When I try to make some special sense of our festivals, I try to locate a pattern. What do I mean? Is that your question? Sure, our festivals are season-bound. That is very much an established fact by now.
Let me try a different viewpoint. Let us look at the Diwali festival which lasts for six days, right? My submission is that the festival begins in the public sphere to finally end with the private space, the truly close relationships.
Okay, let me clarify. Till the Padwa alias Bali Pratipada morning, we are in the public domain. We celebrate the livestock (Vasu Baras) , next the medicinal matters (dhan teras), after that control over a tyrant (narak chaturdashi), next the money matters that truly matter in real lived life (Laxmi Poojan) and the bond a good ruler can create (Padwa and Bali Pratipada), right?
In fact, I would like to go a step forward and state that the festival resonates with the professions that mattered most during the days of the barter economy, the farmer/the cowherd, the medicine man, the 'kshatriya' (I mean the professional function, not the caste) who helped the common man against a tyrant, the trader/merchant, and finally the good ruler.
I would like to state that all the myths associated with each day suit this interpretation, too. Kamdhenu, Dhanwantari, Narkasur Vadh, Laxmi descending to the earth, and finally the remembrance of the good king. That is the order from Vasu Baras to Padwa.
Padwa evening onwards, the focus shifts, I would like to say. Padwa evening is devoted to the marital bond, while the Bhaubeej is dedicated to the brother-sister relationship. Both are very intimate, familial bonds. Hence my argument that Diwali celebrations travel from the public sphere to the private space.
Sure I need to work more on this thesis. Yet I think it would jell. That is the real beauty of Laxmi Poojan. The wealth need not merely be material. It can be 'idea'-ological , too. Let us count the Wealth not merely of Nations, but of notions, ideas, concepts, thoughts as well. Sure Adam Smith, too, would like it.
Pratima@ Newer ideas energise the celebrations of ancient traditions
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