August
has been the month of festivities at Sindhu Samaj. Mid July marked the
beginning of the 40 days Jhulelal Chaliha festival at the gurmandir which
includes an hour long "Bhajan/Kalam Sandhya" followed by
Langar prasad. Various artists from across Delhi come to perform at the Chaliha
festival ; Chaliha being the Sindhi word for Chalees Din (Forty Days).
There is a folklore attached to the Chaliha festival , the predominant version
of which is as follows ( I am told that there are numerous other versions with
subtle variations).
“Mirkshah, a Muslim ruler of Sindh had ordered all Hindus to forcibly
convert to Islam or face persecution. The Hindu representatives asked for a
forty days time from the ruler to give their reply.
The frightened Hindus of
Sindh prayed to their river God Varuna to come and help them. For forty
days, they underwent penance. They neither shaved or wore new clothes, praying
and fasting and singing songs in the praise of God Varuna. They beseeched him
to save them from the hands of their persecutor.
On the fortieth day, a
voice was heard from Heaven: "Fear not, I shall save you from the wicked
Mirkshah. I shall come down as a mortal and take birth in the womb of Mata
Devki in the house of Ratanchand Lohano of Nasarpur". Ratanchand Lohano
was a Hindu belonging to Lohana caste .
All
the Sindhis were relieved and rejoiced at this akashvani. Later, Dariyalal (Jhulelal) was
born as announced to the named couple and saved the Hindus from Mirkshah &
his Muslim Followers.
Henceforth, Sindhis worshipped Jhulelal as their Ishta deva. They started observing a forty days fast with full
faith and devotion known as Chaliho Sahib.”
(Source: Wikipedia /
Edited).
Along with Chaliha
Festival, in August festivals of Teejri and Thadri were also celebrated. As I
have mentioned in the previous posts, Teejri is essentially celebrated by
married women who fast throughout the day to pray for the long lives of their husbands. The panchayat Brahmin, Maharaj Shashikant, in the evening recites “Teejri Mata ki Katha” . My two cent contribution on this festival is to regularly go out and
check if the moon is visible as ladies break their fast by watching the moon. (Sounds
very Bollywood!). With Delhi’s monsoon season at its peak during this time,
sometimes finding moon can be a challenge due to the cloudy skies. Do note that
after attending the Katha (around 7.30 in the evening), women do not even consume water till the time they see the moon. Out of inquisitiveness, I did ask mummy this time as to what one needs
to do if the moon issn’t visible. She
said that if it is not visible till Midnight, then you offer prayers to Lord
Shiva and break the fast. This seems to be in line with an earlier conversation
that I had with Maharaj Shashikant where he advised that ultimately Lord Shiva
is our Kuldevta and reiterates the importance of Lord Shiva in a Sindhi household.
A few days after Teejri, is
the lovely festival of Thadri which is celebrated to please Goddess Jog Maya
(Sheetla Mata). The word Thadri comes from the Sindhi word “ Thado” which means Cold . Sheetla Mata
is believed to cure poxes, sore, ghouls, pustules and diseases. On this day,
food cooked a day earlier is consumed as the stoves are not lit (this is
although slowly changing now with most households preparing tea/coffee etc.!). I keenly look forward to eating “Mitho
Lolo”every year. I am not sure how to translate Mitho Lolo into English but the closest description that
I can think of is sweetened flat bread. My mother also does a Chando ( Sprinkling Water) throughout
the house on the eve of Thadri (after Lolas have been prepared) to ward of evil
forces. I distinctly remember how in my own locality, we used to share Lolas
with a couple of non-sindhi families with strict instructions that this should
not be consumed with anything hot. A friend tells me that the word “ Lola” is
more of an Indian Sindhi construe as across the border the words used for these
food-items are Kupar,Tikra, Besan ji
Soodi etc.
I end with this wonderful bhajan by Dr Harish Wadhwani who is a part of Sadhu Vaswani Mission - " Maalik Muhinjo Aahe Mitho Mitho" . Dr Wadhwani's voice is extremely melodious and i find the lyrics fascinating. Hope you like it too.
Jai Jhulelal!
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