Modern-day additions to the ancient Pāyāḥ tradition, native to the Kathmandu Valley, highlight how the distinctive Newa culture is threatened by alien philosophies.
On the tenth day of the autumnal festival of Mohani, which coincides with the Vedic festival of Vijayā Daśami, men carrying ceremonial swords come out into the neighbourhood for a gala ritual procession in many core areas in the ancient settlements of Nepal Mandala.
Men in Newa households mirthfully cut an ash gourd, sugarcane plant, or the ginger plant into pieces with decorated swords, cheered on by family members.
According to the late Bal Dev Juju, a Sanskritist and cultural expert, the public display of swords is one way of paying homage to Ajimā, the primordial mother goddess of the indigenous Newa people. The pomp and pageantry we see in the Pāyāḥ ritual today are later additions with no original significance.
Here, we are reminded of how the symbolism of the sword has been adopted and repurposed by the state over the centuries.
At present, the emblem of Kathmandu Metropolitan City is the sword.
In the 17th century CE, King Pratāpa Malla of Kāntipur decorated the front door of the majestic Degu Taleju temple he built in his palace complex with a sword.
“Goddess Mahālakśmi appeared to king Guṇakāma Deva in a dream, and told him to found a city at the junction of the Bāgmati and Viśnumati rivers... The new city was to be built in the shape of a kharg or sword of the Devi, and to be named Kāntipur... This took place in the 3,824th year of the age of Kali (723 CE),” writes Daniel Wright in his book ‘History of Nepal’ published in 1877.
While founding Kāntipur, Lichhavi dynasty king Guṇakāma Deva set up the city with eight tactical spots along the border, each marked by a shrine dedicated to a specific form of Ajimā. The king stationed military units at these sites to ward off invading forces, thereby ensuring that the city was protected against all enemies—mortal or otherwise—by Ajimā.
Today, tracing a line to join these eight Ajimā shrines on Google Maps forms a plan that resembles a sword.
The cult of Ajimā is embedded deeply in the consciousness of the Newa people. In the Newa pantheon of deities, Ajimā, the protector deity of the Newa people, is a manifestation of matriarch supremacy. The Nepal Bhasa word Ajimā is a conjunct of Aji (grandmother) and Mā (mother). The primordial mother goddess carries the sword as her primary weapon to ward off evil.
Once a matriarchal society, the Newa people believe that Ajimā protects children from diseases and other harm. They also believe that the eight Ajimās, wielding their mighty swords, led the military forces during wars. It is this all-powerful sword of Ajimā that the Newa people celebrate on the tenth day of the autumnal festival of Mohani, known to the rest of the country as Daśaiñ.
The elaborate ritual of taking the sword on a public parade around the neighborhood is known as Pāyāḥ. Pā in Nepal Bhasa means “to cut,” and Yāh means “journey”. For the Newa people, the majority of whom belong to the agrarian Jyāpu community, the Mohani season heralds the autumnal closing of farming duties, with the rice harvest just brought home.
The end of the long monsoon also means the winding down of the disease-prone wet months. In every Newa household, the final day of Mohani is dedicated to a special ceremony to pay respect to the sword and other household implements, thanking them for their service to the family over the past year.
The Pāyāḥ ceremony is also known as Khadga Jātrā (khadga meaning sword and jātrā meaning parade). In its original form, it was a parade of the venerable sword. In recent times, however, the ritual of cutting an ash gourd, sugarcane plant or ginger plant into pieces at the end of the Pāyāḥ procession has overshadowed the homegrown significance of the Pāyāḥ ritual.
Later additions to the ancient Pāyāḥ tradition highlight how the distinctive Newa culture, with its own discrete belief system, is under the threat of being undermined by imported ideas.
The Pāyāḥ parade is nowadays cheered on by rowdy crowds, and in some cases, even accompanied by friends and family members carrying a severed buffalo head on a bamboo pole, animal intestines and other grotesque items. It is not uncommon for the intoxicated sword bearers, often dressed as ancient warriors, to work themselves into a trance after inhaling strong incense and resin fumes, and chase away the hooting, taunting crowd, many of whom are in an equally inebriated state in keeping with the festive mood.
This Newa custom is now reinterpreted symbolically as the Vedic deity Durgā slaying the demon Mahishāsur. This enactment of victory over evil, now widely accepted by the Newa community, is based on Vedic scriptures, hence making it a custom imported from the south. Not only is this foreign import a sharp departure from the original significance of paying tribute to supreme guardian Ajimā, the ritual has also picked up an undesirable raucousness that has no philosophical value whatsoever.
The eight Ajimā shrines established by King Gunakāma Deva are now venerated as the Aśta Mātrikā in the Vedic pantheon. Among the eight Ajimā shrines, three have fallen victim to elite-driven encroachment and unchecked urbanisation. Fibwo Ajimā is now inside the army headquarters; Candralakhu Ajimā lies in the Narayanhity Palace complex; Sāmāh Ajimā in Thambahi (modern-day Thamel) is enclosed by a private hospitality property.
The Vajrayāna sect of Buddhism, practiced by a large segment of Newa society, has embraced the Pāyāḥ ceremony and given it new meaning as well. In Vajrayāna Buddhism, Manjuśri, the deity of wisdom, wields the sword, which corresponds to the city of Kathmandu.
It does not symbolise worldly power, but spiritual penetration. The grip of the sword points southwest; the tip points northeast. Thus, for Newa Buddhists, the Pāyāḥ procession symbolises the shedding of ignorance, leading the sword bearer one step closer to enlightenment.
History is a testament to a time when farming communities in Nepāl Maṇdala looted each other's rice fields just before harvest. Fierce battles ensued while either raiding the rice fields or protecting them from looters. To ward off potential looters, the people would stage an imposing sword parade, something akin to the annual display of military firepower by many countries today.