As the nights draw in and autumn brings early darkness, the bright lights of Diwali cannot be far behind. This joyous Hindu festival celebrated worldwide not only by Hindus, but also by Sikhs and Jains – and indeed often by other neighbouring communities – has already become a familiar landmark in the traditional British year. Fireworks no longer just mean Guy Fawkes, they mean Diwali too.
Diwali is the major Hindu festival day and, unlike other such festivals as Makar Sankrant1 or Holi, it lasts for four or five days in October-November each year. Combined with the arrival of the Hindu New Year, this fabulous festival virtually rolls Christmas and the Hogmanay into one, which explains why it’s such an important occasion.
Spice of regional variety - To touch on just a few regional variations:
In Gujarat, Diwali would start a day early when the women, after giving the house an especially thorough clean and preparing the floor, would create their wonderfully artistic rangoli patterns with white, red and yellow powders. Among the traditional depictions of lotus flowers – the seat of Lakshmi – would be the drawing of a tiger which was left untouched until Bhaibij. Also in Gujarat, Roop Chaturdashi is a special time for worshipping Hanuman in the evening, when
fresh coconut is distributed as prasad.
In Rajasthan, Diwali is associated with the victorious return of Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after a 14-year banishment. Fireworks are sometimes used to portray the burning of Lanka, Ravana’s capital. On Roop Chaturdashi, Rajasthani girls may visit neighbouring houses carrying a lamp in a large clay pot with many holes. This represents the severed head of a foreign despot beheaded by a band of rajputs – the holes being the entry points of arrows – which saved many Rajput girls from defilement.
In the hills of Uttar Pradesh, the cow is the particular focus of reverence on Diwali day, while some villages worship Kubera, the guardian of wealth. Others offer worship to the patron goddess of the village and distribute cooked rice with ghee and sugar as prasad.
In Sind, the people would dance by torchlight outside their village on the night of Diwali. After the dancing, they would dig some earth from a pond or river, fashion it into a small mound and top it off with a twig from some nearby thorny tree, then worship it. A handful of earth would be taken home in the belief – and hope – that it would turn to gold by the next day.
In Bengal, Diwali is celebrated with as much joy and enthusiasm as elsewhere, but Kali – a fierce yet mother Goddess – is worshipped rather than Lakshmi. The dark night of Ashwin is known as Mahanisha.
The night of Lakshmi pujan in Nepal was a great time for gambling and special worship would also be offered to domestic animals over the festival. Neighbourhood meals would be religiously attended and flattened rice with raw sugar and milk is a favourite drink.
In South India, people would traditionally bathe in the river before sunrise on Chaturdashi which is considered as efficacious as bathing in the Ganga itself. In Tamil Nadu, it is the custom to bathe twice before sunrise, while in Andhra Pradesh a bamboo platform would be constructed in front of the house and illuminated with oil lamps where women sat all night signing songs to Lakshmi. On the day of Lakshmi pujan, rice pinda is offered to the souls of the departed and an image of Kind Bali is worshipped in the cowshed. The cattle would be painted and garlanded and paraded through the village. Torchlight dancing is the main event of Diwali in some villages. In Kerala, Onam is celebrated in memory of King Bali.
In some parts of Maharashtra, a cow-dung image of the demon Naraka is formed outside the house and a copper coin is placed on it. A new straw broom, with all the obvious implications of sweeping clean, is purchased on Lakshmi pujan day. In Nagar district, cattle would be garlanded and pampered with special fodder. In Thana district, it was a rice flour drawing of King Bali that was revered with marigolds planted near the spot before sunrise. The connections between all these varying aspects of the festival are as obvious as is the individual flavour of each one.
The victory was said to have been won by Lord Shiva on the day of the full moon of Kartik and it is in illusion to this conquest of Tripuraasur that Shiva is often represented as a warlike deity in battle with dreadful demons. This is also why Shiva carries a Trisula-trident and is named Tripuraari.
For Jains, Diwali betokens Mahavir Nirvan Din, the day on which the mighty Tirthankar attained liberation from all earthly bonds, while Sikhs celebrate Diwali for the release of their Guru Hargobind Singhji from Gwalior Fort, and as the foundation day of the wondrous Golden Temple at Amritsar.
Kartiki Ekaadashi and Kartiki Purnima
After the five days of Diwali, the festival season is not entirely spent however. The eleventh day of the light half of Kartik is celebrated as Kartiki Ekaadashi – Devuthi Ekaadashi – when the second pilgrimage to Pandharpur is made in Maharashtra to offer homage to Vishnu in the guise of Vitthala. A similar observance was marked four months earlier in Aashaadh. The time is now ripe for Vishnu to rise from his four month long repose on the coiled body of Shesha and this signals the end of that period of fasts and other rituals called Chaturmaas. Gifts in cash and kind are given to the priests and some other people and a grand feast is arranged for friends and relatives.
Kartiki Purnima – or Dev Diwali – originated as a Shiva festival, but was subsequently claimed by the followers of Krishna. Krishna’s ras-lila has replaced the original motive but in western India, too, it is still celebrated with special worship, illumination with oil lamps and fireworks.
One small village in Maharashtra would light as many as 600 oil lamps on the steps near the river and on every possible slab in and around the large Shiva temple.
According to the old tale of Lord Shiva’s vanquishing of the demon Tripuraasur, once upon time long ago the gods and demons were at war and, the demons being defeated, they appealed for succour to the great magician Mai. He gave them three towers of gold, silver and bronze in which the demons concealed themselves and were then so effective in their attacks that the gods in their turn looked for help to Shiva, the Great God. Shiva discharged such a volley of arrows upon the enemies’ strongholds that every demon was killed.
As the gods rejoiced, however, Mai secretly threw the demonic bodies into a well full of nectar which revived some of the dead so that they sprang forth again and resumed the contest with the gods. Vishnu then assumed the shape of a cow and drained the well dry. The mighty Shiva finally attacked the demons again making the earth his war chariot with the sun and moon as its wheels and the Himalayan mountains as his bow. Thus he made an end of the triple towered demons (Tripuraasur).
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