THE SVANTI FESTIVAL: VICTORY OVER DEATH AND THE RENEWAL OF THE RITUAL CYCLE IN NEPAL Bal Gopal Shrestha Introduction Religious and ritual life in Newar society is highly guided by calendrical festivals. We can say that the Newars spend a good part of their time to organise and perform these festivals. They are highly organised when it comes to organising ritual activities. Not only in Kathmandu but also wherever the Newars have moved and settled, they managed to observe their regular feasts and festivals, rituals and traditions. Almost every month, they observe one or another festival, feast, fast or procession of gods and goddesses. As we know, almost each lunar month in Nepal contains one or another festival (nakhaQcakha!J). All year round, numerous festivals are celebrated, processions of deities are carried out and worship is performed.' Although all major and minor feasts and festivals are celebrated in every place in many ways similar the celebration of these feasts and festival in each place may vary. Moreover, there are many feasts and processions of gods and goddesses in each place, which can be called original to that place. One of the most common features of all Newar cities, towns and villages is that each of them has its specific annual festival and procession (jiifrii) of the most important deity of that particular place. The processions of different mother goddesses during Pahilqlcarhe in March or April and Indrajarra in August or September, and the processions of Rato Macchendranath in Patan and Bisket Jatra in Bhaktapur are such annual festivals. Besides observing fasts, feasts, festivals, organising processions of gods and goddesses, and making pilgrimages to religiously important places, another important feature of Newar society are the masked dances of various deities. In the Kathmandu Valley several masked dances are performed at different times of the year. Among them are the DevI dances, performed around the YaqJya festival in Kathmandu. As we know most Newar socio­ religious and ritual activities are taken care of by gUfhi. All these feasts and fasts, festivals and processions of gods and goddesses, rituals and traditions of the Kathmandu Valley are characteristic for Newar culture. Scholars agree on the fact that most feasts, fasts, festivals and procession of gods and goddesses celebrated in present day Nepal date since the Malia period some of them even date from the Thakuri period and the LicchavI period. Analysing some names of festivals found in the GopalarajavaqJS3valI, the oldest chronicle of Nepal, and an inscription dated 1441 AD (NS 56\), Contributions to Nepalese StUdies, Vol. 33, No.2 (JUly 2(06), 203-221 Copyright © 2006 CNASITU The Svanti Festivai 205 204 CNAS Journal, Vol. 33, No, 2 (July 2006) many festivals not connected to a ri' Sharma stresses that Newar festivals developed their present shape already Madhavanarayana in S kh g culture, such as the festival of . an u. during the reigns of Jayasthiti Malia (1382-95 AD) and Yaksa Malia (1428­ The chain of ritual celebrations in Ne I' ,,, 1482 AD)2 Even after the 1769 Gorkha conquest of Nepal, the Gorkha rulers mark one celebration as the be" pa IS cychcal and It IS difficult to ,gmnmg and anothe 'th ' accepted most of Newar culture as their court culture (Hoek 1990), This (Hoek 2004), Most Newars in the Valle co' r as e end of a cycle helped a great deal in continuation of Newar culture and its rituals in modern on the day of Gatharnugah' A y nSlder that the ntual year begins ,10 ugust, the day of ex II' h Nepal. on the day of Sithinakhah' J pe 109 g osts, and ends Depending on the nature of the celebrations, Newar festival rituals can , 10 une, the day of h" , When we look at the gorgeous f wars Ippmg Imeage deities, be classified in various categories. For example, some festivals like Svanti y (Tihar), Hoh, the day of worshipping divine serpents (NagapaiicamI) and (Dasain in NepaH Da>ero i H~ :a ~ celebratmg the festival of Mohan! victory over the d~mon' s n 'dl~ I), t. e September celebration of the divine MohanI (Dasain) are celebrated by most Nepalese without ethnic or caste ., ComCI mg with the h f ' to consider this the most ,'m t .,. arvest a fIce, we are inclined boundaries. These festivals can be considered national festivals. They are , ' par ant ,estlval Th' hI' celebrated not only in Nepal. but also in India in a grand manner. Of course, agnculture consider this festival as th be . '. ose wore ate ntuals with celebrations of these festivals in Nepal are immensely different from the way main crop, rice, is harvested aroun'd th~ ., gl~nmg of a ritual cycle because the s,' . IS lestlval.' they are celebrated in India, Inside Nepal too, each ethnic group may '- vantl, whIch falls two weeks after 0 ,,' country. It is also the time of'th b .as~m, IS another great festival of the celebrate them in a distinct way and sometimes within one group, the way of - 'k- , e egmnmg of the lu ' kn Karh adl eras as they ch 'h nar eras own as the celebration may vary from place to place and from family to family3 For the , ange 10 t e month f K- 'k which includes the New Y " D ' a artl (October/November), Newars, MohanI and Svanti are very important annual festivals (nakhal,J), For ear s ay of Nepal (S' ) the Newars, NagapaficamI and HolT are important, but not celebrated with take this festival of Svanti or Tihar as the "amvat , Many, therefore, New Year's Day of the Nep I f II begmmng of the nlual cycle, The any feasts, while the people in the Tarai and in India celebrate both these ', a era a s on the t th d f'" festivals in a grand manner. WhIch IS based on the lunar cal nd' S. our ay 0 thiS festival, all their festivals according to teh lar, mcle Nepalese people celebrate almost Most other festivals can be considered as characteristic of the Newar, ... e unar ca endar th'h f because during such festivals no other ethnic groups of Nepal directly IS an Important day. ' e c ange 0 the Nepal era participate. Even in case they celebrate them, their way of doing so is , In Nepal: the lunar year begins either in the s ' '" the spnng, It IS known as Ca'tr-d' 'f ', prmg or fall. It It begms in significantly different from the Newar way, For instance, Sakimilapunhi is ,I. ' I a I I 10 the fall as Kartt'k'd' , a so known as Pur6mantak' h' I a I. The first one IS observed only by the Newars; every family worships the full-moon in the a mont, endmg on a full . evening and eats fried beans, sweet potatoes and roots of the arum lily latter one is Amantaka d' moon day, while the , en mg on the new moon Th PUr - (caladium arumacia); Newar girls may observe a day long fast on this day, ~egin~ from Kr~oapak~a or the dark half while t~e e _ oa,mantaka month Other ethnic groups do not have this tradition, Similarly Yomaripunhi, from SUklapaksa (the bright h'lf f' Amantaka month begins PahfiIncarhe, Digupiija, GathfiInmugai), Kvatipunhi, the processions of the ... a a moon). ~I.st~fIans believe that the tradition of celebrati .' cows (SaYah), the day of giving alms to Buddhist priests (PafijarfiIn), Catha MhapUJa IS much older' N ng New Year s Day and or the day to worship the crescent of the moon and GaJ)eSa, the festival 53), As the New Year ;an epal thlan the Nepal Samvat (Shrestha 1982: 48- .. y peop e conSider this DC" ' h ' dedicated to the god of rain Indra (Yaqlya), are celebrated by the Newars of a rItual cycle in the c tr N _ . caston as t e begmning oun y, epalvarsa Kri '0 N kh h only, rna~ual of Nepalese Festivals (NKNP . tak'\- a. a.. cakhal} PustakaI!l, a eglnning of the ritU'J1 cycle' N I')' ,es the festival of Svanti as the b. ' 'In ena Harlbodhl - Ek-d ,- Ritual Cycle () t the bright half of KachaJa SUkia Nov m a aS1, the eleventh day When we look at the nature of the celebrations of these festivals, we can Caturmasa the C h (ember) marks the end of the ~ h' , discover an important impact of the agricultural cycle on them,' It can be said ., lour-mont -long slee of Caturmasa is considered to be an in :.,. ~ ~ HIndu god VI~OU. The that the social life of the inhabitants of the Valley is still to a large extent I~el.atcd to the lifecycle are avoided as ~~~ICIO~S t~~e of th,e yea~, ~nd rituals determined by the agricultural cycle, Until today, many feasts and festivals )edr, Many people ill Nep'l 'I' h as pOSSIble dunng thiS tIme of the and processions of gods and goddesses are in one way or the other related to .. a a so conSIder th d ,he gln~mg of the ritual cycle. Howe .~ . e ~n of Caturmasa as the agriculture, However, it would be wrong to 'conclude that only the rokha people celebrate th" ver. m Bhaktdpur. Bore, Thimi and in agricultural cycle regulates the ritual calendar of the Valley, because there are elr Important festivals during the change of the 206 CNAS Journal, Vol. 33, No.2 (July 2006) The Svanti Festival 207 .I calendar (Gutschow 1996 and Vargatl. 1995'.. during these five days, Yama descends on this world.