Diwali: Stories within Stories

Kaleidoscopic patterns mirroring celestial cities in the sky, twinkling starlight overshadowed by patinas of bejeweled colors thrown across, akin to restless celestial beings playing games of light in the skies. Echoing chrysanthemums and varied patterns of floral hues casting an afterglow in the eyes of the night. This is the nocturnal sky of festivity bearing a pale mirror to the beauteously bejeweled wonder that the city below has turned into, almost like an ecstatic bride in all her finery out to celebrate the return of her lord. The festival is Diwali, and the warmth of diyas herald a year of sparkled wishes running true. The city looks entrancingly beautiful with garlanded festoons of twinkling lights, the myriad dance of diyas, asopalav buntings and torans of marigold while children and adults, childlike, delight themselves with exotic displays of fire works.

The early baths and ablutions, the purification of oneself, the feasts and invitations to friends during the day and finally the night with its illuminations and pyrotechnics are a hallowed tradition year upon year. In the pan-Indian context, ensconced within the traditions of a pastoral society, customs and beliefs surrounding rituals braided within a festival, Diwali too is interwoven with myths and legends congregated through the mists of time. As with all Indian ritual celebrations and age old traditions, Diwali too has a deeper connection between us and the natural order of things. Preen away the ritual of myths and legend from any Indian festival and what remains is a flowering connectivity with nature, the environment and a deep rooted ecologically sustainable belief arising out of a collective experience nurtured in an Agrarian society.

Diwali is a major festival whose celebration reverberates through the entire subcontinent. Tracing its origins to an Agrarian society, it is essentially a harvest exuberance personifying the last harvest day of the kharif crop and the birth of a fresh cycle. According to the lunar calendar, it is the end of the month of Ashvin and the beginning of Kartik. In every Agrarian society, the end of a harvest season also signified prosperity and with it came a linkage to wealth and therefore a ritual obeisance to the goddess of wealth.

Diwali or Deepawali is known as a festival of lights and a celebration of the essence of life wherein each day has a deeply ritualistic significance woven into a span of roughly five days, the first of which is colloquially known as Agyaras complying to the tenets of the lunar calendar, wherein the month of Ashwin maas melds into the emergence of Kartik.

The end of a harvest also meant business interactions as the crop was traded for goods and services which was symbolically celebrated as Wagh Baras , in actuality a clearing of debts and a closure of account ledgers initiating a fresh begining coinciding with the new season, it is also a symbolic period of rest for the kalam. This day is also known as Govatsadwadeshi, a ritual worship of a cow and calf harking back to Rig vedic principles. This day also finds its way into tribal custom in the form of a dance ritual.

Wagh Baras precedes the symbolically significant rituals of Dhanteras, the thirteenth day falling on the second half of the lunar month, also termed as Dhanatrayodashi wherein dhan translates as wealth gained through healthy living therefore a worship of health as wealth. Modern ramifications have gilded these beliefs into a Midas touch of buying the yellow metal gold as a symbolic celebration of luck, wealth and prosperity. Earlier practices called for the acquiring of utensils made from natural elements. This Midas like allusion to gold is interpretations garnered from the legend of churning the celestial ocean.

Published: Ahmedabad Mirror