The Story of Gai Jatra
In 1698 BS (1641 AD) an 18-year-old prince imprisoned his father to become king of Kantipur His name was Pratap Malla He had 5 sons from 2 queens Bhupendra, Chakrabartendra, Nirupendra, Mahipendra, and Partipendra Up to then only after the father’s death and only the eldest son can rule the country. But king Pratap Malla wanted to try something new with his 5 sons. Let each son rule the country for 1 year while he is still alive. During this prince, Chakrabartendra’s turn to rule came. On the second day of his rule, a festival was organized. Chakrabartendra arrived at this festival on a large elephant Unfortunately, the elephant got wild and Chakrabartendra died in the accident. After the incident, King Pratap Malla somehow handled himself but his queen got depressed. She spent her days away doing nothing, she even stopped smiling. In an attempt to get his wife to smile the king tried many things. Unsuccessful in his attempts he came up with one more idea. He ordered every family that had lost someone that year to attend a carnival in strange clothes with a cow. The King shows all the people attending the carnival to the queen and says “All these people also lost someone close to them.” Only then the queen understood death is part of everyone’s life. In the end with the king’s consent, the people started cracking jokes about the royalty Only then the queen smile. And this is how Gai Jatra started.
In 1698 BS (1641 AD) an 18-year-old prince Pratap Malla became king of the Kantipur kingdom by imprisoning his father. King Pratap Malla and his two queens had five sons- Bhupendra, Chakrabartendra, Nirupendra, Mahipendra, and Parthipendra. Till Pratap Malla’s time, it was traditionally established that only the eldest son can rule a kingdom after his father’s death or exile. But king Pratap Malla wanted to try a new system to choose a son to become the king after him. He came up with the idea of letting each one of his sons rule the kingdom for a year and observing them meanwhile. By following this process his son Chakrabartendra’s turn to rule came. On the second day of his rule, a festival was organized. Chakrabartendra arrived at this festival on a big elephant. Unfortunately, the elephant got out of control and Chakrabartendra died in the accident.
After the incident, though King Pratap Malla somehow handled himself, his queen got extremely depressed. She spent her days doing nothing but just thinking about her son. Smiles were very rarely seen. Thus, in an attempt to get his wife to smile again, the king tried many things. Unsuccessful but trying, he came up with one more idea. He ordered every family that had lost someone that year to attend a carnival (Jatra) in strange clothes with a cow. Then the King showed all the people attending the carnival to his queen and said “All these people also lost someone close to them.” Only then the queen understood death is a part of everyone’s life. And in the end, when the people started cracking jokes about the royal persons themselves, the queen finally smiled. And this is how the festival of Gai Jatra started.
