Dr. Sushil Rudra . Steel City Durgapur
08.03.2023
Introduction :
Spring is at the door. And the red flowers of Palash have come from his hands. That means the gathering of colors all around. And so the best color festival of Hindu Dol Purnima or Holi has come to give us joy on foot.
The name of this festival of colors is very popular all over India. In some places this festival is called Holi Khel and in some places it is also known as Dol Purnima.
Table of Contents: The Best Great Color Festival of Hindu Dol/ Holi
But the main joy is the color.That is to paint the mind of oneself and others with colors. That is why from Himachal to Kanyakumari celebrates this festival.
Every province has its own style. But all joy is expressed with colors. Somewhere the use of Abir is more. Somewhere else is to paint everything with different liquid colors.
This is a festival that forgets all the differences of religion and caste and brings everyone together. Everyone knows and doesn’t know each other. We rejoice in this joyous festival.
May everyone become one in the red color. All the sadness of the mind, all the lack, all the black and white disappear and everything becomes colorful and vibrant.
The differences of our religion, race and caste disappear. Therefore, Holi is not an Indian festival anymore, this festival has become an international festival. This festival showcases the diversity of India to the whole world.
Mythology of the origin of the festival of Holi:The Best Great Color Festival of Hindu Dol/ Holi
The origin of the word Holi is from the word “hola”. And this word Hola means thanking God in anticipation of the early harvest.
According to many scholars, the word Holi comes from the Sanskrit word “holka”. It means half-ripe grain.
Some provinces of India such as Punjab, Haryana there is also a custom of eating half-ripe wheat and gram in places etc.
But there is also a famous mythological story of the beginning of Holi, which many of us know.
The story goes like this:The Best Great Color Festival of Hindu Dol/ Holi
Once upon a time there lived a giant king named Hiranyakashipu.He was the son of Maharishi Kashyapa and his wife Diti.
He once performed severe penance to Lord Brahma. Being pleased with his devotion, Lord Brahma gave some special powers to king Hiranyakashipu.
But after getting these special powers, Hiranyakashipu became very arrogant. Hiranyakashipu became a conqueror of gods and humans over Brahma and started neglecting the gods.
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This demon king then killed his subjects Vishnu and others. Stopped the worship of all gods and forced the whole kingdom to worship himself.
Hiranyakashipu had a son.His name was Prahlad. Prahlad was a true devotee of Vishnu from childhood. He never refused to worship Vishnu on his father’s orders.
Hiranyakashipu was very angry at his son’s behaviour.So he adopted various means to kill his son.
To kill Prahlada, Hiranyakashipu sometimes poisoned his food, and sometimes threw his son Prahlada under the feet of an intoxicated elephant.
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But Prahlada, a devotee of Vishnu, survived each time. So he imprisoned his son with poisonous snakes, but never killed him.
Finally, seeing no other option, he asked his sister to kill his only son. His sister’s name was Holika.
Holika had a special charmed shawl which always protected her from the fire. So the demon king Hiranyakashipu thought that the sister would sit in the fire with her only son and her child would die in the heat of the fire.
But in reality the opposite happened. On the orders of her grandfather, Holika took her nephew Prahlad in a huge fire pit. She sits along with Prahlad.
But who has the power to kill him with God’s help? So after entering the fire, strangely, Holika dies in the fire.
Prahlad, a devoted devotee of Lord Vishnu, survived. Holika’s mantra shawl, which protected him from the fire, could not protect him from the fire. Prahlad was saved.
It is said that when Prahlada entered the fire, strong winds blew from all around and that magical shawl surrounded Prahlada instead of Holika. Holika died in the fire.
After the burning of Holika, Lord Vishnu assumed the form of Nrisimha and pounced on Hiranyakashipu and killed him by cutting him in two.
And so the festival of Holi begins with this event. On the day before Dol, a special bonfire is organized by burning straw, wood, bamboo, etc., which is known as Chanchar or Nerapora.
Therefore, many people describe this festival as the victory of good over evil or victory of good over evil. The Sun Temple in Multan, Punjab, India bears witness to this event.
Again, there is an explanation about the origin of “Dol Purnima” according to Bengali or Vaishnav. Generally, Dol Utsav is held at night on the full moon tithi of the month of Phalgun.
This festival mainly starts with worshipping at the feet of Radhakrishna, followed by kirtan and bhajan.
Everyone is painted by smearing colored Abir. According to Vaishnava belief, on this day Lord Krishna used to play with Abir or Gulal with Radhika and other friends in Vrindavan.
Therefore, to remember this special day, Dol Purnima is celebrated with great fanfare in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
According to this Purnima tithi of the month of Phalguna, Lord Krishna’s human incarnation Sri Chaitanyadev was born in Nadia.
Therefore, this Purnima is also called Gaur Purnima by many Vaishnavas. However, in North India, the Holi festival is usually celebrated on the day after Bengal’s Dola Yatra.
So we saw the mythological explanation of celebrating the festival of “Holi” and ‘Dol Purnima’. But everywhere people enjoy playing with colors around these two festivals.
