Battis Shirala

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Battis Shirala (also called Shirala) is a small town in India, 60 kilometers west of the district headquarters of Sangli and about 350 kilometers from Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra state. State transport and private buses run daily between Mumbai and Shirala.

[edit] Noted annual festival

Battis Shirala is famous for its annual Nag Panchami Snake festival, which is attended by hundreds of thousands people all across the world.

Approximately 15 days before the actual festival, also called as a Bendur, the day on which farmers clean their cows and bulls, decorate them and feed them with special food, villagers old and young go snake-hunting, after getting kaul(permission) from Goddess Amba Bai by placing a flower on her head. If the flower fells, voluntarily on left side then that family is not allowed to catch snake that year. It is believed that only natives of Shirala are allowed to catch the snake. Snakes (including the venomous Indian King Cobra) are tracked by their body marks in the soil. The ground is dug up carefully and the snakes are captured. A lot of care is taken so that snakes are not hurt as if hurt it is considered as a bad thing for that family. Hundreds of hours of searching produces seven or eight snakes per group if they are lucky. These snakes are then stored in a big circular earthen [1] pot with a smaller circular earthen pot placed on the top opening. Finally a cloth is used to cover the top and is tied with a rope. These pots are usually hanged outside house. Every morning till the actual festival, these snakes are taken out of their earthen pot and fed with rat or frog. This feeding is called as a Dav Pajane or feeding dew to a snake.

On the actual day of festival, the snakes are displayed in a huge procession. The procession begins with the blessings of the village goddess Amba-bai. Nearly 70 to 80 groups and originations take part in this procession. Also before this procession, in the morning, snakes are taken to few neighboring homes so that females in those homes can worship these snakes. Recently court has banned catching of snakes because of animal ( snake ) abuse cases as rough handling of snakes can result in their death.

The snakes which were caught before the festival, are releaved at the same place from which they were caught.

Mith is one of the families in Shirala use to worship snake murti [2]. When one of the Navnatha's [3] visited their place , he gave them permission and blessing to catch actual snake and worship it. Shirala also has Gorkhnath Temple. Once in a 12 years all the followers of Nath panti [4] visit Shirala and leave one of them behind to take care of this temple for next 12 years.

[[Category:Cities and towns in Maharashtra]