MUST READ Holi Is a Festival of Foolery and Frolic, Love and Laugh- Ter, and Spreading Happi- Ness of the Cavorting Kind

Sunday NEW DELHI | 1 MARCH 2015 The Asian Age COLOURS OF HAPPINESS MUST READ Holi is a festival of foolery and frolic, love and laugh- ter, and spreading happiness of the cavorting kind. PHOTO: ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE SCREENARIO ...36 TAKING THE LEAD It’s not just the hero or heroine who is important HEADLINERS ...43 THE TOP SECRET GIANTS An NY firm is pumping in billions into India HOLI that are in full bloom) both of which are far more potent than bhang. THERE’S A SPECIAL HIGH H The earliest refer- G ence to bhang is con- GALAXY ...45 I TO HOLI — A SPIRITED H tained in the fourth book of the Vedas, the A FIGHTING SPIRIT GAIETY, A PLAYFUL Atharvaveda, which refers Suman Sharma loves to bhang as one of the “five her fighter planes BOISTEROUSNESS.... AND A kingdoms of herbs which release us from anxiety”. By the LICENSE TO GET TIPSY tenth century, bhang is called the “food of the gods”. Five hundred AND TOSS PROPRIETY years later its virtues are listed as astringency, heat, inspiration and TO THE WINDS the capacity to remove wind and Ashwin Sanghi phlegm. By the sixteenth century, a ne is 114 times more likely Hence, the widespread use of bhang Sanskrit play Dhurtasamagama, The to die from overdosing on in Shiva worship in India. depicts two vagabonds quarrelling alcohol than from Of course, bhang does not always before a corrupt judge. Before pass- Rajvallabha, cannabis, reports a study refer to the plant itself but rather to ing a verdict the judge demands pay- a 17th from the Scientific a mild liquid refreshment (or ment for his decree and is readily OReports journal. If true, it would thandai) made by boiling a mixture offered bhang! The Rajvallabha, a century text, seem that Lord Shiva wasn’t way off of milk, sugar, cannabis, poppy seventeenth century text goes on to SPORTFOLIO ...48 the mark with his habit. According seeds, pepper, ginger, cloves, car- equate bhang with amrit by saying equates to legend, the shade of a tall marijua- damom, almonds, nutmeg and rose- that it was manufactured like nectar na plant brought Shiva relief from buds. The two other cannabis prepa- from the ocean by churning it with GOOD TO BE PLAYFUL bhang with the blazing sun. Curious, Shiva rations in India are ganja (made from Mount Mandara. Abhishek Bachchan opens chewed some of its leaves and felt so flowers and upper leaves of the up about his sporty side amrit invigorated that he adopted its use. plant) and charas (made from flowers Turn to page 34 Sunday Age cover story SUNDAY 1 | MARCH 2015 34 HOLI PHOTO CREDIT: NISHANT VERMA HIGH would usually take a swig to eliminate any fear or panic. Bhang also become inextricably linked with religion when sadhus and fakirs began to use it to improve their meditation and concentration. ‘Shivaya Vishnu roopaya, Shiva roopaya Vishnuve; Shivasya hridayam Vishnu, Vishnoscha hridayam Shivaha.’ In effect, the ulti- mate truth is that Shiva is merely a form of Vishnu and Vishnu is merely a form of Shiva. Shiva resides in the heart of Vishnu and Vishnu resides in that of Shiva. Nothing explains this unity better than the use of Shiva’s bhang in Holi, a festival dedicated to Vishnu (or Krishna). Churchill, once when asked about his position on whisky is said to have replied, “If you mean whisky, the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason… then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fibre of my being. However, if by whisky PHOTO CREDIT: NISHANT VERMA you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed Continued from page 33 when good fellows get together... then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favour of it!” Bhang soon became a symbol of festivity and Churchill could almost have been describing Jaishree Misra hospitality and no social celebration — marriage, bhang! coronation, harvest — was complete without it. It he best Holi celebration has to be a ‘lathmaar’, a even became indispensable in war. Indian folk The writer is the bestseller author of great gender reversal ritual played out a few days songs from the twelfth century talk about bhang The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant before the actual festival in a place near Mathura and ganja as the “drink of warriors”. Soldiers T called Barsana, the only town that has a temple dedicated to Radha. Legend has it that Krishna harassed the local girls to such an extent that, incensed, they ganged up on him and chased him out of their town using sticks. Rather reassuringly in these times of widespread violence against women, the ritual has carried on into modern times with no one shying away from this spectacular display of role reversal. Men from the nearby village of Nandgaon visit the Anand Neelkantan women of Barsana who await their arrival by readying themselves with large bamboo sticks. The more sensi- ble of the male visitors come SAME STORIES, TOLD DIFFERENTLY armed with ‘thali’ shields so they have a modicum of protection n the city of Kochi where I grew story of sacrifice. The when the women go hell-for- up, Holi was confined to a few Another story is about how women leather, showering their male visi- streets where its miniscule Holi became a festival of tors with not just blows but also Gujarati population lived. It was colours. Krishna agonises go hell-for- the choicest of abuses, partially just another name among scores over his dark skin and won- leather, fuelled by the intake of bhang. All Iof festivals that I had to mug up for my ders whether a fair-skinned this is, apparently, carried out in a social studies examination in school. It Radha will accept him. showering the generally amicable fashion but, of was only when I lived in Delhi that this Yashodha asks Krishna to course, there might be the odd festival of raw sensuality and colour- colour Radha and other men with not Braj Holi woman who relishes the chance to ful splurge transformed itself into a gopikas in whichever colour just blows but get a bit of her own back at her joyous celebration for me. Every festi- he wants, thus starting a BRAJ REGION husband. I am assured that, by val has a story to tell and I started colourful tradition. also the includes Mathura, and large, the ritual is apparently enquiring about the origin of this This story is amusing Vrindavan, Barsana and choicest of carried out in a spirit of egalitari- unique festival. And a fascinating as well as a bit disturb- Nandgaon. Holi celebrations here an fun and good temper with even world opened up. I saw the familiar ing. Krishna itself abuses last for almost a month. Lath Mar the town’s mothers-in-law encour- myths of my childhood being shaded means black. Rama is aging their bahus to ‘go girl’, feed- with a different brush, coloured by an described as having a Holi of Barsana depicts the ‘battle of ing them with ghee-enriched unfamiliar paint. luminous dark skin the sexes’. As the story goes, gopis of goodies in order to give them strength... My own moth- Holika dahan forms an important and Kali is as black as Barsana, where Radha grew up, bash up er-in-law, a feisty octogenarian from UP, laments that part of Holi celebrations. she can get. Sita and the men (gopas) of Nandgaon, the town this festival never made it as far as her home town of Hiranyakashyapu, the Asura who con- Draupadi are black where Lord Krishna spent his childhood, Bulandshahr and, on hearing a definite note of regret siders himself as God, is enraged by and so is Hanuman. with lathis. The in her voice, I can’t help thinking that my father-in-law his son Prahalada’s refusal to acknowl- For many centuries, males captured are possibly made a rather lucky escape. edge his divinity. He orders his sister India celebrated the then forced to Holika who had a fire-proof cloak to beauty of black skin in wear female The writer is the author of eight novels, enter a raging fire with little her poetry, temple arts, attire and including A Love Story for My Sister Prahalada in her hands. The myth sculptures and songs. Our dance. until here is same in most parts of the heroes and heroines are country. What happens next shows the black skinned, so are our gods power of perspective. In the northern and goddesses. The story of PHOTO CREDIT: ABHIJEET WEST BENGAL: Holi is known as Dol versions, Vishnu comes as a breeze to Krishna getting a ‘fair and lovely’ MUKHERJEE knock off the cloak from Holika’s complex owes more to the two cen- Purnima in West Bengal and Odisha. It is shoulders. The shawl covers little turies of British rule and subsequent celebrated with dry colours called abeer. Prahalada, protecting him from the association of white skin to superior- In Santiniketan, which was fire, while the Asuri is charred to ity than to any of our Puranas. It founded by poet and Nobel death. Lord Vishnu protects his disci- also shows how we carry the bag- Dol Purnima laureate Rabindranath Tagore, ple and tricks the evil Holika. The gage of colonialism even while cele- it is celebrated as southern version of the same myth brating the most egalitarian of all Basantotsav. Students dress up in yellow- shows the poor woman in a more sym- Indian festivals.

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