Manabasa Gurubar (An Odia Festival dedicated to Goddess Laxmi)

The legend goes like this, Goddess Laxmi (Hindu Goddess of wealth and consort of Lord Vishnu.) got pleased with worship of Shriya Chandaluni (Chandala is/was considered as a very low place in society to be). Because Maa Laxmi disobeyed the social rules and regulations Lord Balaram, elder brother of Lord Jagannath (avatar of Lord Vishnu) asked Lord Jagannath to cast away Maa Laxmi from their house. Maa Laxmi pleaded with Lord Jagannath to spare her the humiliation. But Lord Jagannath silently obeyed Lord Balaram like an ideal young brother. Maa Laxmi got extremely angry and left her all wealth and jewelry at the temple and summoned the Lord Viswakarma (The engineer of the world). She ordered to make the best palace on earth. Maa Laxmi shifted to her new palace and ordered Ashta Betala (A kind of ghostly spirits) to ransack the Shri Mandir (resident of Lord Jagannath) and simultaneously ordered Goddess of Sleep to make the brothers asleep for the entire day. Goddess Saraswati was summoned by Maa Laxmi to assist her further.
The next day, Lord Jaggannath and Lord Balavadra woke up to find nothing in their house. They had to leave their palace. They begged, but whatever they did or touched, it just got destroyed. Finally other Gods came to their rescue to no avail. In the end they begged at Maa Laxmi’s house. Maa Laxmi served them dishes by her servants. Both brothers recognized Maa Laxmi’s hand prepared dish and realized their mistake.
So, to commemorate the feministic side of our Hinduism, Odia celebrate this auspicious day by cleaning the house, making jhoti (alpana made of rice batter) and worshiping the Great Goddess of Wealth, who never discriminates among rich n poor, higher caste and lower caste, she rewards immensely to the hard working people.

Hinduism keeps on celebrating the rights of females since ancient time. And today we remember the day, when Maa Laxmi made the Lord Vishnu and his carrier Lord Vasuki (Lord Jagannatha and Balavadra) to go from riches to rags because of their bad karma.

Jai Maa Laxmi.