INDIAN FESTIVALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1937, Page 6

INDIAN FESTIVALS.

During the past few weeks, at the end of Uie rainy season and just before the be-jinning of the cold weather, several of the greatest popular festivals of the year have been held. In Eaetern India, and particularly Bengal, the people have celebrated the Dtirga Pujas, which are held in honour of the goddess Dnrra. The holidays go on for weeks, during which Bengali families living in the towns vieit their homes in the country. Tt is a season of goodwill and happiness, marked by processions of men and women through Calcutta carrving imngo of the goddess to bv inimerned in the River Hooghly. Hindus of Xorthern India call their festival Dashehra or Vijaya l>nehnmi (The Tenth Day of Victory). Tt marks the close of the rainy season and is o]*»erved during the first 10 days of the brisrht half of the Indian month of Ashwin. The origin' of the festival is associated with the world-fa inoiwi Sanskrit epic the Ramayaua, and the tenth day celebrates the victory of the hero-god Rnnin over the demon Rnvnna. l>uring (his period a drama called Ramliln (the exploits of RamaK based on the ancient story. is stngo-l in Xorthern Indian towns. In some places (ho performance's go on for a month. Comparison with the morality plays of mediaeval England is often made. The Ramlila presents incidents of the epic which are <■!■;«i-to<l in thf open air or on a sta'-re in a park. Ignite to give a touch of rculituii. scenes are shifted to surrounding , ' which correspond with those in the story. One such episode is the crossing of a river by Kama and liis companions, for which the actors a* well a* the audience go to a lake. Sometimes instead of on a Hxcd stage the perfonr>air-"s are Then in tableaux form during processions through the streets. On the last day huge effigies of Havana, n-ade of paper and ha in boo. with fi'eworks attached, are burnt to eyniholi«e the final dest met win of the evil being. In some places these c"i !; ies are r>o ft. in height and 12ft in girth. The number of etligios vnritv with the enthusiasm of the people and the local custom, but it is not uiicoiii:noii to set* score* of Havana*, big and small, being set on fire. The Ramuyaiiit telln of the exile of Kama and his beautiful wife Sita. The latter »ns captured by Havana, demon-king of I.anka (Ceylon) hut Rama, with the aid of the King of the Monkeys, secured her release.