Amid the massive celebration of Holi across the country, there are three remote villages in the northern Indian state of Uttarkhand that do not celebrate the festival of colours.
The festival is observed every year in India with the arrival of the spring and people enjoy to their fullest playing with colours and water.
However, the Rudraprayag area of Uttarkhand has three villages that do not play Holi or celebrate it in any other way and the reason might surprise many.
The locals of the area avoid the festival only because of a 400-year-old curse by an ancient goddess called Tripura Bala Tripur Sundari.
The three remote villages living with the curse are namely Jaundla village, Kweeli village and Khurjan village.
According to the local belief, the celebration of this particular festival might bring suffering to the people living there as the Goddess hates colours and noise.
The people of the region claim that about 400 years ago the people of these three villages shifted from Jammu and Kashmir and settled in Uttarkhand.
DR Purohit, a Garhwal expert in performing arts said that the Rajput Bisht clan use to reside in the aforementioned villages from the beginning but suddenly there emerged a big crisis following which a large number of people died due to Chickenpox and Cholera.
The clan then started believing that all these happened due to the curse by the Goddess therefore they took no time to get out of the villages and moved to different places.
Purohit's family members were also part of the migration where the entire Rajput Bisht clan was evacuated. As stated by Purohit, the Pandey clan living in the villages also left later after the Rajput Bisht clan moved away citing high risk.
Soon after the departure of these villages, 7 castes of purohits and 4 castes of Negi Rajputs belonging from Kashmir came and settled in Kotha village located in the Chamoli district. This community of priests still resides in other areas including the Therali area of Rudraprayag district.
Those residing in the three remote villages of Rudraprayag and do not observe the festival of colours till the present day since 400 years in the hope of living peacefully and saving themselves from the curse of Tripura Bala Tripur Sundari.
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