when the chariots move Chakuwa Dyo is always behind Rato Machhendra. This has been a long tradition and it is still in vogue. It must be remembered that the beginning and the ending of the chariot festival of this deity always corresponds to that of Rato Machhendra. This festival begins on the first day of the bright fortnight of Baishakh (April) and ends after about a month. But it all depends on the number of the chariot-pullers and their enthusiasm and also on when the temple astrologers will announce the right time to end it.
Dharma Raj Chakuwa Dyo is widely worshipped as an all-compassionate god of Dharma (righteousness). The Buddhist belief is that he is the final judge of life and death: Dharma through Karuna (Compassion) is his mainstay. So his main function is believed to take care of all the suffering souls from all three worlds. But he seems to take care more of those suffering in the purgatory whereas Rato Machhendra of those suffering in this very world. Even Yama Raj. the god of death, is said to fear this Almighty God. According to a vamsawali of Meen Nath, once a Lichhawi King Vrisa Deva, a great devotee of Dharma Raj, against whom it is said that Yama Raj always nursed a big grudge, died suddenly while he was dining. His tragic death shocked and surprised everybody. When Dharma Raj heard this he could not believe it. He wanted to find out the cause. So he immediately rushed to the Yama Loka (the realm of Death God) to make enquiry. Soon after he met the Death-God, he asked him if he could give him any good reason for dragging his devoted king to Yama Loka. This question made him only speechless. However, it did not take him long to realise his stupidity that led him to put the innocent king to death for no fault of his own. Awfully ashamed as he was, Yam Raj apologized to Dharma Raj for the blunder he commited and immediately sent the king back to the world of mortals with great respect. Then Dharma Raj felt good and came back.
Dharma Raj is also said to represent a great yogi Gorkha Nath who is the top-ranking disciple of Rato Miachhendra. As a popular legend has it, once, Rato Machhendra felt terribly sorry for a beautiful young queen whose handsome husband had just died. She found herself so lonely, she simply could not bear it. Lost in deep sorrow she was helplessly staring at the dead body of her husband, all of a sudden, she was so strongly seized by a wild sexual desire that she almost wanted to kill herself for not being able to have her desire fulfilled. This moved Rato Machhendra to a great deal. So he immediately by means of his occult power entered into the body of the dead king and stood up bringing the king back to life and made love to the complete satisfaction of the queen. He did this only to satisfy her burning desire. But he was so much plunged into this pleasure play that he forgot even to come back into his real being. (Something quite interesting to note here is that he has always been the favourite god of women devotees. According to PADMA SUTRA written some time around 200 A. D. Awalokiteswara, that is to say — Rato Machhendra is said to grant his women devotees their desire to bear children and to fulfil innumerable other wishes and to ease as well their distress.) So Rato Machhendra was a sort of lost in love trance. This worried Gorkha Nath very much. He did not know what to do. He felt a great pressure that he must go at any cost and remind him of his great responsibility to the world. BLit he could not do this otherwise than changing himself into the form of a damsel much more beautiful than the one Rato Machhendra was playing with, He had to do this for his guru's prestige sake. So he assumed the form of a damsel and walked straight into the private room where Rato Machhendra was having fun with his girl friend. Gorkha Nath by his skillful act immediately won his master's mind and led him out soon to the world of reality. It is, therefore, said that ever since, Rato Machhendra, though the great guru of Gorkha Nath, always preferred to be accompanied by his most devoted disciple no matter where he went. This story explains the whole theme of the interesting custom that the chariot of Chakuwa Dyo must always be parked right across the chariot of Rato Machhendra. This custom seems to symbolise, on one hand, a big trust put on Gorkha Nath by his guru and, on other, the distrust of his own disciple. Nevertheless, it is quite fascinating in itself.
Another fascinating feature of the chariot festival of Chakuwa Dyo is the children. Chakuwa Dyo is the favourite god of children and also a great source of their festivity and fun. It has already been a custom that only the kids go with great enthusiasm to pull the festival chariot of their favourite god. Chakuwa Dyo. This also reminds me of this deity's being only a humble disciple of his great guru, •Rato Machhendra, because disciples are always like children to their great gurus.
Amongst several names this deity has the most fabulous one which is Chakuwa Dyo. An old tradition says that this deity has his temple built at the place a sparrow chose for him to be the best. Hence, the name Chakuwa or Chakhunba (slightly changed) Dyo. The whole composition in Newari means the deity residing in the area the sparrow chose for him. The noteworthy thing here is that soon after the chariot festival of this deity comes to the end, a pair of sparrows must be released in the air. This custom is prevalent even today. And, those are believed to go straight to heaven and deliver the message to Indra, the God of Heaven, saying that the chariot festival of Chakuwa Dyo was a grand success on the earth. And also there is an another custom according to which the temple priests plunge a pair of fish in a pond that are said to go deep down into the under world and deliver the same message; but this time to the Lord of Nagas. Thus Chakuwa Dyo in many ways appears to prove himself to be a very fascinating sidelight of the festival of Rato Machhendra Nath. •
Dharma Raj Chakuwa Dyo is widely worshipped as an all-compassionate god of Dharma (righteousness). The Buddhist belief is that he is the final judge of life and death: Dharma through Karuna (Compassion) is his mainstay. So his main function is believed to take care of all the suffering souls from all three worlds. But he seems to take care more of those suffering in the purgatory whereas Rato Machhendra of those suffering in this very world. Even Yama Raj. the god of death, is said to fear this Almighty God. According to a vamsawali of Meen Nath, once a Lichhawi King Vrisa Deva, a great devotee of Dharma Raj, against whom it is said that Yama Raj always nursed a big grudge, died suddenly while he was dining. His tragic death shocked and surprised everybody. When Dharma Raj heard this he could not believe it. He wanted to find out the cause. So he immediately rushed to the Yama Loka (the realm of Death God) to make enquiry. Soon after he met the Death-God, he asked him if he could give him any good reason for dragging his devoted king to Yama Loka. This question made him only speechless. However, it did not take him long to realise his stupidity that led him to put the innocent king to death for no fault of his own. Awfully ashamed as he was, Yam Raj apologized to Dharma Raj for the blunder he commited and immediately sent the king back to the world of mortals with great respect. Then Dharma Raj felt good and came back.
Dharma Raj is also said to represent a great yogi Gorkha Nath who is the top-ranking disciple of Rato Miachhendra. As a popular legend has it, once, Rato Machhendra felt terribly sorry for a beautiful young queen whose handsome husband had just died. She found herself so lonely, she simply could not bear it. Lost in deep sorrow she was helplessly staring at the dead body of her husband, all of a sudden, she was so strongly seized by a wild sexual desire that she almost wanted to kill herself for not being able to have her desire fulfilled. This moved Rato Machhendra to a great deal. So he immediately by means of his occult power entered into the body of the dead king and stood up bringing the king back to life and made love to the complete satisfaction of the queen. He did this only to satisfy her burning desire. But he was so much plunged into this pleasure play that he forgot even to come back into his real being. (Something quite interesting to note here is that he has always been the favourite god of women devotees. According to PADMA SUTRA written some time around 200 A. D. Awalokiteswara, that is to say — Rato Machhendra is said to grant his women devotees their desire to bear children and to fulfil innumerable other wishes and to ease as well their distress.) So Rato Machhendra was a sort of lost in love trance. This worried Gorkha Nath very much. He did not know what to do. He felt a great pressure that he must go at any cost and remind him of his great responsibility to the world. BLit he could not do this otherwise than changing himself into the form of a damsel much more beautiful than the one Rato Machhendra was playing with, He had to do this for his guru's prestige sake. So he assumed the form of a damsel and walked straight into the private room where Rato Machhendra was having fun with his girl friend. Gorkha Nath by his skillful act immediately won his master's mind and led him out soon to the world of reality. It is, therefore, said that ever since, Rato Machhendra, though the great guru of Gorkha Nath, always preferred to be accompanied by his most devoted disciple no matter where he went. This story explains the whole theme of the interesting custom that the chariot of Chakuwa Dyo must always be parked right across the chariot of Rato Machhendra. This custom seems to symbolise, on one hand, a big trust put on Gorkha Nath by his guru and, on other, the distrust of his own disciple. Nevertheless, it is quite fascinating in itself.
Another fascinating feature of the chariot festival of Chakuwa Dyo is the children. Chakuwa Dyo is the favourite god of children and also a great source of their festivity and fun. It has already been a custom that only the kids go with great enthusiasm to pull the festival chariot of their favourite god. Chakuwa Dyo. This also reminds me of this deity's being only a humble disciple of his great guru, •Rato Machhendra, because disciples are always like children to their great gurus.
Amongst several names this deity has the most fabulous one which is Chakuwa Dyo. An old tradition says that this deity has his temple built at the place a sparrow chose for him to be the best. Hence, the name Chakuwa or Chakhunba (slightly changed) Dyo. The whole composition in Newari means the deity residing in the area the sparrow chose for him. The noteworthy thing here is that soon after the chariot festival of this deity comes to the end, a pair of sparrows must be released in the air. This custom is prevalent even today. And, those are believed to go straight to heaven and deliver the message to Indra, the God of Heaven, saying that the chariot festival of Chakuwa Dyo was a grand success on the earth. And also there is an another custom according to which the temple priests plunge a pair of fish in a pond that are said to go deep down into the under world and deliver the same message; but this time to the Lord of Nagas. Thus Chakuwa Dyo in many ways appears to prove himself to be a very fascinating sidelight of the festival of Rato Machhendra Nath. •
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