Holi: Festival of Spring

Holi is so joyous a festival that it has permeated the entire range of cultural expression in India, and is ubiquitous in literature, painting, song, music, and dance. How could Bollywood be untouched by it?

Rang Barse, one of the most popular Bollywood Holi songs, was filmed on Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha in Silsila (1981). The lyrics by Harivansh Rai Bachchan are believed by some to be inspired by a Meeran Bhajan which begins with these lines:

Rang barse O Meeran,

Bhawan mein rang barse,

Kun e Meeran tero mandir chinayo,

Kun chinayo tero devro,

Rang barse O Meeran,

Bhawan mein rang barse…

Since Meeran’s oral bhajans were transcribed much later, the lyrics in Rajasthani and Haryanvi versions vary. However, Meeran’s song was intensely devotional whereas there’s nothing devotional about the song in Silsila which handled the risqué theme of adulterous amour. It is a holi song and dance scripted for the film’s plot.

In another adorable song, Meeran pines for Krishna; since Holi is drab, dull, and colourless without Kanha.[i]

Remember the evergreen song from Navrang (1959)?

अरे जा रे हट नटखट

ना छू रे मेरा घूँघट

पलट के दूँगी

आज तुझे गाली रे …

The beloved feigns anger and threatens to abuse the lover, and the latter is game for the love-sport, including her mock-insult:

आज मीठी लगे है तेरी गाली रे

 The song captures the spirit of Brij ki Holi, and Bharat Vyas’s lyrics could be inspired by Surdas, the 16th century bhakti poet who sang eloquently of Krishna-Radha Raas-leela.

In one of Surdas’s famous holi songs, Kanha and Radha गावत दै दै गारि परसपर (sing open insults at each other).[ii] Love is camouflaged in the playful gaali exchanged between them. In Girija Devi's soulful thumri kaise shor machayee, the gaali is as sensuous as a loving caress.

The uninhibited revelry, flirtatiousness, teasing and taunting may have progressed from the merely verbal to the unabashedly physical  lathmaar Holi of Barsana.

Vasantotsav, the ancient Festival of Spring, is now better known as Holi, the Festival of Colours. It is not known when Holi shed its sinister association with Holika, the demoness, to emerge as a festival of joy; but there are as many distinctive Holis with their unique traditions and cultural legacy as there are regions in India: Brij ki Holi, Barsane ki Holi, Lathmaar Holi, Phoolon ki Holi, Avadh ki Holi, Masane ki Holi, Dol Yatra of Lord Jagannath of Puri, Holla Mohalla of Punjab, Madanotsav of the South, and the kapda-phad Holi of Gujrat. Ashutosh Rana presents in his You Tube video ‘Kos-Kos ki Holi’ an excellent summary of these varied traditions.[iii]

Previous Blogs

For readers who might be interested, here are the links for my previous blogs on Holi, and Kalidasa’s celebration of Vasanta in Ritusamhara.

Holi: Myths, Moods & Music

https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2024/03/holi-myths-moods-music.html

Masane Ki Holi

https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2023/03/masane-ki-holi-holi-in-burning-ground.html

O Spring, O Sweet Assailant!

https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2023/03/o-spring-o-sweet-assailant.html

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[i] होली पिया बिन म्हँनै नी भावै, घर आँगण न सुहावे ।

दीपक जोदूँ चौक पुरायूँ, हेलि पिव परदेस सजावे।

सूनी सेजह ब्याळ बुझावे, जागत रैण बितावे॥

नींद नैणा नी आवे॥

कब री ठाडी म्हें मग जोनूँ, निसदिन विरह जगावे।

किण सूँ मन री बिथा बतायूँ, हिवड़ो म्हाँ अकुलावे॥

पिया कब दरस दिखावे ॥

दीखे नी कोई परम सनेही, म्हारो सनेसो लावे ।

वा बिरिया कब होसी म्हारे, हँस पिय कंठ लगावे॥

मीराँ होली गावे ॥

[ii] “होरी हो हो हो हो होरी

षेलत अति सुष प्रीति प्रगट भइ

उत हरि इतहि राधिका गोरी बाजत तार म्रिदंग झंझ डफ

बीच बीच बंसुरी धुनि थोरी

गावत दै दै गारि परसपर

भरि कांन्हहि ब्रिषभान किसोरी …

‘Ho, ho, ho, Holi!’

They joyfully play and their love comes clear-

Hari there, here fair Radha.

Long drums, round drums, cymbals, and tambourines

pound-and through it faintly, the flute-

as Kanh and Brishabhanu's daughter

sing open insults at each other….”

(Excerpt from 'Surdas: Sur's Ocean -Poems from the early tradition', Edited by Kenneth E. Bryant,

Translated by John Stratton Hawley, Murty Classical Library of India)

[iii]  Kos-Kos ki Holi by Ashutosh Rana: https://youtu.be/AwUznUdGPQg?si=SEqpRAIpM1Zy4GKN