Prasanna Dash: Holi: Myths, Moods & Music

Holi: Myths, Moods & Music

Holi Kab Hai?

You might remember the song Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain (Sholay:1975), ominously preceded by Gabbar’s query: Holi Kab Hai? Kab Hai Holi? Kab?

Gabbar had good reason to ask, for people in different parts of India play Holi on different dates. Braj ki Holi commences on Basant Panchami and concludes after 40 days; Barsana’s Lathmar Holi begins a week before Purnima; at Manikarnika Ghat, Kashi it is on the Shukla Ekadashi. At Orchha, M.P., Ram Raja will play Holi on Mar 28, three days after most of India celebrates the festival on March 25. For Maharashtra, Gujarat, and M.P, the main festival is on Rang Panchami, March 30.

Holi is usually celebrated on Phalguna Purnima after Holika is incinerated the previous evening to commemorate the victory of good over evil.

(Radha-Krishna playing Holi: Image created by Copilot powered by Dall-e)

Holi: Origin Myths

Three major myths regarding the origin of Holi relate to Holika-Prahlad, Shiva-Kama, and Radha-Krishna; the first one is commemorated with Holika Dahan on Choti Holi, the second one with Kama Dahan in the south, and the last one with the signature Holi of Vraj (Biraj ki Holi) in Gopa-Mathura-Vrindavan.

Holi celebration is mentioned in some versions of Kamasutra, and by the Prakrit poet Hala; but the present mode of celebration, particularly in northern India, is possibly inspired by Raas Leela of Bhagavata Purana and Jayadeva’s Geeta Govinda. Interestingly, Raas Leela in Bhagavata Purana took place on Sharad Purnima, but Geeta Govinda pushed it forward to Phalguna Purnima; both nights salubrious and spectacularly beautiful.

Holika and Prahlad

Holi, an abbreviation of Holika Dahan (the burning of Holika), may be the only Hindu festival named after a demoness. Hiranyakashipu was mad at Prahlad, his renegade son, for worshipping Vishnu, and ordered his sister Holika to kill Prahlad. She sat on a pyre, enticed her nephew to sit on her lap, and willed the pyre to burn. Even though she was blessed to be unharmed by fire, she was reduced to ashes, and Prahlad emerged unhurt from the pyre by the grace of Vishnu, who later assumed the Nrusingha avatar to tear apart Hiranyakashipu. Notably, Holi festival is not named after Nrusingha or Hiranyakashipu but after Holika, a minor character. Such is the generosity and inclusiveness of Hinduism!

Shiva and Kama

Unable to bear Shiva’s humiliation by her father, Sati committed suicide, and a distraught Shiva sat for meditation for so long that the harmony of the universe was jeopardised. Upon prayer by the gods, Sati took birth as Parvati and began arduous penance to obtain Shiva as her husband, but Shiva paid no attention to her. At the behest of the gods, Kama, the god of Love fired his arrow of flowers to arouse eros in Shiva. Enraged at the disturbance, Shiva opened his third eye and burnt Kama to ashes. Shiva ended his meditation, married Parvati, and all was well with the universe. Rati, Kama’s widow prayed to Shiva to restore her husband to life. Shiva granted the boon that Kama would be reborn every year with the onset of Spring albeit in disembodied form (Ananga). In some variations, Shiva assured that Kama would be born as Pradyumna, son of Krishna and Rukmini in Dvapar Yuga.

What is the symbolism of this story?

Shiva is Yogiraj, and meditation comes naturally to him. But he has the onerous responsibilities of creating, preserving, and destroying the universe; and he cannot stay aloof or withdraw from the business of creation for long. That is why it was necessary for Kama to persuade him to end his meditation. But why was he punished by Shiva? The burning may be metaphorical for Kama is the manas-putra of Brahma; a creation of the mind. Another name for Kama is Ananga, literally the One without a body. Shringara or Eros is a state of mind; it begins as a thought and then impels the body to act. Shiva was upset at the erotic impulse in his mind while he was at meditation. He opened the third eye, symbolic of the strength of the ascetic mind, and incinerated that impulse.

Radha-Krishna

Why does Krishna play Holi with Radha, and not with Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, or any other of the ashta bharyas (the eight principal wives), or the 16100 women he rescued from Narakasura (and married them since no one else would)?

Because it happened at Gopa where Krishna spent his childhood. It is part of Gopa Leela, the delightful sportive play of God!

Krishna literally means dark-complexioned, but is euphemistically called the Blue God. Still a boy (Krishna left Gopa forever at the age of eight!), he once asked Yashoda: Mother, why is Radha fair and I dark? Radha kyun gori, mein kyun kala? You may have heard the popular song by Anoop Jalota. The doting mother gave her young son a tip: Take a fistful of gulal and smear Radha’s face with your preferred colour.

Krishna and his friends used homemade herbal and skin-friendly gulal and abeer to paint Radha and the gopis, and also doused them with pots of water. When their revelry took them to Barsana, Radha’s place of birth, the feisty ladies hit them with staves to prevent them from taking further liberties. The warring parties came to truce with Phoolera Dooj, playing Holi with flowers. The vibrant, rambunctious, and colourful Vrij ki Holi still retains that hoary tradition of fun and frolic.

Season of Love

Among the seasons, I am Spring (ritunam kusumakara), proclaims Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Geeta. Phalguna or Spring is the season of renewal, rejuvenation, and reaffirmation of life-principle. The warmer sun nudges plants and trees to sprout new leaves, flowers, and fruits; and all life-forms to procreate. A new cycle of life begins. The pleasant breeze is happy to courier for free the sweet fragrance of mango blossom, the mating calls of birds provide heartwarming background music, and the elixir of eros courses in the veins of all living things.

Festival of Joy

Holi is a festive, boisterous community festival of song, music, dance, and revelry, especially for the youth, with gulal (coloured dust) and abeer (scented gulal) applied to each other and tossed up to colour the air, too, and dousing each other with spray from pichkari, water-balloons, pitchers, or buckets. Some revellers may be tipsy and euphoric with bhang serbet or other intoxicants, and the loud music from dhol, dhak, and manjira may excite the group to be even rowdy at times. But the revellers share goodwill, sweets (gujiya, puran poli, jalebi, peda laced with bhang), and compliments, forgetting and forgiving past enmity and hurts. Holi is also a great leveller of social distinctions of caste, class, and rank, at least for the day or two of celebration. In Phagunva mein rang rach rach barse, a delectable rendition and performance by Malini Awasthi, Holi is celebrated with equal fervour in mahal and madhai (hut) and by Raja and rank (poor)!

Holi commences with application of gulal to the gods and goddesses. How could the divinities be deprived of so much of fun and frolic? Khatu Shyam, Shree Ji, Banke Bihari, Radha-Krishna, Ram are taken out to the street to bless the festive occasion. Even the ascetic Shiva plays Holi at Manikarnika cremation ground at Kashi. Expatriate Indians and ISKCON celebrate it all over the world.

Holi is much more than a festival of colours. The celebrations are also named Basant Utsava, and Madan Utsava; for it is the Festival of Spring – of new regeneration, rejuvenation, Love, Amour, and Erotica. In his seminal kavya ‘Geeta Govinda,’ Jayadeva calls it Anang Utsava. Radha-Krishna, the twin divinities occupy centre-stage in these festivities, and Brij becomes the epi-centre of Holi celebrations in India. That is interesting since Radha is not mentioned in the Mahabharata or Harivamsa or Bhagavata; but was first mentioned in South Indian devotional poetry. Andal, the 9^th century Saint-Poet who composed several soulful devotional songs for Krishna, and married Sri Ranganathaswamy of the eponymous temple at Sri Rangapatna, is believed to be Radha incarnate. Radha travelled from the south through east India to the north.

Jayadeva, the 12^th century Saint-Poet of Odisha, truly created Radha, the infinitely alluring and irresistible divine consort of Krishna, and identified her with Lakshmi, thus elevating her from humble milk-maid to goddess. He celebrated in Geeta Govinda, the best Sanskrit kavya in shringara rasa, the erotic yet sublime love between Radha and Krishna. A reputed Jayadeva scholar has observed that eros and devotion are inseparably entwined like warp and weft in Geeta Govinda.[i]

Geeta Govinda inspired Chaitanya and the later Vaishnava saints to create Radha-Krishna and other sampradayas. Significantly, despite her risqué relationship with Krishna, her younger relative, she became more popular than Lakshmi; as vindicated in the common greeting Radhe-Radhe. No one greets Lakshmi-Lakshmi!

Many Holis of India

Holi has much regional variation – Brij, Avadh, and Kashi have their signature celebrations; Nihang Sikhs celebrate Holla Mohalla – a kind of Warriors’ Holi; Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have Rang Panchami; Odisha and Bengal have Dola Yatra (Swing Festival), and the north-east and the south have their own regional variations.

Most of India celebrates Holi for a day or two, but Brij is immersed in these festivities for forty days. Lathmaar Holi of Barsana, the birthplace of Radha, is now a tourist attraction, especially for foreigners.

Phagun Puni & Gundi-chhada puja

In my small village in western Odisha, the deities in the temples and at homes were bathed, worshipped, and offered flowers, fruits, and phagu - the coloured dust made at home from rice flour, haldi, dried leaves and flowers.

Renuka, my elder sister lives in a village close to Bargarh in Odisha. When I called her today and wished Happy Holi she said, ‘Just finished Gundi-chhada puja,’ and the childhood memory of the puja alcove at home in Khuntpali, our ancestral village came back in a flash. Of course, the Phagun Puni puja was called Gundi-chhada, literally meaning offering to the deities the tiny mango fruits no bigger than chickpeas at this season. ‘The puja platter had other offerings, too, I think,’ I said. She provided the details: a few mahul (Madhuca longifolia) fruits just beginning to form and still encased tightly in the protective cover, a few palsha (palash or Flame of Forest) flowers, char fruit from the forest, and ladoos made of roasted chana with jaggery. Mahalakshmi was bathed, dressed, and then offered the ceremonial platter. This was the only day in a year when palsha flower was offered in puja; but why offer gundi and yet-to-blossom mahul phool, neither of which was edible? Spring had inspired the trees to flower and fruit, and the harvest would come in due course in summer.

Gundi-chhada aka Gundi-khai puja is thus an early thanksgiving for the bounties of Mother Earth, who is none other than Mahalakshmi or Annapurna. A good crop of mango and mahul nourished the village and forest communities during the harsh summer months when no other crop was feasible. This puja is performed at home; and in sacred groves in the forest, on behalf of the village by the tribal priest – a Binjhal at Khuntpali, and a Sahnra at Sayan.

Phagu, Phagua, and Phag

Phagu derives from Phalguna, as does Phagwa or Phagua, the name of the festival in the Caribbean with significant population of Indian origin. The Phag folksongs of Avadh, Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand are also the signature tunes of Phalguna and Holi.

Holi Songs

The festival of colours, staple fare for Bollywood films, is popularised as a carnival of group dance and chorus songs. Such is the compulsive urge of Bollywood film-makers that in Guide, a Holi-cameo was included in Waheeda Rahman’s dance for the song piya tose naina lage re!

Holi songs are as varied as the multi-coloured festival, and range from devotional, joyful, playful, banter, bonhomie, titillating to innuendo and risqué. Songs for all moods.

Which are your favourite Holi songs? Depends on your preferred category – Classical, Bollywood, or Folksong.

Here are my favourites:

Classical: Aaj Biraj Mein Holi Re Rasiya (Shobha Gurtu); Khele Masane Mein Holi Digambar (Pandit Channulal Mishra)

Bollywood: Rang Barse (Amitabh Bachchan); khelenge hum Holi (Kati Patang), Holi aye re Kanhai (Mother India)

Folk: Phagunva Mein rang rach rach barse – Malini Awasthi; Phag folksongs of Avadh, Bundelkhand & Baghelkhand.

A few notable Bollywood Holi songs

Daro Re Rang Daro Re Rasiya (Jogan: 1950: Geeta Dutt)

Khelo Rang Hamare Sang (Aan: 1952: Shamshad Begum & Lata Mangeshkar)

Holi Ayee Re Kanhai (Mother India: 1957: Shamshad Begum & Lata Mangeshkar)

Arrey Ja Re Hatt Natkhat (Navrang: 1959: Chitalkar, Mahendra Kapoor & Asha Bhonsle)

Holi Khelat Nandlal Biraj Mein (Godaan: 1963: Mohammad Rafi, Music Director-Ravishankar, filmed on Mehmood!)

Aaj na chhodenge bas humjoli (Kati Patang: 1971)

Rang Barse (Silsila: 1981)

Avadh Mein Holi Khele Raghuvira (Baghban: 2003),

Aaj Biraj Mein Holi Re Rasiya (Dhappa: 2019)

Postscript

I thank my erudite readers for their valuable comments and inputs.

Kedar Rout mentioned the iconic cultural event of Basantotsava at Vishwabharati, initiated by Rabindranath Tagore.

Narmada Prasad Upadhyay drew my attention to the unique Holi celebration by Bishnois of Rajasthan.

My friend, Madan Mohan offered the following thoughtful comments:

"बुरा ना मानो होली है"

आपने अति उत्तम ब्लॉग होली और उससे जुड़े विभिन्न प्रसंगों पर लिखा है। माध्यम से एक ही जगह मुझे भी अलग-अलग रूप में होली की कथाओं और गाथाओं को जानने का सौभाग्य मिला। इन पुरानी गाथाओं से हटकर वर्तमान समय में होली एक रंगों के उत्सव के रूप में ही पूरे विश्व में अपनी पहचान बनाए हुए हैं।

यह सही है कि मथुरा और बरसाने की होली, जो की वर्तमान में चल रही है ,उसमें भाग लेने के लिए 12 लाख पर्यटक उसे शहर में पहुंच चुके हैं ।यह भी अपने आप में एक विचित्र और अकल्पनीय त्यौहार है जिसको मनाने के लिए या यूं कह लीजिए कि भारतीय संस्कृति का रस स्वादन करने के लिए पूरे विश्व से भक्त आते हैं । भारतीय संस्कृति और भारतीय त्योहारों में होली ऐसा विशिष्ट त्यौहार है जो विशुद्ध रूप से आनंद और मस्ती का त्यौहार है । पूरे देश में भंग खाने की प्रथा हंसी मजाक के रूप में होली से जुड़ी हुई है ।

होली -बसंत- फागुन इन सब ने मिलकर रसिको के लिए इतनी अद्भुत रचनाओं का सृजन किया है उसमें ॠतुसंघार हो या गीत गोविंद हो या फिर भारतीय सिनेमैक्स के विविध विधाओं और रंगों से जुड़े मनोरंजन गाने ।

बदलते दौर में होली आम भारतीयों के लिए अपना वह स्वरूप आज बदल चुकी है जो 50 साल पहले अपने बचपन के समय में हम देखते थे । उस समय दिल्ली की सड़कों पर होली से लगभग 5-7 दिन पहले से ही रंगों का छिड़काव शुरू हो जाता था जो आते जाते किसी पर भी डाल देते थे और फिर वही ""बुरा ना मानो होली है"" यह जुमला भी अपने आप में विचित्र ही है "बुरा ना मानो होली है ।" कहने का मतलब यह है कि आज आपको सभी प्रकार की छेड़खानी माफ है क्योंकि इसमें मुक्त आनंद और उल्लास है ।

सामूहिक रूप से रंगों की पिचकारी को टैंकर में भरकर पूरे शहर को रंगने की परंपरा भी पिछले 20-30 सालों से चली हुई है । मैं खुद रतलाम ,इंदौर ,जबलपुर शहरों में देखा है कि किस तरीके से बड़े-बड़े टैंकर्स में फायर ब्रिगेड के पंप से पूरे शहर को होली खिलाई जाती है। उसका उल्लास और आनंद ही अनूठा है। जिसमें अप्रत्यक्ष रूप में दर्शन गण भी जुड़ जाते हैं। यही तो खूबी है मेरे देश की।।💕🌹🌸🎊

[i] Subas Pani, Sampurna Geeta Govinda, Sri Geeta Govinda Pratisthana, Puducherry.

Prasanna Dash

Holi: Myths, Moods & Music

Holi: Myths, Moods & Music

Holi Kab Hai?

(Radha-Krishna playing Holi: Image created by Copilot powered by Dall-e)

Holi: Origin Myths

Holika and Prahlad

Shiva and Kama

Radha-Krishna

Season of Love

Festival of Joy

Many Holis of India

Phagun Puni & Gundi-chhada puja

Phagu, Phagua, and Phag

Holi Songs

A few notable Bollywood Holi songs

Links

Resources

Postscript

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