They say Holi is a Hindu festival, though history tells us about vibrant Holi festivals named Id-e-Gulabi or Aab-e-Pashi in the palace of Mughal Rulers Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan. Wajid Ali Shah’s Holi celebration is immortalized in his court accounts and his contemporary paintings. Hundreds of Dargah in Northern India still celebrates it with enthusiasm. Considering the way the celebration of colours observed by people of all religions, even I would like to repeat Munshi Zakaullah, who asked in his book Tarikh-e-Hindustani, "Who says Holi is a Hindu festival?" Yet old mythical stories make us aware of its pre-Islamic Indian origin.
When it comes to Holi, most of us remember the stories associated with Krishna, Radha, Hinyakashipu, Prahlad and Holika, and some of us remember the famous story of Shiva’s burning Kamdeva. I would mention one that legitimizes awkward or chaotic human behaviour, when warding off a trouble becomes urgent.
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Her name was Dhundhi. She lived in the kingdom of Raghu or Prithu. She was a devotee of Shiva. As it happened with Shiva in many other cases, her ardent worship in a solitary mountain for years pleased him so much that he gave all the boons she asked. What were the boons? She would not be killed by the grown up humans, or Gods or Asuras, could not be killed by a weapon and would not be killed in summer, winter or rains. Well, even though consenting, Siva mentioned that influence of his boon would not be extended to noisy youth. Dhundhi would be defeated if exposed to pranks of mischievous children.
Dhundhi returned to the city. She knew she had only one enemy - the children. She began devouring babies so that they don’t grow enough to learn to play a prank or make a loud noise. Whenever she heard of a baby being born in the kingdom, she went there and ate it up at once.
The child eater demon disturbed the king along with his subjects. He came to know about the boon she won; could not find out an option to kill her. Hence he called his priests to find a solution. The priests told him to call all the young boys of the land on the night of Phalgun Purnima, the full moon day of the spring. It is neither summer, nor winter, also not a time of rainfall. They told the boys of the kingdom to come with sticks and dry grass and leaves. Once they arrive, they made a large pile of wood and grass they collected. Setting the pile on fire they started clapping their hands, and singing aloud while dancing around it. They were intoxicated with Bhang (cannabis leaves) and began screaming. Irritated at the noise, laughter and smoke, the ogress came out in the open. As soon as the boys saw her, they began shouting at her in all kinds of abusive language, all kinds of crude words they knew. Being unable to withstand the abuse and indecent manner of the vibrant youth, Dhundhi ran away, never to come back.
Holi, the spring festival is the Hindu way of biding adieu to winter and welcoming summer. This carnival of colours is also called Madanotsava which reminds us of its objective of being a festival of regeneration, youth, fertility, love and lust. Probably in ancient days, young children were given the power to intoxicate themselves, deny social hierarchy, use offensive language and being unruly on this day as long as that helped driving away the demonic force that works against rebirth and creation. Several ancient cultures allowed unruly behaviour and intoxication on certain festival days. Using abusive language was a part of wedding rituals in some regions in India once. This tradition is followed during Jagannatha’s Rathajatra in Puri as well. In context of Holi, It was considered a way of getting rid of all toxic feelings, i.e. impurities and coming out pure to renew life in the new season. However the associated hooliganism became a matter of concern first during British rule, especially in Northern India. The story of rightful abuse to get rid of the demon lost popularity in modern India for obvious reason. Only the tradition of burning dry grass and woods on the full-moon night, playing music, singing and dancing as well as drinking bhang on Holi continues to be the way of celebration. However, checking miscreants during Holi celebration still remains a big task of administration in many rural and urban areas.
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