Auspicious Day's Connected With Farming

S N Pandit  Jammu, Nov. 10, 2009

Martand

01 After leaving the lap of mother, the first support was accorded to man by the earth on which he planted his feet and spent. His life In the first instance he spent it in playing and when he grew up, he start thinking and acting on the footsteps of his forefathers and all his childhood companions are lost. He lost his grandparents and then parents. Now there was no one to keep him busy, to feed him and to look after his whims and wishes. His eyes turned towards the earth, water and changing and still everlasting. He could hunt on it. He could make his dwelling on it. He could produce from it his eatables, cereals, fruit and all those things required for his day-to-day survival. Thus the development of the sense of respect and reverence began to sprout in his mind for the environment around him and the earth was one of the most important elements of it, which caught his attention first. He started adoring it because he knew that his life was incomplete without his environment. He thought about its origin, its changing phases from time to time and the reasons behind all these changes. In this way he attributed the cause of such changes to some deities like Indra,  Agni, Varuna, etc. which, he thought, were the main cause for making such changes in everything surrounding him. Thus he consecrated some days of the year for the worship of different deities who brought about one change or the other on the surface of the earth and its atmosphere from time to time.

He distributed the twelve months of the year into four main seasons like, summer, "Sonth, the spring, "Grishim", the autumn "Harud" and the winter, "Wand". Not being satisfied with these divisions, he re-organized the year into six seasons as follows:

All his festivals are connected with the All his festivals are connected with the environment and the soil revolved round all the seasons listed above. A brief description of some of such festivals, which the early man celebrated.

SHISHUR LA:GUN FESTIVAL OF THE FIRST WINTER:

This is one among the most important functions, know as "Shishur", held at the grooms residence in the beginning of "Po>h", the ninth month of the Vikram era. One day preceding the function, provided it is an auspicious day of the week, a little of seasmum and a pinch of lime powder is put together into a duly stitched triangular patch made of brocade, and it is known as "Shishar Goar". It is then stitched or pinned on the head side of the "Sari" of the bride, which she has got from her parents on the occasion.

Besides, the Sari Suit, the bride gets some cash, etc. as a token of present from their parents for her in laws. She also gets a Sari Suit from her in-laws on the occasion. Early in the morning on the day of the function all the relatives, friends and neighbours who are invited by the host on a special feat, assemble. The daughter-in-law well dressed in her new suit along with a decorated fire pot known as "Shishar Ka:ngar" in her right hand, enters into the room of feasting. Both, the suit and the fire pot, for the bride come from her parents. The fire pot is without any fire or charcoals in it. After feasting is over, she approaches every person with a box of tooth picks in her left hand the "Ka:ngari" in her right hand. Every body, whether young or old, puts some cash present into the "Ka:ngari" as her share to the bride on this special feast. Everybody, whether old or young, has to pay for his/her participation in the feasting on this occasion.

In addition to the presents mentioned above, the father of the girl has to arrange a good number of lavas of bread, thirty to fifty kilos of curd and considerable quantity of cooked meat, called "Qaliyi" to be presented to the in-laws of his daughter and sent it to the house of the groom. The father of the groom has to make arrangements for its distribution among all the relatives and neighbours on the same day. Due to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley, making of such presents in kind have subsided but making presents in cash has increased four fold.

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Courtesy: S N Pandit  and The Martand- The Official organ of All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference: 16th November, 2009