The Holi : a Vernal Festival of the Hinchts. J J
be partial or complete failure of rain.'-^ The mnemonic lines current in Northern India tell that if the smoke of the Holi fire blows to the west, the season will be good ; to the east, the rain will be partial ; to the south, wealth will be destroyed, but hemp and grass will grow in their season ; to the north, rain will surely fall. If the smoke blow to all four quarters of the sky, the people will be miserable, and the king will be slain ; if the blaze go straight up to heaven, there will be war on the earth."'^
Having thus, from a large collection of material, given a summary of the Holi observances, we may attempt very briefly to interpret their significance.
The rites are purely animistic, or pre-animistic ; at any rate, they have no connexion with orthodox Hinduism. The otiose legends which profess to explain the rites are figments of a later age invented to bring it in line with Brahmanism.
Thus, we are told, Holika was a cannibal RakhshasI or female demon, who levied a toll of a child daily. When one unhappy mother was forced to pay the tribute, she consulted a wise ascetic, who told her that the monster w'ould fall down and die if she once were forced to listen to foul abuse. So, when she came to demand the child, the village boys and girls assailed her with ribaldry, and she died. But, to make assurance doubly sure, they immedi- ately cremated her.^ It is, however, obvious that Holika, the ogress, is only the impersonation or projection of the devouring fire : she was developed from the fire, not the fire from her.
Again, when the demon Tarakasura oppressed the gods,
Bombay Gazetteer {looi), vol. ix. , Part i., p. 353.
'*W. Crooke, Rural and Agriiidtural Glossary for the North- West Proz'imes and Oiidh (1888), p. 125; cf. North Indian Notes and Queries, vol. V. (1896), p. 215.
^^S. M. Natesa Sastri, Hindu Feasts, Fasts, and Cereinonies (1903), pp. 42 tt seq.
