Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/297

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SHRÁWAN MÁS.
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beauteous Shráwan Más, when "the days are devoted to singing, and when the fair Rádhá is flattered by a whirlwind of love. All fair sisters go to the Jamna for holy ablutions, their foreheads adorned by Kaisari,[1] and their graceful feet coloured. The fair ones worship Gowri with wreaths and flowers in one hand, in the other hand the box of Kunkun colour, and the name of Shri Gopál on their lips. Four pohoras[2] the lovely ones devote to singing songs, forsaking sleep; the night is short, and the sports are long. "Oh, I tremble lest the envious morn soon breaks in upon our joys!" So sings the fair Gujaratán.


The Parsi has many holidays, but none of such deep religious import, as the Hindus, unless it was the Muktád.

The Muktád Holidays.

Muktád reads like a Zend term, closely allied to Sanskrit, and means the "saved," or "released." It alludes to what the Occidentals call "Emancipated spirits." Doslá is a prákrit Hindu term, and means, in anything, "the old puts," "the old fellows," what some English news-

  1. Saffron.
  2. A pahora equals three hours.