{"id":2683,"date":"2020-08-03T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2020-08-03T13:01:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T13:01:02","slug":"an-indian-lunisolar-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/2020\/08\/03\/an-indian-lunisolar-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"An Indian Lunisolar New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By Shriya Tandon<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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India is indeed a land of sublime diversity. People\u2019s cultures, religions, languages and\nthe ways of life vary quite distinctively as we move from one cardinal direction in the\ncountry to another. This heterogeneity brings with itself the celebration of a\nmultiplicity of festivals. In addition to that, since a vast majority of India\u2019s population\nis Hindu, the use of Panchanga<\/em> or the Hindu calendar, for setting dates for the\nfestivities forms an integral part of the Indian culture. Since the Panchanga<\/em> is\nlunisolar in nature, the dates of festivals vary greatly and so do the celebrations of\nNew Year for all those people who are extremely invested in this Hindu calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Gudi Padva\u2019 is the name given to the day ushering the people of Maharashtra into a\nNew Year. It is the first day of Chaitra month according to the Lunisolar Hindu\nCalendar. The word \u2018Padva\u2019 finds its roots in the Sanskrit language and literally\nmeans \u2018the very next day after the moon\u2019. The legend goes, that on this day Lord\nRama returned to his birthplace, Ayodhya, after vanquishing Ravana. Therefore, in its\nessence, it commemorates the resounding victory of good over evil. In addition to that,\nGudi Padva also heralds the onset of the reaping season and so, it is also celebrated as\na festival of harvest. A Gudi flag is also made with a stick and an upturned silver or\ncopper pitcher pot at its top, symbolizing victory. It is further decorated with a silk\nsari, flower garlands, sugar and turmeric which symbolize luxury, well-being,\nsweetness in life and good luck, respectively. At the time when the Maratha expansion\n\nwas at its peak and the empire stretched from Orissa to Sindh, women began\nworshipping the Gudi which was then made with a bamboo stick with the sari making\nit symbolic to the Maratha flag. This was essentially done to signify their might. The\nidea holds true among the people that worshipping Gudi attracts prosperity and good\nluck while fending off the evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During the festival, spring is believed to be in full swing and the acts of celebration\nare a clear manifestation of people\u2019s enthusiasm. The Maharashtrian people clean their\nhouses, decorate them and make rangolis with flowers, colors, ingredients, etc. Gudi\nPadva requires preparation of a variety of festive food items like Shrikhand and Puri,\nSakkar Bhaat, Puran Poli and a sweet that is a mixture of neem and jaggery to\nrepresent the bittersweet life \u2013 a life blended with both happiness and sorrow. In a\ntradition that has a striking resemblance with Dhanteras<\/em> in North India, the buying of\ngold or anything new is considered auspicious. In fact, even for kick-starting a new\nbusiness, Gudi Padva is regarded as a propitious day and people look forward to\nstarting their businesses on such an auspicious occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, this very New Year is\nknown as Ugadi or Yugadi. These words again have their origins in the Sanskrit\nlanguage \u2013 the Sanskrit word \u2018Yuga\u2019 which means age and another Sanskrit word\n\u2018Adi\u2019 which means starting \u2013 are both put together to symbolize the \u2018beginning of a\nnew age\u2019. The saga attached to the celebration of Ugadi holds the idea that on this\nvery day, Lord Brahma began with this expansive enterprise of creating the Universe.\nThis day also marks the beginning of the nine-day long festival of Chaitra Navratri\nwhich ends on Ram Navmi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inhabiting a country like India attunes us to its incredible diversity. However, people\noften fail to acknowledge the richness of India\u2019s vibrant culture. In January itself, a\nmultiplicity of festivals were celebrated \u2013 Bihu in East, Pongal in the South and\nMakar Sankranti in the North, that too on the same day, without us realizing it all. It is\nthus, through our exposure to these festivities or merely by reading about them that we\nrealize how much cultural richness does the Indian society encapsulates and how\nmuch of it we actually fail to recognize. The garb of the Western modernity which\n\u2018others\u2019 the East\u2019s sense of identity, often prevents people from noticing important\nand diverse aspects of Asian cultures. It often situates itself as intrinsically \u2018superior\u2019\nand \u2018dominant\u2019 thereby presenting the Indian culture as inferior, premised on\nritualistic and superstitious beliefs. However, it is time we change this. It is time for\nthe richness of the Indian culture to attack the idea of a single New Year, the idea\nwhich has been perpetuated as a dominant discourse for all these years. India\u2019s culture\ndeserves a new discourse, one which allows itself to be represented in all its varied\nforms, not by the West, but by the narrative of the East itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owing to its unique and vast cultural diversity, India has many festivals and celebrations specific to certain areas and regions. Since Hindus form the majority, a Hindu calender is followed to keep track of the festivities throughout the year. This calender holds great importance for a lot of people, and with good cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1094,1946,1949,1930,1943,91,531,1940,276,1131,1953,1934,1950,576,1951,1928,1923,889,1924,157,1112,1941,547,1927,1929,1947,1954,629,324,1926,1948,1925,1944,1937,19,1945,1935,283,319,1938,1931,1933,1932,1936,1952,1939,323,1942],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-ayodhya","tag-bihu","tag-calender","tag-chaitra","tag-chaitra-navratri","tag-culture","tag-dance","tag-dhanteras","tag-diversity","tag-family","tag-festival","tag-festival-of-harvest","tag-festivities","tag-food","tag-gudi","tag-gudi-padva","tag-heterogeneity","tag-hindu","tag-hindu-calendar","tag-india","tag-language","tag-lord-brahma","tag-lord-rama","tag-lunisolar","tag-maharashtra","tag-makar-sankranti","tag-makar-sankrati","tag-maratha","tag-music","tag-new-year","tag-orissa","tag-panchanga","tag-pongal","tag-puran-poli","tag-puri","tag-ram-navmi","tag-rangolis","tag-ravana","tag-religion","tag-sakkar-bhaat","tag-sanskrit","tag-sari","tag-season","tag-shrikhand","tag-sindh","tag-ugadi","tag-worship","tag-yugadi","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2691,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions\/2691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}