The last day of Shravana is known as the "Matruka Day" as well. A very interesting story it is. According to the traditional tale associated with the day, a mother prayed to the eight local deities known as Matrikas for her child's life and welfare. She was, of course, granted the boon. Hence the fast to celebrate a child' s welfare.
I find this tale very interesting for various reasons. First and foremost, I find it indeed heart-touching that Shravana, the month of fasts and feasts, begins and ends with a prayer for child's welfare, from the jivati pooja to matrika pooja. In other words, our mother's day, whenever it arrives, celebrates a mother's love for the child rather than the child's for the mother. Most interesting is this fact!
Equally wonderful is the notion of including the local deities in the process. It shows that our way of life is made of a respect for the immediate, the present context, that makes our existence fulfilling, human(e). Interestingly, the ritual does not include any animal sacrifice or any other cruel crudity. It is simlpy a muted prayer, and I simply adore a lot this way of linking our very being/becoming, our very existence and the future of our next generation to the ambient universe.
It is in this context that I would like to look at the other celebration on this last day of Shravana. It is the celebration of the household pair of bullocks, the best friends of a farmer, who very strongly and quietly continue to help him even beyond death. Well, the local drums, known as "dafli", are made of the bullock's hide. As India is even today agrarian, I love this symbolic celebration of an animal central to the agricultural way of life. Like Nagpanchami, Bailpola is a touchimg tribute to the animal world that sustains our existence.
In this wider sense, too, it is the celebration of the mother feel, the feel for the welfare of all the togethernesses that make life worthy, and hence the title of the blog today!
pratima@let all be hale-n-hearty!
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