The Colors of India - Holi a Spiritual Celebration
Rang barse bhige chunar wali, rang barse o rang barse bhige chunar wali..rang barse, are rang barse bhige chunar wali..re!
Happy Holi to All of You
The Indian sky is changing - the March winds are coming in and winter begins to bow out. Holi is the festival that carries the country into the bright days of summer. A feeling of plenty is in the air - the crops have been cut, threshed and stored or sold. The farmer is at rest and money is at hand. ‘Holi’ falls on the full moon, in the month of Phalgun, which spans the end of Februry and the beginning of March on the Gregorian calendar. A time when Spring is in the air.
The legend of King Hiranyakashipu is associated with the festival of Holi. This legend signifies the victory of good over evil, of devotion surpassing ambition. King Hiranyakashipu was an ambitious ruler, one who wanted absolute power so that he would be worshipped as God. When this wish was made known, the King’s own son, Prahlad, refused to obey his father. Prahlad was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, and it was only to his Lord that he gave allegiance. The proud King was enraged by Prahlad’s disobedience and decided to punish him severely. He asked his sister Holika for help. It was believed that Holika was immune to fire and would never be burnt, so the King asked Holika to sit in the centre of a bonfire with Prahlad on her lap, so that the fire could devour him. The bonfire was lit, and young Prahlad sat in Holika’s lap, in its centre, praying to Lord Vishnu. His devotion saved him, leaving him untouched by the flames, but Holika was burnt to ashes. To mark this legend, huge bonfires are lit on the eve of Holi, especially in Bihar and the North.
Vrindavan and Lord Krishna’s legend of courting Radha and playing pranks on the Gopis are also the essence of Holi. In Hindu mythology, Lord Krishna in his youth has been idealised as a lover, and it is the spirit of his lighthearted, mischievous passion of courtship that enters the Spring festival of Holi. Krishna and Radha are depicted celebrating Holi in the hamlets of Gokul, Barsana and Vrindavan, bringing them alive with mischief and youthful pranks. Holi was Krishna and Radha’s celebration of love - a teasing, affectionate panorama of feeling and colour. These scenes have been captured and immoratalised in the songs of Holi: the festival that is also the harbinger of the light, warm, beautiful days of Spring.
Holi, being celebrated across India March 21, may be the most colourful Hindu festival but it has a Muslim history as well.
Sufi saints like Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and Amir Khusrau in their chaste Persian and Hindi loved the festival. Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, whose Holi ‘phags’ (songs) are relished even today, allowed his Hindu ministers to tinge his forehead with ‘gulal’ during Holi festival each year.
During the Shahjahani tenure of Delhi, Holi was known as Eid-e-Gulabi (Pink Eid) or Aab-e-Pashi (Shower of Colourful Flowers), and truly so owing to its carnival spirit and hysterical rejoicing for both Hindus and Muslims.
The nobles, kings and nawabs exchanged rose water bottles and sprinkled them on each other along with the frenzied drumming of the ‘nagaras’ (drums).
This enlightened spirit percolated in the Mughals right from the time of the greatest Mughal emperor Akbar. Jahangir is shown holding Holi festivities in Tuzk-e-Jahangiri.
Many artists, especially Govardhan and Rasik, have shown Jahangir playing Holi with Noorjahan, his wife.
Mohammed Shah Rangila, in a remarkable painting, is shown running around the palace with his wife following him with a ‘pichkari’, or water cannon.
Such examples are umpteen in India’s cultural heritage; and this has been enriched by the harmonious amalgamation and assimilation of various faiths and ethnicities.
Mirza Sangi Baig in Sair-ul-Manazil narrates that the rollicking and frolicking Holi groups were alternately powdered and drenched till the floor had been covered with a swamp of crimson, yellow and orange colour, with the faces being multi- coloured, a spectacle very enthralling and exclusive.
“Who says Holi is a Hindu festival?” asks Munshi Zakaullah in his book Tarikh-e-Hindustani.
Zakaullah writes that the carnival of Holi lasted for days during the Mughal rule during which people, irrespective of religious or social distinctions, forgot their restraints. The poorest of the poor threw colour on the emperor.
Children’s Urdu monthly Khilona (March 1960) mentioned that during the days of Bahadur Shah Zafar, special arrangements were made for Holi festivities.
And Jam-e-Jahanuma, an Urdu newspaper (March 10, 1844), reported that on such occasions, both Hindus and Muslims joined hands.
The above post is excerpted, with slight modifications, from different sites..
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