Ashoka Ashtami Mela: Creating space for trade and commerce in lower Assam

A Correspondent

DHUBRI: Ashoka Ashtami Mela (fair) and festival is marching ahead, entertaining people and creating space for trade and commerce in lower Assam with charity and welfare by the Dhubri Mela Committee over the last 50 years. This fair is not just a fair but a platform of vibrant and growing market of small-scale industry.

All fairs root back to traditional trading and marketing when there was hardly any commercial hub located in the villages. Centuries ago, villagers did not prefer going frequently to markets located far away from their villages to buy items, rather it was the market in form of fair that reached their doorstep.

Talking to The Sentinel, working president of Dhubri Mela Committee, Partha Pratim Ghose opined that this tradition still alive and had just transformed from fairs to festivals today with a passage of time, but mode of the trading of commodities by and large remained same.

“Ashoka Ashtami Mela of Dhubri provides a strong platform to sell the products locally produced by the craftsmen and artisans. It also unites traders coming from other States with local ones,” Ghose informed.

Vice-president of Dhubri Mela Committee, Kalyan Purkayatha informed that as many as eight local big fairs and festivals were held across the lower Assam districts round the year which provided a huge market for goods locally produced, that too without any institutional or government financial assistance.

“Ashoka Aushtami Mela is held in March-April, the fair during Shahidi Divas of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib in November-December, Bilasipara Raas Mela in December, the fair at Bogribari Mahamaya Dham, Durga Puja festival across lower Assam districts in September-October, Charantali Mela in Garo Hills adjoining Dhubri district in April and Raax Melas in Barpeta and Nalbari districts have all created a huge market for local products,” Purkayastha further informed.

Talking to this scribe, Debobrata Das, a social activist of Bilasipara, informed that these fairs had grown over the years without any assistance. “Terracotta, pit-craft, pottery items, toys, brooms, door mats, wall decorations, cane and bamboo items and handloom goods are some of the few items which have tremendous financial potential in the market to the tune of Rs 25 crore to Rs 30 crore,” Das said.

Also read: Assam news