Holi

Festival Location: All Areas, India

Festival Type(s): Traditional Festivals, Cultural Festivals

Holi Media:

Legends of Holi

By: © Rita Putatunda 2009

Like everything else about India, steeped in the myths and mysteries of pasts that are lost in the mists of time, every Indian festival arrives wrapped in its own legend and folklore. And Holi, the exuberant festival of colour, which is celebrated at this time of the year to rejoice the advent of Spring, is no exception. Holi is celebrated all over India, every region giving this festival its own flavour, zest and colour.

One of the most popular ones is the story of Hollika. Legend has it that a king of ancient times called Hiranya Kashyap, after having defeated the Gods proclaimed his supremacy over all in the universe. All bow down to him except his son Prahlad who continues to worship Lord Vishnu. The enraged king tells his sister Hollika, who is immune to fire, to destroy Prahlad in a fire. She carries Prahlad into a conflagration, but by the divine intervention of Vishnu, she is consumed by the flames while Prahlad escapes unscathed. So on the eve of Holi people can be seen milling around huge bonfires symbolically reliving the legend even today.

In parts of North India effigies of Hollika are burnt in these bonfires. This tradition is also followed in Gujarat and Orissa. Agni, the god of Fire, is also paid obeisance to by gram and stalks from the harvest being offered into the fire.

Then there is the story of another ancient king, Kamsa, who orders the death of all the children in his land, because it has been predicted that a child born at that time would be the one to destroy him. But Lord Krishna, the 8th incarnation of Vishnu, escapes the king's sword. So Kamsa sends the demoness Putana to kill him. She tries to suckle baby Krishna at her poison tipped breasts. But Krishna sucks the life out of her instead. Hence bonfires are lit, some say, to celebrate the victory of Krishna and the death of Putana. Those who ascribe the origin of all Indian festivals to seasonal cycles claim that Putana symbolizes winter and her death the ending of winter.

Holi is called Dol Jatra or Dol Purnima in Bengal. The idol of Mahaprabhu Chaitanya is taken around the streets in flamboyantly decorated palanquins. Fasts are observed and prayers to Lord Krishna and Agnidev are offered. After the rituals Krishna's idol is smeared with gulal (coloured powder) and "bhog" (food and sweetmeats especially made for the Gods) is offered to both Krishna and Agnidev. Then the revelries begin.

In rural Maharashtra, where the festival is called Rangapanchami, it is celebrated with dancing and singing. In the towns of Rajasthan, especially Jaisalmer, the music is loud, and clouds of green, orange, pink and blue powder fill the air. The grounds of Jaisalmer's Mandir Palace are turned into colour and chaos, with dances, folk songs, and fistfuls of gulal flung in the air. Sikhs celebrate Hola Mohalla a day after Holi in Anandpur Sahib, in Punjab, with displays of ancient martial arts and mock battles.

In South India, where Holi is called Kamavilas, Kaman Pandugai and Kaman-dahanam, there is the legend of Kamdev, the Love God (the Hindu equivalent of Cupid), who moves through the woods in the season of Spring, aiming his passion tipped arrows that pierce the heart at all who cross his path, from his bow made of sweet sugarcane strung with humming bees.

The story goes that once, in his foolishness, he aimed his love tipped arrow at the mighty Shiva deep in meditation. The angered Lord Shiva opens his third eye (the eye of destruction on his forehead) and reduces Kamdev to ashes. The grief stricken Rati, Kamdev's wife, beseeches Lord Shiva for mercy. Shiva relents and partly restores Kamdev to Rati. Though she can see him, he remains without physical form. The songs sung here are the stories of Rati's lamentations. Another interpretation is that Parvati (Siva's consort) brings Kamdev back to life and the day he breathed again is celebrated as Holi.

But most of all there is an underlying element of eroticism about Holi which is quite palpable. In the exultation and revelry, in the physical act of smearing colour, in the mock battles of throwing coloured water and gulal at each other. Spring itself is the season of love. And this festival seems to acknowledge and greet that.

But the origins of the eroticism lie in the story of Lord Krishna's (the great lover in Hindu mythology) fabled love for his beloved Radha. Holi is spread over two weeks in Mathura and Vrindavan, the two ancient cities Krishna has been associated with. Here, along with the coloured powder and water, lively processions come out in the streets, folk songs and dances are performed to the rhythmic beat of dholkis (folk drums), the mirror embroidered vibrantly coloured long skirts of the women swirling and swinging in gay abandonment.

Hindu mythology is full of stories about Lord Krishna's childhood pranks. And that of his youth when he with his mischief and the sweet sounds of his bansuri (bamboo flute) captivated the hearts of the gopikas (the cowherd girls), amongst whom he grew up. Among the gopikas, especially, was his beloved beauteous Radha. Most of the folk songs and folk dances, called Raas-Lila, in Northern India performed during Holi are recitals of Radha's and Krishna's love. The separations, the pining and the longing, the clandestine meetings, the adoration...

A game called "Huranga" is played during Holi even today symbolizing the Radha-Krishna love play. The men of Nandagaon, where the youthful Krishna played his pranks, and the women of Barsana, Radha's birth place, come together and clash. The objective being that the men put a flag on Radhika's temple at Barsana, symbolizing their victory over the women of Barsana, while the women beat the men with stout sticks to keep them away.

A land of ancient origins, intricate cultures interwoven over great periods of time, Holi portrays the diversity and the mythology of India to our senses even today.

by Rita Putatunda

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