Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Red River

Revellers coming back after playing Holi in the village of Nandgaon. The place is about 150km from Delhi. Holi is played with great tradition, where people throw color on each other and sing hyms in ode of Radha and Krishna, the eternal lovers. Here people like the rest of humanity is soaked in the color of love which Radha has for Krishna. Later they'll be beaten with sticks by the women folk of the village. I'll post those pictures later.

Prateek,

This is amazing. I thought, how can anything be more impressive than the previous melange of white chalk-covered figures. Now you have done it again. What a surprise and great experience.

Who makes the color for them to throw? Is it a free gift from the village? Where do the men come from and how many are there?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Prateek,

This is amazing. I thought, how can anything be more impressive than the previous melange of white chalk-covered figures. Now you have done it again. What a surprise and great experience.

Who makes the color for them to throw? Is it a free gift from the village? Where do the men come from and how many are there?

Asher

Click to expand...

Hello Asher,
Thank you so much. In my first submission to OPF, the photograph was of Holi at a place called Barsana. This is at Nandgaon, barely 6 km away. These two villages play Holi together. One day people from Nandgaon go to Barsana to play Holi and the the very next day, men from Barsana come to Nandgaon. So it is the hosts who make the color. The primary wet color is made from flowers of the silk cotton tree. The flowers are soaked in big casks of water, bolied and the resulting dye used as color. It is a lovely orange red. Dry color is also used, earlier it used to be of some natural origin, now some synthetic thing is used since it is much cheaper.
The number of people might be around 200, but there are thousands ( including photgraphers like me) who come to see the event. This experience was a bit rough. Traditionally there are very, very lewd songs sung, infact the worse I've ever heard for a woman. The woman then gives the guy a whack from a stick, then the man would touch her feet to seek her blessing and leave. Pleasantries in the form of choicest expletives are exchanged along with very vulgar gestures between the two communities, then all will sit together to sing hymns in praise of love of Radha and Krishna. A very interesting experience..

Is it all over? I'd love to hear the recordings and then get a translation! This is beyond wild!

The beating is a particularly interesting phenomenon. Now is their social exchange or mating between the men and women of the two villages? Do people set the stage for matchmaking down the road. How does this fit in to the long term social life of the two villages?

How long has this tradition gone on and is it unique to that region or those two villages?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Is it all over? I'd love to hear the recordings and then get a translation! This is beyond wild!

The beating is a particularly interesting phenomenon. Now is their social exchange or mating between the men and women of the two villages? Do people set the stage for matchmaking down the road. How does this fit in to the long term social life of the two villages?

How long has this tradition gone on and is it unique to that region or those two villages?

Asher

Click to expand...

Hello Asher,
Believe me you wouldn't want to hear the translations. I think it'll put the most foulmouthed rappers to shame! It's also in a language which is very ancient, different from what we city dwellers speak normally. It happens in groups engaging each other wildly, but more directed towards the women folk.
The beating is an ancient ritual, hundreds of years old. It is based on a story of lord Krishna. Krishna is one of the principal Gods of hinduism. The holy book of Gita was supposed to have been revealed by him. But he's a very interesting character, there are no rights and wrongs in his vocabulary. If it involves telling a lie, decieving, stealing, eloping to get the job done, he'd advise you to do it. The story goes that when he was a child he saw young women having a bath in the river. He stole their clothes and sat on a tree, jesticulating and making fun of them. Later the women caught up with him and gave him a sound thrashing. The ritual enacts that part of the story. In a single day, the whole festival takes many dimensions. The men start with being Radha ( The God's lover), coloring themselves in his love. Later they enact God's frivolous nature and getting punished for that. This whole region is considered sacred as it is where Krishna was supposed to be born. However as far as I know this beating ritual is held between these two villages only. I'm sure people meet and get married between the two villages, but it isn't really a mating ritual. When the language took a turn for the worse, I don't know, but erotica is a very central part of Hinduism and exists in ancient texts, poetry and temple friezes. Otherwise such openness is not observed so readily and most of the Indian society is very prudent.

Wonderful as always Prateek - sorry for the brief response but I'm in the midst of a hectic weekend - I also enjoyed reading the narrative - thank you for posting!