DIWALI SPECIAL................. The many rituals of Diwali

The many rituals of Diwali

Diwali is not just about lights, firecrackers and card parties to commemorate the return of Ram and Sita to Ayodhya. Did you know that celebrations actually end on the 12th day after Lakshmi Puja? Or that most Bengalis don't light diyas on Diwali day? It’s this, the many regional rites and rituals that celebrate various gods in the pantheon, that makes the festival of lights so special.

If you thought Diwali was celebrated on just one day, or is a five-day festival beginning with Dhanteras two days prior and ending with Bhai Dooj two days later, think again. It’s actually a nearly 20-day affair. For many traditional folk, especially married women with children in north India, the cycle of pujas and vrats (ritual fasts) begins nine days earlier with Karva Chauth. Four days after comes Ahoi Ashtami, when women fast from dawn to dusk, this time for the son. If in Karva Chauth, it’s the sight of the moon that signifies the breaking of the fast, in Ahoi Ashtami, it’s the stars. The women offer puja to an image of Ahoi Mata and sit around for a katha, or a story, on how this goddess was blessed with seven sons. Four days later, it’s the turn to worship cows and calves on Govatsa Dwadashi in the north or Vasu Baras in traditional Maharashtrian homes. The cows are fed roti or other wheat products; the women themselves refrain from eating wheat and milk products through the day. The next day is Dhanteras, followed by Chhoti Diwali and then Diwali or Lakshmi Puja/Narak Chaturdashi. The day after Diwali is celebrated either as Govardhan Puja in the north, as Samvat or new year by the business community, who make a fresh start with new accounting books, and as Bali Pratipada in parts of south India. Bhai Dooj, the celebration of brothers, brings up the last of the five-day celebrations. But the festivities don’t end just as yet. Three days later, there’s Labh Panchami, believed to be a day that brings good luck and riches. Chatth Puja is performed on the day after Labh Panchami, followed later that week by Jagaddhatri Puja, which is celebrated with a lot of gusto in Bengal. The curtains come down on the celebrations only on the 12th day after Diwali when Tulsi Vivah, or the marriage of the sacred tulsi plant, is performed to symbolise the union of the celestial gods Vishnu and Lakshmi. A ritualistic bath On Narak Chaturdashi, Maharashtrian homes are abuzz with activity from 4am, when matriarchs of the family call out to children to bathe — an elaborate Abhyanga Snan (oil bath) — and complete the rituals associated with the day. The vessel in which the water is heated for the bath is decorated for the day. Each member of the family is given a ritual massage with a homemade, scented oil. This is generally made a day before with rose, hibiscus, curry leaves and cumin boiled in the oil, which is then strained. Scented soap (Moti, Mysore Sandal, Chandrika and Medimix being favourites) is an additional allure for the ritual bath. A special scrub called utthna (made with a tablespoon each of sandalwood, zedoary or wild turmeric, khus, dried rose petals, dried orange peel, Multani mitti, nagarmotha, bawachi, besan and gawla kachri) is also used to scrub out dead skin, and leaves a fragrance long after the bath. After the bath, the karit fruit (cucumis) is crushed by pressing it under the toe. This symbolises the killing of the demon Narkasura by Lord Krishna in a metaphor for the end of all negativity. Its seeds are then applied to the head and a drop of the extremely bitter fruit juice is left on the tongue. The women of the household then do aarti for the freshly bathed family members. A natural appetiser In addition to the ritual bath, Iyer and Iyengar households prepare a special paste for Diwali. They soak a teaspoon each of carom seeds, cumin, black pepper, long pepper, fenugreek (methi) seeds, calamus, haradh and turmeric and grind these into a fine paste with a hint of cardamom and nutmeg. This paste is added to a small ball of molten jaggery to create the Deepawali lehiyam — a must for anyone stepping out of the ritual bath. Apart from working as a natural appetiser for the festive binge eating that’s guaranteed to come up, the paste boosts the body’s immunity at the onset of winter. Such is its significance that just a pinch of the paste finds pride of place among goodies served or sent to friends and family. Appeasing the spirits While Diwali and Lakshmi Puja are a big deal across the country, in the east — across West Bengal, Odisha, Assam — it remains a distant second to Durga Puja. Or so it was until even a few decades ago. Instead, the day is marked for Kali or Shyama Puja. Kali is big in the east, where she enjoys a cult following that ranges from the mystical practices of the tantriks to the benevolent mother figure of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Kali is the dark goddess, and is worshipped in darkness. The puja itself takes place around midnight on amavasya (new moon) during the month of Kartik — a night as dark as the goddess herself. The belief, even now, among the older generation, is to preserve the darkness. So no diyas for tradition-minded Bengalis, unlike their brethren in other parts of the country. In Bengal, the diyas — 14 of them precisely, placed in the darkest corners of the house — are lit at dusk a day prior, which is celebrated as Bhoot Chaturdashi to keep away the spirits of the dead, which are supposed to come down on earth. Another quaint tradition in Bengali households is to eat 14 varieties of green herbs. Unless the puja is done in an established temple where the idols have been kept for years, Kali’s visarjan, or immersion, must also happen before the first ray of the sun reaches the earth. This is so because Kali is considered to be the goddess of the night, and is rarely associated with light. Several devotees also offer bhang (weed) to the goddess during Kali Puja. Bhang is not offered in every puja, and the offering finds its roots in the love for weed that Kali’s husband, Shiva, harbours. “The weed symbolises that once a devotee smokes or consumes it, the darkness and depression of the devotee dissipates in smoke,” says Nobo Kumar, a priest in Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, adding that the weed is also considered prasada for devotees. A lot of Kali’s loyal devotees are tantriks and aghoris, who smoke a lot of weed. “The offering,” says Kumar, “is usually made in a kalash to the goddess along with sweets, flowers and other offerings.” Teething on gold, silver For Sindhis, who fled Pakistan for India during the partition, the goddess of wealth holds a special place. For it was she who, during their days as refugees, bestowed her generosity on them for their hard work, ingenuity and sharp entrepreneurial skills. So for Diwali, or Diyari as Sindhis call it, they bring out their gold and silver coins and clean them thoroughly before the puja. During the puja, they immerse these coins and other regular currency coins in raw milk. The milk bowl, along with offerings of sweets and lai (a kind of a chikki), is placed in a hatdi (a decorated plate with three sticks) and a diya, made of wheat dough, is lit in preparation for the aarti. Once the puja and aarti are over, the members of the family take the gold/silver coins and tap them lightly against their teeth while chanting, ‘Lakshmi aayi, danat vaai’ (When Lakshmi arrives, poverty departs)! Community leaders insist that the kinematics involved in the process drill in the need for hard work to create wealth. Dancing around wicker baskets The Thakars, original dwellers of what were once lush forests of the Sahyadris in Maharashtra’s Thane and Palghar districts, lived in Jawhar, Mokhada, Vikramgadh, Wada, Bhiwandi, Murbad and Shahapur tehsils. This Scheduled Tribe community of paddy farmers, hunters and gatherers migrated all over the state after the ecological destruction of their forest homelands. Folk music dance and songs form such a significant part of their cultural heritage that they have a song for practically every occasion. Diwali is when the rice from the year’s monsoon crop has come home and is stored in six-seven feet high wicker baskets covered with cowdung from within and outside. These baskets are lined on elevated logs (to prevent moisture), coloured with an ochre mud paste and readied for Diwali celebrations. These animist tribals, who worship the five elements, then worship these large baskets, which are surrounded by lamps made from dried chibra fruit skin and arranged on dried cowdung. They then sing and dance around the baskets, which represent Goddess Lakshmi, to the beat of dhols. (Contributed by Yogesh Pawar, Gargi Gupta and Amrita Madhukalya) DNA8NOV15