'Civilisational identity' of India, nay Bharat, nay Hindustan, is the current buzzword in academics. As for the first alias, that is, 'Bharat', it has financial/economic overtones as in the urban/India-mofussil/Bharat debates, while 'Hindustan' might be a red rag to many a charging bulls, right? Let us not get caught in that raging wildfire, much worse, believe me, than the L.A. ones in the U.S.
Basant Panchami is one of the common most threads weaving together this ancient civilizational identity. Celebrated on the fifth day (as per the 'tithi' adjustments, at times, it could be the 'fourth') of the lunar month of Magh, it is an indication of the imminent arrival of the Vasant/Basant, that is, 'spring'. That is the way it would get celebrated in most of India, right?
Have you, however, noticed that in the Northern and North-Eastern parts of India, it is celebrated as Saraswati Poojan which in Maharashtra, for example, is on the Dussehra/Dasara Day, while Bengal, for instance, would have it during the 'Durga Pujo', right?
Is not it interesting to note in this context that the river Saraswati (supposedly present incognito at the Triveni Sangam where, too, during the Kumbh Mela, the Basant Panchami is hugely important so much so that the "akhadas" were ready to forego the "Mauni Amavasya snan'', and instead chose the Basant Panchami for the ''Amrit Snan'') begins its terrestrial journey in the mighty Himalayas, especially the North-Eastern part, thence it flows via the Northern states to meet the Ganga and the Yamuna at the Prayag Raj confluence.
Well, rivers are indeed the true source of life. Each civilisation has always emerged on the bank of a river which fulfils every possible human need. Hence in our part of the world, a river is a mother. Incidentally, like the gigantic Bramhputra which is a "nad", German, too, has a masculine term for a river, der Fluss! Let us not discuss such gendering right now.
May be, given the trajectory of the life-giving Saraswati, the Basant Panchami Utsov is huge in those parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is the initiation of 'vidyarambha', of learning. On this day get inaugurated all the cultural ( as well as other, too) events.
Yet another interesting facet of this fact could be that on the banks of this now absent river were grown/grew the mustard seed farms. May be, the plants would flower around this time. The golden, yellow blooms tossing their heads with the heady wind must have been a beautiful sight. Hence the dominance of yellow in the Basant Panchami Utsov, right? Aamir Khusro's sufi song "sakal ban ful rahin sarason" which describes this glory and its continuation in Sufi practice prove such beauty of the confluence of religion and realities, right?
Pratima@Geography is culture!
N.B.: This blog began in a Wapp conversation with one of my brilliant students who had once blasted the "Bramhinism" underlying the Durga Pujo, but had today posted lovely images of the Basant Panchami celebrations. Sure, there must be more elaborate scholarly discussions of this issue.
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