Basant Panchami and Saraswati Puja, 2021
Basant Panchami
Winter is drawing to a close. The mustard fields are bright with masses of yellow flowers. The deep scarlet Erythrina flowers attract the bulbuls, parrots and sunbirds. The garden resounds with the calls of barbets and squirrels. The koels, which had hidden themselves in the winter, have made an appearance again. Mango and red silk cotton trees are in full bloom in the southern regions. Tender leaves, translucent pink and yellowish-green in colour, decorate the trees. On this auspicious fifth day (panchami) of the bright half of the lunar month of Magh, which in 2021 falls on February 16th, we celebrate Basant Panchami, the spring festival. It is celebrated in different ways in different places. In Punjab, it is traditionally celebrated by wearing yellow clothes, flying yellow kites, and singing and dancing. Kite flying on this day is very popular in West Punjab (Pakistan) too.
Basant Panchami is also a very important day at the dargah (memorial shrine) of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, patron saint of Delhi. Here is a song written by Amir Khusro and dedicated to the saint – his spiritual master – and sung by the Warsi brothers in qawwali style:
The lyrics and meaning can be found in the video description. The raga of this composition is Bahaar, meant to be sung in this season. It is followed by a brisk tarana in the same raga, a composition made of rhythmic syllables rather than words.
Here is a video of last year's Basant celebration at the dargah, before the pandemic hit:
Saraswati Puja
Saraswati, lithograph from the Calcutta Art Studio, 1878. Source: https://www.omfromindia.com/gallery-1
In eastern India (Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam) and also in many parts of Bangladesh, Basant Panchami is a day for worshipping Saraswati, the goddess of arts – music, poetry, painting, sculpture, theatre, literature... and academics. This spring Saraswati puja is also celebrated in some parts of northern India. Here is Rabindranath Tagore's song in praise of the Goddess, in Raga Yaman Kalyan:
I now present the raga Gopika Vasant, said to be of south Indian origin. However, it is hardly ever sung in Carnatic music today. It is far more popular in Hindustani music, where it was introduced by the great musician, composer, scholar and teacher, Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar. There does exist a raga of the same name in Muthuswami Dikshitar's school, but it is different from this one. The closest Carnatic raga to the Hindustani Gopika Basant is Jayantashree. Ratanjankar's conception of Gopika Vasant is a blend of elements from the ragas Dhanashree, Asavari and Malkauns to produce a new entity. Let us hear Ratanjankar's disciple, Krishna Gundopant Ginde, singing his guru's compositions in this raga. The first composition, "Vidya Dani Dayani", is in praise of Saraswati.
My own composition on Saraswati, in raga Ahir Bhairav, is the second piece in the performance shared below. I precede it with a short explanation of Ahir Bhairav, beginning at 21 minutes 29 seconds.
Here are the pictures of my Saraswati Puja set-up for today:
This beautiful traditional Andhra kalamkari of the goddess was gifted to my parents at their wedding in 1986. It has been an inseparable part of the household since then.
Erythrina flowers and birds:
Mustard fields: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lHNvHBADI0
Barbet calls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koomjgL0rho
Squirrel calls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypl_AqOjvzE
Hello Achintya, thank you for sharing. There is an imperfection that I’m sure you would want to correct: towards the end of your post in the ‘Erythrina flowers and birds’ list, the YouTube web addresses and hyperlinks do not match. The first address (sunbird) has the hyperlink which should be there for the third address (parrot); the address is correct and the hyperlink should be updated to match it. The second address and hyperlink are correct. The third address (parrot) has the hyperlink of the second address (bulbul); the correction of the first address applies. Thanks once again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I will correct it :)
DeleteCorrected!
Delete:)
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