The festival of the Winter Solstice

Note: this text is extracted from Book XIII, chapter 104

As already intimated (p. 12), Tawney has translated the text wrongly. The word in question is ’uttārayaṇe, the locative case, which simply means “at” or “in the northward journey”—i.e. the ayana, or “course” beginning at the winter solstice. There is no word for “festival” at all, but since bathing in the sacred rivers takes place immediately after the solstice during the festivity known as the Makara-saṅkrānti, Tawney has doubtless considered the addition necessary. He was probably justified; but the text merely says he was bathing “at the winter solstice.” How Roth, Monier Williams, etc., came to call it the “summer solstice” I cannot imagine. Full details of the saṅkrāntis will be found in Sewell and Dîkṣit, Indian Calendar, p. 9. The following is a brief account of the festival from the various sources shown.

Saṅkrānti is the name given to the day on which the sun passes into a fresh sign of the zodiac, and the Makara corresponds to Capricornus. In ancient times a twelve nights’ celebration was held immediately after the winter solstice. The period was regarded as sacred, for it was then that the three Ṛbhus (Ṛbhukṣan, Vāja and Vibhvan), who by their extreme skill rose to be the personified seasonal deities, slept. In modern times the Makara-saṅkrānti forms the chief seasonal festival, corresponding to our New Year’s Day. It is the time for the great pilgrimage to Allāhābād and the annual bath of purification in the sacred rivers of the North. In the South the corresponding festival is called Pongol, at which the boiling of the new rice is watched and regarded as an augury for the New Year.

In an interesting article (Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. v, pp. 868-869) E. W. Hopkins describes the festival:

“Cattle are led about decorated with garlands and treated with veneration. Presents are given to friends at this time, and general rejoicing takes place. The festival lasts for three days, and is officially a celebration of the Vedic gods Indra and Agni, with the addition of the (later) god, Gaṇe ś a.”

Speaking of the Uttarāyaṇa, as observed in Northern India, Crooke states (Religion & Folklore of Northern India, 1926, pp. 31-32) that it is considered a lucky period for all enterprises; while on the other hand, the Dakṣiṇāyana, when the sun moves southwards, is the unlucky season.

“In the Lower Himalaya the January Saṅkrānti is observed by baking little images of birds made of flour in butter and oil, which are hung on the children’s necks and given next day, the winter solstice, probably with the intention of passing away evil, to the crows and other birds.”

Crooke refers us to Atkinson, Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces of India, vol. ii, p. 869 et seq.

Under the heading of “Joshi, Jyotiṣi, Bhadri, Parsai,” “the village priests and astrologers,” Russell (Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces, vol. iii, p. 26l) discusses the “Saṅkrānts.”

He says that

“the Til Saṅkrānt, or entry of the sun into Makara or Capricorn, which falls about the 15th January, is a special festival, because it marks approximately the commencement of the sun’s northern progress and the lengthening of the days, as Christmas roughly does with us. On this day every Hindu who is able bathes in a sacred river at the hour indicated by the Joshis of the sun’s entrance into the sign. Presents of til or sesame are given to the Joshi, owing to which the day is called Til Saṅkrānt. People also sometimes give presents to each other.”

Makara is usually taken to mean a sea-monster, often a crocodile. We have seen, however (Vol. V, p.48n¹), that in the Pañcatantra it is translated as “crab.” This could not be so in the signs of the zodiac, as Karkati corresponds to Cancer.—n.m.p.