The ‘Festival of Colors’ is upon us and many of you must be making plans to celebrate it in your own style.
While elders play Holi carefully with measured quantities of colors, youngsters
are more adventurous and am sure the brats in your locality must be already
hiding in the corners, waiting for a chance to throw water balloons on you. Oh
well, we have all been there and if we are honest, it was a lot of fun as well!
Kama is depicted as a handsome,
young man who uses a bow to shoot his love-soaked arrows at unsuspecting
people, causing them to fall madly head over heels for each other. He is
frequently accompanied by his consort Rati and his arrival is marked by the
appearance of mango blossoms, humming bees, parrots and cuckoos, all symbols of
Spring.
Kamdev & Rati
Art by Rukmini Varma
Holi was therefore also known as
Madan-Utsav or Vasant-Utsav and has been celebrated in India since at least 400
BCE! Kalidas in his play Malvika-agnimitra mentions that in the festival
of spring, women used to gather together in gardens to collect flowers, make
garlands out of them and throw them on each other in fun. Buddhist texts
like Avadanashtaka also
mention a similar event where Sal tree flowers were used. Flowers still form a
big part of Holi although in the form of Abeer or Gulaal which is derived
from the Palash flower!
Holi gave a chance to the ancient
people of India to forget all notions of social status, caste and gender and
revel in the festivities. For a society that prided itself on etiquette and
social structure, this was the day of letting your hair down. The Sanskrit
epic Ratnavali mentions
that on this day, people threw so much of Kumkum and Saffron on each other that
whole cities turned golden and fragrant. The Kavya-mimamsa mentions
the use of water guns in the festival and the revelry is also associated
with Lord Krishna and Vrindavan where the festival is still celebrated with all
pomp and glory!
Certain medieval texts like Jain Harivamsa mention this as the time when couples spent time together in the gardens. Bhavabhuti’s Malati-madhava talks
about a special temple being erected for Kamadeva for this festival where men
and women would gather, throw colors on each other, and sing and dance, much
like the way it is shown in Bollywood movies! The consumption of Bhang on this
day also helps people let go of their social inhibitions and again the feeling
has been immortalized by senior Bacchan’s famous ‘Rang Barse’ song. No
wonder our films are so enamored by this festival and every once in a while you
find a Holi song pop up in a new movie!
The Kumarpal Charitra describes
couples enjoying together on swings that were hung on the flowering trees. They
would sing songs and spend time with each other, making Holi a sort of Desi
version of Valentine’s Day! Today, we find a lot of opposition to the so called
‘western’ tradition, but we forget that it is India that taught the world the
importance of love by celebrating the Madanotsava of Holi! So on this Desi ‘Festival-of-Love’, grab a bunch of
herbal colors, put your favorite Holi playlist on full blast, and go out and
meet the one you have been too shy to propose to all this while. Who knows,
maybe Kama’s arrows would indeed find their mark this time!
Wish you and your
loved ones a very Happy Holi!
