01The weavers’ Devi
Brahmapur grew as a town of silk weavers, many of them Dera (Devanga) families whose ancestors came from the Telugu country, and the city’s tradition is that the Devi came with them. She is regarded as the daughter of the Dera community and the elder sister of the town. Her temple in the old quarter is small and always busy; the image is a simple stone face with large eyes. Brahmapur’s famous silk saris, the Berhampuri patta, are often offered to her first.
02Thakurani Yatra
Every two years in Chaitra the Thakurani Yatra begins: the Devi is carried in procession from her temple to a temporary home, the yatra ghara, in the weavers’ quarter, as a married daughter goes home to her parents, and stays for about a month. The streets fill with folk dancers, tiger dancers and costumed devotees in the hundreds of thousands, and the whole town keeps festival. At the end she is carried back.
In the old town of Brahmapur, about 3 km from the station. The Yatra falls in Chaitra of alternate years.
