Hindu Feasts, Fasts and Ceremonies/Chapter 5
5. The Dipavali
ON the day of the Dipavali feast every Hindu gets up at about 4 o'clock in the morning and bathes in oil before sunrise. From the baby to the oldest member in every Hindu household—every male and female-—has to go through this oil bath before sunrise—for the meritoriousness (punya) of the bath is supposed to be lost if it is not undergone before the appearance of the Lord of the day. What is the origin of this bath and why is so much sanctity attached to it? The Dipavali too is only of puranic sanction. The legend or legends which are quoted for the observance of this feast are to be found in the Bhagavata. At the time of Sri Krishna there was a mighty demon, named Narakasura, reigning over the country, called Pragjyotisha—the district lying to the east of Bengal, probably the western portion of Assam. According to a certain story Narakasura carried off the earnings of Aditi, the mother of the gods. The gods were powerless to recover the jewels and applied to Sri Krishna for help. Krishna fought with the demon, slew him and brought back the jewels. Another story says that Narakasura assumed the shape of an elephant and carried off the daughter of Visvakarma—the architect of the gods—and outraged her. He also seized the best daughters of the Gandharva (demi-gods) gods, and men and the divine nymphs themselves and made for himself a harem of 16,000 beautiful damsels. During his reign no woman considered herself secure, and so all joined together and petitioned Vishnu to destroy the demon and thus put an end to his atrocities. But with all his vices Narakasura had accumulated such a vast fund of meritoriousness by his penances and contemplation at the commencement of his career that Vishnu for a longtime condones his crimes, till at last, unable any more to bear his havocs, allowed Sri Krishna, to march to Pragjyotisha and slay him. In his last moments Narakasura came to his senses, praised the deity for his having come down in the incarnation of Sri Krishna to give him eternal felicity (moksha) and began to repent of his immoral life. As he was always a.gay person revelling in worldly pleasures, feasts, baths, women, display of fireworks, etc., he requested the great god that the day of his death (moksha) should be honoured by the Hindus in revels and festivities. "Let it be so” said Sri Krishna and transferred the 16,000 damsels collected by Narakasura from Pragjyotisha to his own harem at Dvaraka, where they, after a certain time, became Rishis or sages.
So, the Dipavali goes by another name of the Narakachaturdasi, i.e., the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Tula (October—November) on which the demon Narakasura was put to death by Sri Krishna. And the Hindus consider the oil bath in the morning of that day before sunrise equal to a bath in the sacred waters of the holy Ganges. After the bath in the early morning every Hindu takes a small quantity of a special medicine which is prepared for the occasion, and which is mostly composed of ginger powder. Then every male who can afford the cost wears a pair of new dhoties. The females and children have also their saris and bach-kana cloths. A light refreshment of sweetmeats and fruits is then taken by every one and the children and youngsters go to fire crackers on a large scale. The elder members again bathe after 6 a.m. and proceed to the temple (if there is one near) to worship the God. Then relatives and friends living near are visited. Every Hindu who meets another asks him "Have you had the holy Ganges bath?” "Yes, Sir, by the favour of your blessing" is the reply. At the end of every visit to a house pan supari is distributed. At midday a sumptuous dinner closes the Dipavali festivities. The Dipavali is observed, in the Tamil, Telugu and Kanarese Districts of the Madras Presidency as a feast set apart for wearing new cloths. Men, women and children from the highest to the lowest wear new cloths on this day. But if any calamity, such as the death of a near or dear relative, has visited any family within a year, the observance of the Dipavali is given up that year in that family. Mourning in Hindu societies is observed for one year, and a house which is in mourning does not keep up festivities for that period. This is the universal rule. In such houses there would not be oil baths or wearing new apparel or exchange of visits, or congratulations for the holy Ganges baths. But even such houses freely give permission to their youngsters to indulge in crackers, for the mirth of children should not be curtailed. In Madras the wearing of the new apparel is done during the Kritttka feast by the non-Brahman population.
There is a certain Hindu saying to the effect that "toddy a thousand years old will be drained on the Dipavali.” This is too true with the low and poorer class of the Hindus, and especially the labourers. They make this the greatest drinking day of the year. Children enjoy the Dipavali feast the most. With them this feast is only for spending as much money as possible in harmless fireworks. The genius of European merchants has invented so many varieties of crackers and gay lights of fancy colours and these with the Chinese crackers are bought to a very large extent and lighted up or fired as the case may be. Even the poorest household spends a couple of rupees at least in providing these enjoyments to its youngsters. Rich men, not to speak of Zamindars, buy for hundreds and thousands and a very large amount of money which could be better utilised is wasted on this day—in smoke, as an ironical Tamil proverb very well puts it, Kasai Karwakkade banam vangi sudu—"Do not waste your money, buy crackers and fire them." Pipers and drummers visit every house which celebrates this feast at about 3 in the morning and play upon their instruments for a few minutes and go away. This is of course a convenient arrangement to awake the inmates in time. But they turn up again in the morning to demand presents; the peons, the house servants, the sweeper and the scavenger, where these exist, must have their bakshis on this day. These are minor indents on one’s purse which is, however, easily and gladly managed. But the major indents are the costly presents to the bride or bridegroom as the case may be. The bride’s parents invite the bridegroom or vice versa and in addition to presenting him with costly cloths according to the position and wealth of the party, they have also to give costly presents in the shape of jewels and vessels to which a large quantity of gingelly oil, fruits and other sundries are also added. This is generally done on the first Dipavali after the marriage, once by the bride’s family and a second time by that of the bridegroom, but the presentation of cloth or cloths continues as long as the relationship continues. In Northern India and among the Gujaratis of Madras, the Dipavali is the day of the closing of the annual accounts. From this day new accounts are opened in newly-bound account books, and this continues till the Dipavali of the next year, when fresh accounts are again opened.
The word Dipavali is a Sanskrit compound, made up of two simple words, Dipa, meaning lights, and avali, a row, thus a row of lights. The feast is purely an Aryan one. In Madras we do not notice any row of lights on the night of the Dipavali or on the preceding night in front of houses; to a small extent we observe this display on the Krittika day. But in Northern India, Bombay and Bengal the literal meaning of the word Dipavali is well carried out in the observance of this feast, and one’s eyes are almost dazzled by the rows of lights displayed in the fronts of houses in exceedingly fanciful arrangements. Thanks also to the invention of gas lights, every Hindu or Parsee merchant in Bombay spends hundreds of rupees in conducting gas to the front of his house and laying thousands and ten thousands of lights there. If any one cares to enjoy the Dipavali he should be in Bombay to witness this feast.
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