The Gazetteers Department

Hindu life is replete with all kinds of celebrations. There are holidays and other religious festivals and birthday anniversaries of gods and mythological heroes, which, as a rule, are observed every year. But there are occasional ceremonies of evoking special forms of worship and sacrificial offerings. They include ceremonies to obtain or avert rain, hail storms or floods and to prevent epidemics or cattle diseases, etc. So also many ceremonies and good works by which punya, i.e., spiritual merit may be acquired such as the performance of yatra, homa, construction of temples, digging of wells or tanks, plantation of mango-groves and so on while there are many propitiatory ceremonies in which the aid of spirits is solicited for the successful performance of rites of marriage, birth and death.

Every year a Hindu generally goes through the following cycle of feasts and festivals:

Gudhi Padva.

Gudhi Padva: The first day of Caitra is the commencement of the Hindu new year of the Salivahana era. It is ushered in by householders by setting up in front of the house a gudhi, i.e., a bamboo pole capped with a small silver or copper pot and a new piece of cloth hanging from it as a flag and offering it a routine worship. Eating a mixture of nim leaves, gul and cumin seeds is a special observance for the day. The day is considered auspicious for building or entering a new house, putting a child to school or starting new business. In Yavatmal district as in the whole of Berar, cattle are commonly kept in a mandav or a shed outside the village during the hot weather days. A string of mango leaves is tied to two bambooes erected in front of the mandav and the members of each caste go and cook their food there and eat it together. The bullocks are not yoked and no work is done on this day.

Rama Navami.

On the bright ninth of the same month is celebrated the anniversary of the birth day of Rama, the seventh incarnation of Visnu and the hero of Ramayana. People flock in holiday dress to the temple of Sri Rama, where a silk doll is made to represent Rama and all the ceremonials connected with childbirth are gone through. Exactly at 12 noon, the Haridas announces the birth by tossing gulal (red powder) and the child is then put in the cradle. Arati, distribution of sunthavada, i.e., a mixture of powdered ginger and sugar, tirthaprasada, kirtana and bhajana in praise of Rama are the usual functions held at this festival.

Hanuman Jayanti.

On the full-moon day of Caitra, exactly at sunrise, a festival is arranged in the temple of Hanuman to celebrate his birth.

Aksaya Tritiya.

Aksaya Tritiya or Akhti as it is locally called falls on the 3rd Vaisakha when people give feasts in honour of their ancestors. They invite a caste fellow to represent the ancestors, addressing him as father. The host seats his guest on a pat and places a mark of sandalwood on his forehead, washes his feet and serves food to him on a plate of palasa leaves. They then throw some food on the roof of the house and call the crows to come and cat it.

Sajoni.

A few days afterwards comes the Sajoni or the day for beginning the year's cultivation. Each tenant observes this as a muhurta or auspicious day, selected by the Brahman before the commencement of the rains. On the previous day, they make cakes of mahua and gram flour and fry them in oil. Next morning two men together go to the field with a plough, a bundle containing some jovar and an axe, which being made of iron is auspicious. One of them picks two stones out of the field and applying vermilion to them, worships them as Khat Dev or the god of manure. They also offer boiled jovar to the stones, burn incense before them and then eat the remainder of the jovar. These stones known as Khat Dev are carefully preserved and at harvest time are placed on the heap of the new grain on the threshing floor. The ploughman then drives five furrows in the field towards the cast and five towards the north. The ploughman goes home and the people in the house wash his feet and those of the bullocks and put patches of vermilion on their foreheads. His companion who had worshipped the Khat Dev goes round to the village gods and daubs them with vermilion. He then proceeds to the houses of the carpenter and the blacksmith and presents them with five handfuls of jovar in token of their services having been engaged for the coming year. No other agricultural work is done on this day.

Before harvesting any crop they offer vermilion to the gods and before the cotton harvest Devi is worshipped. Two or three plants arc joined together by a cradle of cotton thread and beneath this seven stones are placed to represent seven gods and an offering of some new cotton picked from the trees is made to them. A fire is kindled and some milk is heated on it till it boils over so that the cotton bolls may burst with fullness as the milk boils over. When the post is to be erected in the threshing floor they place in the hole an egg and some water and some grains of jovar. Before the jovar is threshed an image of a bullock is made from cowdung and worshipped. When the heap of threshed grain is ready, they offer it a goat or a fowl in the name of one of the village gods. The flesh of the animal is eaten in the threshing floor, a part being given to the village servants. While the jovar or wheat is being threshed, the women must have red powder on their foreheads and must not wear lamp-black in their eyes. People usually take off their shoes before walking on the threshing floor. The man who measures the grain sits facing the east and while the grain is being measured, nobody will speak, while women are not allowed on the threshing floor at all. If they cannot complete the measuring in one day. a line is drawn with burnt chaff round the stack of grain to keep out the evil spirits who would come and steal it.

Maha Ekadasi.

The. Ekadasi, i.e., eleventh day occurring in the bright half of Asadha and Karttika are considered very sacred. They mark the beginning and the end of Caturmasa, i.e., four holy months and are observed as fast and prayer day; by a large section of Hindus. Followers of the Varkari sect make it a point to visit the temple of Vithoba of Pandharpur on these days.

Gokulastami.

On the dark eighth of Sravana falls the Gokulastami festival in honour of Lord Krsna's birthday. Exact midnight of this day was the time of the birth of Sri Krsna and the next day the baby was taken to Gokula. The way the occasion is celebrated varies from place to place. Usually, people fast on the astami day, worship a clay image of the baby Krsna at midnight and celebrate the birth with the distribution of sunthavada. They break their fast that night with feasting or the strictly orthodox may postpone it to the next day of dahikala or Gokula day when a boisterous play-ritual of breaking the handi is celebrated in a temple.

Pola.

The principal festival of the Kunbis and other agricultural castes is Pola falling at about the middle of the rainy season, i.e., Sravana Amavasya. On the day before the Pola clay images of bullocks are made and worshipped. On the Pola day they wash the feet of the bullocks and feed them with cooked food. They are taken to the temple of Maruti and then passed in order under the toran or rope of leaves. The day after Pola is called barga. In the early morning people take the toran or rope of leaves of the Pola out to the boundary of the village where Siv, the boundary god resides. The boys also take the sticks which they have been using for one month previous to the Pola festival and throw them with the toran outside the boundary of the village. They bring back branches of the nim trees and wild tulsi or basil winch they call the hair of Marbod which is a deity represented by the shrub called by this name viz., asparagus racemosa. With these they sweep the roofs of the houses inside and in the evening a man goes nearly naked round the village with an earthen pot in which the people place cowries, rice husks, chillis, mahuva flowers, garlic, flies, mosquitoes, and any other insects that they can catch. The man then goes and breaks the pot outside the village and comes back without speaking to any one. By this ceremony, they think that noxious insects, and diseases caused by them will be kept out of their houses.

Ganes Caturthi.

On the bright fourth of the month of Bhadrapad falls the birth day of Ganesa, the god of learning. A painted clay figure of the elephant-headed god is specially purchased for the day from image vendors and worshipped with offerings of modakas (sweet balls). A special feature of the festival is that in towns, apart from the function in the family the worship is celebrated on a community scale by public contribution and with the added attraction of religious and semi-social programmes held each day during the festival. Out of a superstition still current, one avoids looking at the moon on this day, lest one might get involved in a baseless theft charge.

Gauri pujan.

Joined to the Ganapati festival women hold a celebration in honour of Gauri, mother of Ganapati. The first day is Gauri-avahan, invitation to Gauri, the second day is Gauripujan worship of Gauri and the third day is Gauri-visarjana, immersion of the goddess.

Dasara.

In the month of Asvina falls the great festival of Navaratra, (nine nights), culminating in Dasara, so called from dasa (ten) and ahara (days), it being a ten day festival in honour of the goddess, Durga. It is also called Vijaya-dasami, the day of victory of Rama over Ravana. In Yavatmal district, people especially the farmers put on new clothes on this day and take out their bullock-carts to the boundary of the village, where races arc held to celebrate the death of Ravana. In the evening, they go out to the forest to a bhosa tree (Bauhinia racemosa). Everybody picks a branch of the tree. This is considered to signify the killing of Ravana. It is also the day on which the goddess Kali vanquished the buffalo-demon Mahisasura and in some places it was once customary to sacrifice a he-buffalo on this day. The offering of a goat is usual. The first nine days are known as Navaratra. On the first day is performed ghatasthapana or the invocation of the goddess to be present in the ghata, jar. On the tenth day, every householder worships his caste insignia, represented by tools and implements. A Teli will worship his oil machine, a Kayastha his Kalamdan, a blacksmith his anvil and hammer, a Brahman his holy hooks, etc. They have sumptuous meals at noon and towards the evening they don a holiday attire and gather together to worship the Sami (precepis specigara) or in its absence the Apta (Bauhinia racemosa) tree. On this day, the Apta leaves are supposed to symbolise gold and are exchanged while greeting one another. The Dasara day is considered highly auspicious for the undertaking of any new work or business or putting children to school.

Divali.

Twenty days after Dasara comes Divali, when Laksmi the goddess of wealth, is Worshipped. She is supposed to pass over the land distributing her gifts of riches. All people illuminate their houses and shops in order that they may not be overlooked. Two days after Divali comes Yamadvitiya or Bhaoo-beej, when brothers visit sisters and are entertained by them. In the evening the sisters return the visit, perform the arati waving ceremony and receive a gift.

In Yavatmal, cows are worshipped during the Divali celebration, their horns being painted with red ochre and necklaces of cowries are tied to their necks. On this day parents invite their married daughters and their husbands to their houses. In the evening, the lower class Hindus dance the dhandhar or stick dance, singing country songs. The boys who dance are dressed in long coats and small turbans.

Holi.

The year closes with Holi when the demoness Holika is propitiated. This very popular and gay festival is the occasion for a great deal of mirth, innocent revelry including the splashing of colour. The Holi puja is accompanied by bonfires, symbols of the destruction of evil, amid joyous shouts. In Yavatmal district one month before the Holi, a stick of the castor oil plant is brought and planted in the ground and around this the Holi fire is kindled. Every household has to supply some wood for the lire. In some places, the Holi fire is first kindled by a Mahar and that of the Kunbis must be lighted from the Mahar's fire.

Vratas.

In the month of Caitra starting from the bright third and on a convenient day, suvasinis hold in their homes the ceremony of haladi-kumku. The full-moon day of Jyestha known as Vatapaurnima is observed by married women as a day of prayer so that their husband's lives may be prolonged; a banyan tree or its boughs are worshipped and vayanas (special offerings) are distributed to Brahmans and suvasinis. Some observe a vrata, i.e., vow for three days during which they live on fruits, tubers and milk only. During Caturmasa, four months of the rainy season, some women observe the sola somvar vrata, i.e., a vow observed for sixteen successive Mondays. At the end of this, they hold a grand worship of Siva and Parvati and feast 16 marred couples, dampalis. Similarly married girls vow to offer Sivamuth, a handful of corn to Siva on Sravana Mondays, For the first five years of their married life girls worship Mangala Gauri on every Tuesday of Sravana. The Fridays of the same month which are called Sampad Sukravars, i.e., prosperous Fri-days are observed by women with a worship of goddess Laksmi drawn on a small earthen pot. On the third and fifth of bright Bhadrapada come Haratalika and Rsipancami which are observed as days of fast by Brahman women. The first is observed by married women and young married girls in honour of Haratalika (goddess Parvati) who is said to have successfully resisted her father's wish to marry her to Visnu and married Siva whom she loved. The second is observed by elderly women in honour of Rsis (seers) to make amends for sins committed unconsciously. On that day they do not eat anything except handgrown fruits and vegetables. Vasubarasa, which falls on the 12th of dark Asvina, is observed by some women who have children. They fast on that day and at night, after worshipping a cow, give a calf in charity. The day previous to Sankranta in the month of Paus, is called Bhogi on which a special dish known as khicadi is offered to gods and eaten. On the Sankranta day sugads, auspicious jars, are presented to Brahmans and the following day-known as Kinkranta is celebrated by newly married girls, with lutane, a free distribution to suvasinis of auspicious articles. In Yavatmal district, on the new moon day of Vaisakha, they make a miniature shed of mm leaves and place in it seven pebbles whitewashed with lime palasa leaves, to which they offer turmeric and red powder. This is done to propitiate Marai Devi so that she may save their houses from being burnt. All the children of the village tie bells round their waist and feet and go from door to door dancing and begging with branches of nim leaves in honour of the goddess.

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