Celebrated in the
south, Pongal is marked by the cooking of the rice from the
first harvest after the winter. The festival is spread over
three days and is the most important and most
fervently-celebrated harvest festival of South India. Like all
Hindu festivals, Pongal too has some interesting legends
attached to it.
The Mt. Govardhan Tale
The most popular Pongal legend is the one associated with the
first day of the celebrations when Lord Indra is worshipped. The
story behind it is, on this day Indra being honored by all,
became proud and arrogant. To teach him a lesson, Lord Krishna
asked his cowherd friends to worship Mount Govardhan instead of
Indra on the Bhogi Pongal day. Awfully infuriated, Indra sent
forth the clouds to generate thunder, lightning and heavy rains
and flood the land. But, as the tale goes, Lord Krishna lifted
up the Govardhan Mountain on his little finger and sheltered the
farmers, cowherd and their cattle. Indra then begged Shri
Krishna's forgiveness and the latter re-permitted Bhogi
celebrations in honor of Indra.
The Nandi Bull Story
According to another legend associated with Mattu Pongal, the
third day of celebrations, Lord Shiva once asked his Nandi bull
to go to earth and deliver a special message to his disciples:
"Have an oil bath everyday, and food once a month." But the
baffled bovine failed to deliver the correct message. He told
the people that Shiva asked them to "have an oil bath once a
month, and food everyday." The enraged Shiva then ordered Nandi
to stay back on earth and help the people plough the fields,
since they would now need to grow more grains.
A typical traditional Pongal celebration has a number of rituals
attached to it. The preparations for the festival are quite
elaborate. The place where the Pongal puja is to be performed is
cleaned and smeared with dung, a day prior to the festival. The
place chosen for this purpose usually happens to be in the
courtyard or an open terrace. Kolams (ground patterns made out
of rice flour) generally drawn with rice flour are special to
the occasion. The idea behind using rice flour is that the
insects would feed on it and bless the household. The Sankranti
Rath (chariot) is a typical Pongal kolam. The ropes of the rath
are supposed to be kept open till on the next day they are
joined from house to house to symbolize a collective desire to
realize an uninterrupted cosmic cycle. At the centre of it a
lump of cow dung holds a five petal pumpkin flower, which is
regarded as a symbol of fertility and an offering of love to the
presiding deity.
A special puja is performed on the first day of Pongal before
the cutting of the paddy. Farmers worship the sun and the earth
by anointing their ploughs and sickles with sandal wood paste.
It is with these consecrated tools that the newly-harvested rice
is cut. Since the festival celebrates the harvest of the paddy
crop, the newly harvested rice is first cooked on this day. The
rice grains, along with sesame seeds, jaggery, chick
peas,groundnuts and dried coconut, are put into an earthen pot
filled with milk. This is boiled until some of the milk spills
over, and the preparation is called 'Pongal'. It is generally
cooked at an auspicious hour, recommended by the priest, in the
court yard of the house. A portion of the cooked rice is offered
to Ganesha, and the rest is shared by the family, neighbours and
friends as consecrated food. As people greet each other, they
ask paal pongita or 'has the milk boiled over?'.
Another
ritual observed on this day is called Bhogi Mantalu, when useless
household articles are thrown into a fire made of wood and cowdung
cakes. Girls dance around the bonfire, singing songs in praise of the
gods, the spring and the harvest. In Andhra Pradesh, in the morning the
girls burn their old clothes and wear new ones after an oil massage and
bath. Then follows Pongal Panai, a ritual in which the new earthenware
pots are painted and decorated with turmeric, flowers and mango leaves.
The second day is known as Surya Pongal, the day for the worship of
Pongal. On this festive day, a newly-married couple, symbolising
freshness and joy, is presented with new clothes by the bride's parents.
The servants of the house are also given new clothes to wear. Bathing in
the sacred rivers during Pongal is believed to be extremely beneficial.
Hence, devotees flock to Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu to bathe in the waters
of the Kaveri, and to Tirunelveli, also in Tamil Nadu to bathe in the
river Tamrapani. Bathing in the sea at Vedanaranyam in TamilNadu is also
considered auspicious.
The third day is known as Mattu Pongal or Gopuja, the day of Pongal
Shiva cursed Basava to live on earth forever for cows. It is marked by
cattle worship. In earlier times, cattle formed the chief asset of an
agriculturalist and it was only proper that their services were
recognised and celebrated on this day. The cattle are given a ceremonial
bathin the morning, their horns are cleaned,polished and painted, and
then decorated with flowers. They are then given Pongal to eat. Arati is
performed on them, so as to ward off the evil eye.
Also called KanuPongal, it's also celebrated by sisters for the welfare
of their brothers. This festival is reminiscent of Raksha Bandhan and
Bhai Duja (see Diwali) of north India. A large banana (Musaparadisiaca)
leaf is washed. It is then placed on the ground, next to the basilaltar
in the court yard. On it is placed abranch of the amla (Phylalnthusembelica)
tree. On this leaf are placed at four corners, the left overs of sweet
pongal and the salty pongal called Vand Pongal, ordinary rice as well as
coloured red and yellow, five betel leaves, two betel nuts, two pieces
of sugarcane, turmeric leaves, and two or three ber (Ziziphus mauritiana)
fruit. On this also reposes an oil lamp. In Tamil Nadu women perform
this ritual before bathing in the morning. In Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh, the festival start safter everyone has bathed. All the women,
young and old, of the house assemble in the courtyard. The eldest
married woman distributes a handful of rice to all the others. The rice
is placed in the centre of the banana leaf, while the women ask that the
house and family of their brothers should prosper. Arati is performed
for the brothers with tumeric water, limestone and rice, and this water
is sprinkled on the rangoli infront of the house. Sisters apply a
tilakon the fore heads of their brothers, and give them fruit, sweets,
sesame seed and jaggery.
Coinciding with Makara Sankranti and Lohri of the north, it is also
called Pongal Sankranti. Though traditionally'pongal' is cooked using
the newly Pongal harvested grain, nowadays it is not easily available.
Therefore families not directly involved in agriculture cook'pongal'
using old rice, to give thanks in the traditional way.
