'The papiyas are here'

As a child Bryce Rodricks 39 remembers the Lenten seasonmdashthe 40day period of fasting observed by Catholicsmdashas sombre Especially the time when his mother would wake him up in the dead of the night to say The papiyas are here Let us all pray Their mournful chants in Marathi accompanied by the haunting sound of a wooden clapper imploring Christians to wake up from their sleep get down on their knees and pray and ask for Gods forgiveness would give Rodricks goosebumps This was in the Bombay of the 1980sA few years later after the 19921993 riots the papiyas visits became less frequent By the turn of the century they had almost disappearedA papiya group at a gaothan PicWalter MurzelloFor the last four years Rodricks a taluka sarpach in Andheri has been working with the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat MGP an organisation that represents the East Indian Community to revive the ancient reetin reevaj of papiya singingmdashspecial prayers and hymns sung during Lent The tradition is native to the local Christians of the city and goes back several centuries Papiyasmdashmeaning penitent in Marathimdashalso known as devaats comprised a group of 10 to 20 devout Christians who moved about from cross to cross singing late into the night They became active from the Sunday night before Palm Sunday and wound up activity on Maundy Thursday Papiyas would also move from one village to another while residents of the neighbourhood would keep a kettle of hot tea at the foot of the cross for the papiyasThey are said to be representatives of the apostles Peter James and John who accompanied Jesus Christ to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of Mount of Olives where he prayed before he was arrested and crucified says Walter Murzello founder trustee of MGP instrumental in reviving the tradition And so papiyas shroud themselves in black blue or brown tunics with a hood so they cannot be recognised Gleason Barretto also a founder trustee of MGP says the legend goes that when papiya groups were very common and would often cross paths the group that spotted the passing group would hide behind the bunds of the field till the other group passedPapiya groups wear shrouds and dont show their faces At one point every gaothan or parish boasted of its own papiya group says Rodricks From over hundred papiya groups in the 1900s we were reduced to two by 2004 he says This was largely due to migration of community members to other countries and a declining interest in culture among the youth because jobs became the priority The efforts of the MGP has upped the papiya groups to eight last year This year we have 10 says Rodricks who is part of the Papiya Group in Chakala Andheri East At present there are papiya groups in Kurla Kalina Kharodi Versova Juhu among others while the goathans in and around Mumbai are 189Rodricks says their group is willing to visit any area where a local can guide them to 14 crosses Each cross represents one station of the cross The group sings a hymn at every cross followed by a prayer These crosses could be anywhere in the localitymdashsomeones house building or compound he says The visits are reserved for Saturday begin at 1130 pm and go on till five in the morningA member of the group usually does a recce a day prior to mark the cross locations since they are not allowed to go back on the same path If they must they have to go round and come out from another way he says Turning back leaves them susceptible to be possessed by the evilAll the hymns are sung in the native East Indian dialect Rodricks and the MGP team have been distributing leaflets of papiya hymns some as old as the tradition itself to groups interested in reviving it The hymns talk about how Moses led the Jews out of slavery to the coming of Jesus Christ his good deeds and having suffered for the sins of mankind Listening to the songs in the night can be a hair raising experience says Barretto10No of papiya groups currently up from 2 in 2004Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates