The Delhi government announced a public holiday to celebrate Chhath Puja on November 10, the final day of the festival. They made the announcement on November 5, days before other states in North India such as Bihar, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh or Jharkhand declared the day as a public holiday. The Delhi Government, after its public Diwali puja, has taken Chhath Puja, a major religious festival for Hindus from Purvanchal (Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), to be its biggest public celebration project. It celebrates it as the Chhath Mahaparv. 

In fact the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had issued an order last week that the celebration of the festival be done only at a few designated sites except the banks of the Yamuna river. The DDMA had issued a notice on September 30, banning the celebration of Chhath Puja in public places, as Delhi was still recording a considerably high amount of Covid-19 cases at the time. The banks of Yamuna, which recorded dangerously high levels of ammonia, were put out of bounds for Chhath Puja to prevent further contamination of the water and to prevent crowd gathering at one place. However, on ‘Nahai Khay’, the first day of Chhath, many Delhi based devotees still took a dip in the Yamuna which was covered with a thick layer of toxic foam.

What you see is not iceberg ,its the toxic foam floating in Yamuna where
Devotees are performing Chhat Puja and are forced to take dip in toxic Yamuna.

Dear @ArvindKejriwal Chhati Maata and Purbanchali citizens shall never forgive you for your deeds .#ChhathPuja pic.twitter.com/ZSoyVjOEmT

— Rahul Jha (@JhaRahul_Bihar) November 8, 2021

Instead of expressing concern, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia greeted all Chhath devotees and citizens of Delhi and said, “Chhath Puja is an important festival for the people of NCT of Delhi.” The Delhi government is organising Chhath Puja at about 1,100 places, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bhardwaj had said last week. 

Politics over Chhath Puja

The Politics over Chhath Puja in Delhi had intensified last week with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of not letting ‘Purvanchalis’ prepare ‘ghats’ required to perform rituals pertaining to the festival. The AAP accused the BJP of playing “dirty politics” over Chhath Puja and letting people celebrate the festival in Delhi. According to news reports AAP legislator Sanjeev Jha said, “if they (BJP) continue playing dirty politics over Chhath Puja, Purvanchalvasi (People who are from Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh) will not forgive them.” The BJP hit back, accusing the AAP of trying to create “tension”, and Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor told the media he “appealed to the people to not pay heed to the “provocative statements” of AAP leaders”. He added that the Centre-run Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the BJP-run municipal corporations had been developing ‘ghats’ for Chhath Puja at “all traditionally identified locations”. 

But why is the festival so dear to AAP?

The answer is simple, the national capital has a large population that hails from Purvanchal who live and work in Delhi and celebrate the festival in a major way. They, of course, are a major vote bank in the city that both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have wooed for long. Delhi is also due to have Municipal elections in 2022. In recent Delhi MCD bypolls, the Congress won the Chauhan Banger seat. This gave its state unit chief Anil Kumar the confidence to say, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a 10 per cent reduction in its vote percentage while the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a 5.50 per cent cut.” Both parties are on an overdrive as Delhi Congress is also working to win the MCD elections to make up for its loss in the last Assembly elections. 

Then there are the most watched state elections that are also due in 2022, especially Uttar Pradesh, which is a BJP stronghold that other parties want to breach. Wooing the Purchanchali population of Delhi is a crucial step in that direction. Sisodia has now claimed, “The Kejriwal government is the only government in the country, which is conducting a divine event of Chhath Puja, the great festival of faith, at 800 ghats”. The Kejriwal government has also made arrangements for various facilities including tents, lights, drinking water, cleanliness, security and organizing programs at the ghats, he claimed adding “before 2015 only 80-90 Ghats used to organize Chhath Puja and only BJP and Congress workers could worship at these Ghats, but after AAP came to power now common people in Delhi ca do so too.”      

Addressing an Important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/7WspmuByyB

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) November 8, 2021

However, many common people are also being harassed. According to senior journalist Neelan Gupta who lives in Vasundhara Enclave on the Eastern corner of Delhi, the local counselor Rajeev Kumar (BJP) has ensured the local park is dug up to prepare for the event. The senior citizen went to the local police to complain and reported that she was gheraoed by a group of women who demanded that the journalist withdraw her complaint. She recalled that they were all supporters of Rajeev Kumar who himself was inside the police station but said he did not know who the women were. The journalist was ‘advised’ by many, and was harassed by the women gathered outside the police station to stay quiet as it was a religious festival and no one could interfere. 

Delhi first state where government organizes Chhath Mahaparv on such scale: AAP

According to the AAP, Delhi “is the first state in the country where the government organizes Chhath Mahaparv on such a large scale.” Sisodia added that Delhi has many Purvanchalis and the “Aam Aadmi Party’s government is their government. They have chosen the Aam Aadmi Party so that the grand celebration of Chhath Mahaparv is not limited to workers of only a few parties.” He added that “permission was given to organize public Chhath Puja due to the personal efforts of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal” who appealed to the Lt Governor Anil Baijal on October 14 “demanding permission to organize public Chhath Puja.”

Chhath Puja is dedicated to Surya the sun god, and Chhathi Maiya, and is celebrated over four days and the devout fast and offering the Sun god ‘Arghya’ early in the morning in knee-deep water. This year the festival started with Nahay Khay on November 08, and with Usha Arghya on November 11, 2021. 

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Image Courtesy: PTI

Interestingly, it was and remains essentially a very vibrant folk festival, like Bhai Dooj, that has no role for the priest and no compulsion to visit temples. Since it yielded no grants to either, Brahmans usually stayed away from this economically unviable festival. It was thus not linked with some convenient legend taken from the vast repertoire of the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata or Ramayana. Because it was never ‘mainstreamed’ outsiders hardly know much about it.

There is a weak link, however, that not many are aware of and the story goes that Draupadi was advised by the sage, Dhaumya to perform Chhatt puja to Suryadev, to help the Pandavas. There is another legend that Rama and Sita also offered this puja to the sun god during this period of the year when they returned from exile to Ayodhya. Though most Rama worshippers do not perform this puja, Rama may will have listened to his wife, like all of us do. Sita’s origins were in Janakpur of Mithila, which is really the epicentre of this worship. The tradition is, however observed all over in Bihar-Jharkhand and adjoining regions, the Madhesh tract of Nepal, as well as in far off Fiji, West Indies and Mauritius: wherever Biharis went.

Nowadays, however, hordes of priests have started occupying vantage points in the water and worshippers have, willy nilly, to shell out some dakshina for compulsory mantras and short courses in sanskritisation.

It is my submission that Chhatt is the first celebration of bright light and the sun, after the blackest night of the year, ie, Kartik amavasya when Indians light billions of lamps to dispel the dark. But Bengalis, who just have to be different, however welcome this amavasya to worship their dark goddess Kali and her ghoulish companions of the night. Chhatt Puja was originally a women’s festival to thank the sun god for all the munificence and the bounty conferred, but it is interesting to note how the menfolk joined later on. They also worship a goddess called Chhatti Maiya, who is equally important and invoked for her boons. She is sought to be identified with Usha, the Vedic goddess of dawn — but these are just weak attempts to sanskritise a popular utsav.

The unique character of this festival is that it worships both dawn and dusk, the rising sun as well as setting sun. It is actually a four day festival that starts on the fourth lunar day after the dark amavasya of Kartik, namely, Chaturthi, Panchami, Shasthi or Chhatt and finally Saptami. Chhatt Puja is the occasion for the most colourful dresses to come out and there is a lot of folk songs and dancing as well. Even in distant Mauritius, for instance, Chhatt songs and dances are an integral part of the nation’s culture that was brought in by labourers from Bihar. As fasting is mandatory, people take anticipatory steps by consuming a lot of freshly reaped rice, puris, bananas, coconuts and grapefruits before beginning their rituals.

The first day is actually popular as Nahay Khay and the holy dip in water body is taken on this day, preferably in the river Ganga. Womenfolk, who observe this festival, take only a single meal on this day and among many this consists of just lau or lauki boiled with rice. They get into the water upto their knees or waist and pray in the direction of the sun. This is followed by an ancient custom for married women to smear each other’s forehead with ochre vermillion, right along the line of the nose to the tip. It is likely that the sindoor khela among the married women of Bengal on Vijaya Dashami may have originated from this. After all, our sarbajanin Durga pujas are just a century old. The second day of Chhatt is called Kharna, on which total fasting is observed without a drop of water, from sunrise to the sunset. Devotees have their food only after offering it first to the sun god at sunset. This is a rich repast consisting of ‘payasam’ or ‘kheer’ made rice and milk, ‘puris,’ hard baked wheat flour cakes called thekuas and bananas, which are distributed to one and all. On the third and main Chhatt day, fasting without water is again observed and the evening offerings or sandhya arghya is an elaborate ritual when oblations are made to the setting sun. Bamboo trays are held in its direction containing the much favoured thekuas, coconuts, bananas and other fruits. This is followed by the ‘Kosi’ ritual in homes when lamps are lit to honour the sun, but are kept under cover of five cane sticks. The fourth day of Chhatt is considered the most auspicious and worshippers gather in large numbers on the banks of rivers with their family and friends for the final morning ritual of offering ‘arghyas’ to the rising sun. The fast is then broken with a bite of ginger with sugar, thus marking the end of the rituals. A volcano of joy, feasting and merriment then bursts all over.

What benefits does this puja confer? Many believe in it as a fertility rite for both humans and harvests, while other swear by its curative powers. There is also a theory that ancient yogis and rishis obtained energy directly from the sun’s rays by exposing their bodies to the sun, while on fast. When one observes how when other events and pujas damage or destroy the environment with chemical paints and other poisonous substances, that include firecrackers, Chhatt stands out as a really commendable environment-friendly worship that uses only bio degradable items. I hope we now understand the significance of this wonderful celebration by Biharis a little better.

Author is Chairman of Board of Governors, Centre For Studies In Social Sciences, February 2017 to present · Kolkata
 

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