Every month I venture to give a glimpse of the important days and festivals of the following month. Usually, I group these under various categories to present a structured picture. I am, however, tempted this time to give a chronological account of the significant dates of December. Coincidentally, the first important date is 3rd December, the birthday of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of our country. He was an apostle of culture, character and conviction. If the Kashmiri Pandit community has to come out of the present turmoil and secure for itself an honourable place, it has to protect its culture, imbibe an exemplary character and fight for its survival with conviction. Next comes the Gita Jayanti on 7th. True, ours is a religion unique inasmuch as it is neither originated by any single prophet nor is bound by one single holy book. Yet the Gita is the quintessence of all the Upanishads and we shall be well advised to make it a habit and a daily routine to read it and try to follow a life pattern prescribed therein — of fearless action without an eye on its fruits. This will certainly remove all hurdles from our path and we shall achieve our goal. We shall celebrate Dattatray Jayanti on 10th. He was one of those rishis after whom the gotras of our community are formed. The celebration of this day should remind us of our noble lineage and inspire us to do noble deeds in the service of mankind. Then we have a typical Kashmiri ritual of Monjhor Tahar on 12th, coinciding with Matrika Pujan. On this day, some of us, not every family, prepare yellow rice, offer it to their Ishta Deva or cherished deity and then distribute it among friends and neighbours. On this day I am always reminded of a beautiful painting made by my dear friend late Bansi Parimoo. He had painted a Kashmiri damsel with a plateful of yellow rice, distributed among a score of children surrounding her. The caption was, 'When Peace Will Come To My Land'. Alas, he died without witnessing the return of peace to his Land. This day is more important because of the tradition of Matrika Pujan or worshipping the basic alphabets of the Devanagari script. We believe in Shabda Brahma or the divinity of the sound. On this day, we propitiate all the alphabets in their proper groups:

Amayay represents vowels beginning from 'A',

Kamayay, the first group of consonants beginning with 'Ka',

Charvangye,      the   second   group   of   'Cha',

Tankadharyanye, the third group of 'Ta’

Tarayay, the fourth group of T~ap,

Parvatyay, the fifth group of 'Pa’

Yakshanyay, the next group of 'Ya' and

Shri Sharika Bhagavatyay, the last group of 'Sha'.

Mahakali Jayanti falls on  18th. Mahakali symbolizes the great Time that engulfs everything under the sun. This is the ultimate entity in which merges the entire creation and, therefore, is highly regarded and worshipped. On this day we recall our pilgrimage to the Mahakali Temple on the right bank of the Vitasta in Srinagar, a stone image smeared with Sindoor.   On  20th  is  the  day   dedicated  to Anandeshwara, one of the eight Bhairavas attending on Lord Shiva. We have eight separate shrines for the eight Bhairavas at different place* in Kashmir. On specified days Havan, Poojan is performed at these shrines. Uttarayana, the northward path of the sun, begins on the 21st. This is significant since the year has been divided into two halves. The six-month period beginning on the 21st is very auspicious and is called Uttarayana. The other half is known as Dakshinayana or the southward path of the sun. Swami Ram's Jayanti falls on 22nd. He was a great Shaiva Sadhaka, who enlightened many a fortunate seeker. It is the bounden duty of all of us to study and practise the tenets of this great Shastra of Kashmir so that it does not get extinct. The last important day in this month is the 25th. For the Christians it is their most important festival of Christmas. It happens to be 'Somavasya' since the 'Amavasya' falls on Monday, the day of the moon. It happens only twice in a calendar year. On this day there used to be a magnificent celebration, holy bath and worship at the Somayar Temple near Habbakadal in Srinagar. This is the Nirvana day of Swami Ashokananda and his disciples will be performing yajna on this day. It also happens to be the famous 'Khyachi Mavas' of the Kashmiris. A special dish of rice mixed with moong will be prepared. At night, puja will be performed and the dish offered to 'Yaksha' and the children will be eager to snatch away his cap, which will bring luck and wealth to the family. We have some families with the surname as Yaksha and the name of the hero in Kalidasa's famous Meghadootam is also 'Yaksha'. This indicates that some tribe of Yakshas of ancient times did exist in Kashmir. This also indicates that culturally Kashmir has always been linked with the rest of the country, even though it had trade links with Central Asia and Tibet. We must remain ever vigilant and not allow any forces to falsify the facts of history and destroy the evidence of our tradition and culture. After all, in the words of Coleridge, 'Culture is what comes naturally, bred in the bone rather than conceived by the brain'.

Kundan

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Courtesy:  T N Dhar  ‘Kundan’   and  November 2000  Koshur Samachar