Play ‘Holi’, Like Gods Played?

Colours of Holi, songs of Holi, dances of Holi, sweets of Holi, gifts of Holi, parties and merrymaking of Holi.  Holi is synonymous to celebration. If Diwali is known as festival of light, fineries and bright stuff, Holi is known for its splash of colours and brazenness. I have seen Holi changing from the time when we used brass made ‘Pichkaris’ to using Chinese made plastic pichkaris, from Rajasthani, Bhojpuri folk songs sung on dholaks and majira to DJ led deafening and ear-piercing electronic music played in the clubs and societies, from homemade ‘khoye ki gujiya’ to designer sweets in sweet shops etc. but the essence of Holi has remained. That is to have lots of fun and frolic on this day and let colours, music, goodwill and some inappropriate behaviour take over you.

 I have also embraced every change without much thought and in the course of time found myself playing Holi with synthetic colours and dancing to brazen Bollywood songs, without realizing that I am drifting away from the melodious folk songs that I used to enjoy more in the past and the ‘haldi, besan and tesu ki holi’ that my maternal grandmother introduced me to when I was a little girl! I think the Holi changed and so did I.

As we all know change is the only constant so these days I sit and think about changing the way I play Holi again. I know that the ‘Holi’ festival has a very powerful link to Lord Vishnu’s Hiranyakashyap  avatar myth that resulted in ‘Holika Dahan’ but after exploring and analyzing more now I also know that at some time in the history of our civilization, the famous Radha and Krishna played colourful and celebratory Holi ( that people today generally know and relate to as Holi). Later the same Holi was decided to be played after ‘Holika Dahan’, as a symbol of promoting love and harmony after burning of evil thoughts and actions in the ‘Holika Dahan’ bonfire.  

Now the question is, did Radha and Krishna play Holi with synthetic colours? This is such profane and out of line thought isn’t it?  Obviously, they must have played Holi with natural colours and in the right spirit to welcome the ‘phagun maah’ that is the spring season! I am sure in ancient times, when people started playing Holi like we believe Radha and Krishna did , the colours used by them must have been made from natural sources like Haldi, Neem, Palash (Tesu) etc. The playful pouring and throwing of colour powders that we imagine Krishna throwing on Radha and also when we watch Brij and Barsana ki Holi in TV serials, those colours that gods used, were in fact made from the natural sources and had a healing effect on the human body. It had the effect of strengthening the ions in the body and added health and beauty to it. After playing Holi with natural colours people became more beautiful and healthier they did not suffer skin burns and allergic reactions that people sometime do today. That is what my grandmother used to tell all young and old that after playing Holi with Haldi , Besan and neem powder, skin will be radiant and disease free. How the whole idea of Holi changed, and I did not even realize it! These days before playing Holi with colours people have to think of the ways to protect themselves with the harmful effects of colours!  

This pandemic has given us a very profound reason to sit back and think about things we never got time and motivation to think before. For straight two years it has been a subdued Holi festival for the people of India.  Probably it is the nature’s way of informing us that human beings deserve a better quality of Holi, similar to the one Radha and Krishna used to play so let us get down to making our Holi more natural by making natural colours of Holi from now onwards. Red color that signifies both sensuality and purity can be made easily by drying the petals of Red Rose in sun and after they become crisp, they can be powdered in a mixer and a little flour can be added to increase the volume. Another way red colour can be made is by mixing a teaspoon of limestome powder or chuna in a cup of water with a teaspoon of turmeric and dilute it with water as required. I believe that Gods must be using Rakt Chandan for Red colour!  Tesu and Saffron can be used to make orange colour and Turmeric and gram flour for yellow colour and neem powder for green, it would be costly but not when we make a shift towards the Holi that was our gods’ way of playing Holi. Early Vedas and Puranas such as 'Narad Purana' and 'Bhavishya Purana' have a detailed description of Holi. There are other ancient references that include King Harsha's 'Ratnavali' which talks about Holikotsav.

With such rich traditional value attached to the festival of Holi we do not deserve synthetic colours that are available in the market made of toxic components such as lead oxide, diesel, chromium iodine and copper sulphate which cause rashes on the skin, allergies, pigmentation, frizzy hair and eye irritation.

Holi is a festival of Joy and celebration and I find that joy in the things natural. When I look towards the morning and evening sky, I see shades of red, yellow, orange, saffron, grey and when I see trees, flowers, butterflies, birds around me I see riots of colours that are natural. Colours and hues that I can only dream of are all available in nature. So why not bring in the change in my Holi celebration of future, when the Corona virus will have been conquered and Holi will be celebrated with its original passion and excitement? Why not steal the beautiful colours from nature and play the Holi, like gods used to play?