Holi, called Dhuli in Sanskrit, is an ancient Hindu festival ,celebrated on the full moon day, Purnima, in the lunar month of Falgun. People throw colored waters and smear each other with scented Abir and Gulal. People also throw Abir and Gulal of myriad hues into the air and there is riot of colours all around. This festival of colors bids farewell to the gloom of chilly winters and welcomes the arrival of fresh hues of spring. Spring is also the time when winter crops are gleaned and Holi celebrates a good harvest after the months of toil in the fields. Spring is also the season when mango blossoms bloom, and its mild sweet fragrance invites the Koel from afar to come and sit on its branches and sing in anticipation of its ripe succulent fruits. The trees has shed their leaves and the light green tender one’s with just a tinge of pink sprouting on their branches is a sign of whole new start. The eastern Indian country side is painted in fiery red by the simul and palash and the gulmohar dapples the canvas with contrasting shades of yellows and mauves. Added to it,the drunken fragrant blossoms of the alluring mahua trees. A night before Holi, Holika Dahan takes place .Dry leaves and twigs from the fall season are collected and arranged into heaps and a bonfire is lit. According to one of the many narratives from puran, there was a curse on the celestial gods for attending Dakshayagya. Accordingly they were put to deep hardship by the torture of the demon surapadma. Surapadma had the boon that son of shiva only could kill him. But to beget a son out of shiva ,he ought to take parvati as his consort. Parvati at time was performing deep penance to marry shiva. Lord shiva was however staying as Dakshinamurthy, teaching the sages about the ulitimate realization of bliss. Out of desperation to find a solution the gods forcibly sent Kama,the god of love, to induce yearnings for parvati in lord shiva. But the arrow of kamadeva, falied to incite any feeling in shiva, as he is above all worldly principles and has no pleasure out of external things. Now as shiva slightly opened his third eye,kamadeva was burnt down to a heap of ash. This incident of burning to ashes of kama is called Kamadahana or Holi. The holi bonfire is in commemoration of this event.The ash of kamadeva’s body settled on Shiva. So the day following Kamadahana, people put coloured powders on each other remembering this victory over lust. The purana continues that later the celestial gods realized their foolishness and begged Shiva to marry Parvati which he did. And on his wedding night he revived kamadeva. According to yet another tale, Sri Krishna asked his mother Yashoda out of jealousy,why was Radha of so fair a complexion while he was so dark. To this Yashoda said,”go and paint her face with any color of your choice”. The naughty Krishna indeed went and smeared red and yellow colours on his soulmate Radha’s face. Every year on this day it has become a ritual to celebrate with colours ,the divine love of Radha and Krishna. What an incredible festival this holi is? The colours of holi completely harmonize with that of nature and it is hardly possible for anybody to restrain themselves from participating in it. No wonder it is a unifying festival of people from all caste, creed, culture and strata of society. Come... Let’s play Holi……………………… © India Tropes 2014
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:48:06 +0000
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