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This is the cool Autumn or Harvest Full Moon in the month of Ashvin (September – October), also known as Sharad Purnima or Navanna Purnima. The Moon’s orb appears enormous as it rises on the horizon, magical in its enchantment the world over. It is close to the Autumn Equinox, and is nearly full in light for several days, inspiring many outdoors festivals of Arts - poetry, folk theatre, dance and music throughout India. It is considered the most beautiful Full Moon of the year, celebrated for its own sake.
The night of the Full Moon is crystal clear, and the earth at its purest, following months of overcast skies and persistent rain showers. It is one of the occasions when the Moon is believed to radiate its divine nectar of health and immortality upon the earth, and it is possible to collect and imbibe this potion, as described later.
Jagadguru Adi Sankara, the great ascetic and mideaval Indian philosopher of monotheism, has compared the luminescence of the Sharad Purnima to the beauty and fullness of the Goddess Amba in his poetic composition, Saundaryalahari (Ripples of Beauty). Sharad means maturity, as in the ripening of the harvest. This season is chiefly dedicated to the Goddess Sharada or Saraswati, who presides over perfect knowledge, replete with natural wisdom. She inspires the fluency of the spoken word, the alphabet, and the most sophisticated form of subtle intelligence, represented by the classical notes of the musical instrument, veena. It is she who bestows the grace of creativity and artistic inspiration, thus naturally ruling over the Arts, and it is de rigueur for performances of Classical Arts to begin with the Saraswati Vandana, or the ritual invocation to the Goddess Saraswati.
Navratri, nine nights of the goddesses
Incessant rains of the previous three to four months have taken their leave, mercifully, and the month of Ashvin begins with the festival of the nine nights dedicated to the goddesses that bless humanity with fertility, abundance of harvest, material wealth and divine protection in countless ways.
Serious prayer and ritual is undertaken on each of the nine days, including recitation of the Sanskrit text, Devi Mahatmyam, with its 700 couplets extolling the powers of the three great Mother goddesses, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. The goddesses are known to manifest at night, and it is important for the devotees to keep them company through group singing of devotional songs and performance of folk dances into the early morning.
In the South especially, the last three days are dedicated to the Goddess Saraswati. Throughout India, the ninth and final day of this festival is considered to be presided over by Saraswati as the goddess of learning, and school children are taught to pray to her for intelligence, in a ritual known as Saraswati pujan. In earlier days, children used to draw the peacock - known to be the vehicle of Saraswati- on their slates in school, and then pray to the image as a representation of the goddess herself, for the gift of learning!
Dussehara (Dasra), the triumph of good over evil
This is the tenth bright day of Ashvin, also called vijayadashmi, which marks the defeat of the forces of darkness or the demons of arrogance, greed and aggression, at the hands of Durga, the all-powerful Goddess who embodies the strength of all the Gods within her own manifest being. In ancient days, the princes and their armies would set out for war on this day, with assurance of victory due to the grace of the goddess.
It is customary to worship on this day, all the weapons and implements of trade and employment, including the lowly farm sickle, and now even the computer keyboard with the mouse!
In the North, Dussehara is celebrated by burning a monstrous effigy of the ten-headed demon Ravan, in celebration of Rama’s victory against him at the end of the epic war described in the Ramayan. Dasra also marked the end of banishment and the prescribed anonymity of the five Pandav princes in the epic of Mahabharat, after which they returned to reclaim their hidden weapons before going back to their kingdom as heroes.
In different parts of India, the period around the Navratris and Dasra is also marked by public performances of folk theatre, often in the temple precincts, presenting different scriptural legends - particularly in the Vaishnav
tradition.They draw upon the legends surrounding the ten incarnations of Vishnu - the dashavatar, and the Ramlila (exploits of Lord Ram) in particular. It is common to find male actors dressing up to play the roles of women in this version of travelling folk theatre, since the modesty of women as actors may be under considerable strain given its circumstances. This is in contrast to the travelling tamasha or road shows of the more secular variety of folk theatre, where the main draw are in fact the dancing girls!
Dasra is also one of the three-and-a-half holiest muhurtas in the year when a venture or ritual may be initiated giving the astrological almanac a complete go by, since the entire day is auspicious! It is also the favoured occasion to buy gold as a symbolic means to augment the family’s wealth, if only as fairly inexpensive little coins with embossed design. This is also tied up with traditional wisdom of investing in gold for emergencies, because of its easy liquidity on the market. Over the years, a carefully garnered stash of gold coins or circlets can help pay for major expenses, including weddings or medical care.
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