This Diwali, as you hang a green garland on your front door, do you feel that someone else did this somewhere in time? Someone much before your parents and their parents’ time, someone from more than 2,500 years ago?
That is when it all began in India. Part of the harvest festivals, Diwali celebrations were presided over by kings with their kingdoms decorated with diyas and flowers, and general festivities observed.
Diwali is mentioned in the Puranas, part of the scriptures which are illustrative commentaries on the four Vedas, featuring detailed rituals to be performed during the festival, which some celebrated as a five-day festival, while some celebrated as a three-day festival.
Diwali is mentioned in the Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana, both composed between the 7th and 10th centuries. Traditionally, there are 18 Mukhya Puranas and 18 Upa Puranas, with over 400,000 verses describing gods and goddesses. While Skanda Purana is dedicated to Skanda, also known as Kartikeya or Murugan, Padma Purana is dedicated to the lotus on which Brahma, the creator appeared.
Diwali in Skanda Purana:
Diwali is mentioned in the Kartika Masa Mahatmya and Deepavali chapters of the Vaishnava Khanda of the Skanda Purana.
According to the Wisdom Library, https://www.wisdomlib.org/, Skanda Purana contains 81,000 Sanskrit metric verses. It covers varied topics including cosmogony (creation of the universe), mythology (itihasa), genealogy (vamsha), dharma (virtuous lifestyle), festivals (yatra etc.), geography, gemology, and also with detailed instructions pilgrimage guides(Tirtha Mahatmya).
The Skanda Purana describes detailed rituals to be performed on Govatsa Dwadashi (the 12th of the lunar month), Dhan Teras, Narak Chaturdashi, and Diwali.
In his English translation of the Skanda Purana, G.V. Tagare (1950), https://archive.org/ , describes in Chapter 9, the tradition of lighting diyas.
After describing how to worship a calf and a cow on Vats Dwadashi, in lines 5-6, the Purana speaks of lighting of lamps.
At the outset many lamps are lit. They are then placed in golden vessels etc. Then the rite of Nīrājana should be performed and the omens observed. Then he should take all the lamps and place them facing the North. The important lamps are said to be nine. He should have others too.
Line 10 describes diyas as symbols of the Sun, which it describes as the cosmic source of light and energy which transitions in the month of Kartika.
‘Lamps are born of parts of the Sun. They are the dispellers of darkness. Let them illuminate me in all the three units of time and let them indicate auspiciousness or otherwise.’
The Skanda Purana describes Chaturdashi and Amavasya as a festival of “showing the path to the Pitṛus” (ancestors), with people lighting firecrackers to help the spirits of the deceased find their way.
The Skanda Purana also links the story of the asura king Bali who was tricked into going into Pataal by Vishnu in a Vamana (dwarf) avatar, but was promised three days on earth which later came to be celebrated as Deepavali festival of diyas, new clothes, good food and other celebrations. In lines 49b-55, it describes Bali asking the boon of his presence on earth for three days in a year.
If you are competent, grant it unto me. Today the earth was gifted to you who are in the false guise of a Dwarf. Since that has been taken over by you by means of three steps in the course of three days, let there be my rule on the earth for three days, O Hari. Let this lady, your wife (Lakṣmī), stay permanently in the house of those people who offer lamps in my kingdom on the earth.
Skanda Purana also prescribes how to worship Lakshmi and how to invite wealth with details of offerings to be made. Firecrackers, food and new clothes, and lights are mentioned in lines 91-97.
‘Light-trees’ should be made according to one’s capacity in temples etc., quadrangles, cremation grounds, rivers, mountains, houses, roots of trees, cowpens, levelled square-shaped plots of sacrifice, etc. The grounds along highway should be decorated and beautified with cloths and flowers.
Diwali in Padma Purana:
Similar rituals are also prescribed in Padma Purana which has more than 50,000 verses. Diwali is mentioned in the last part, called Uttarakhanda which contains, among other things, legends and mythologies of Indian festivals.
In lines 4-20 of Chapter 122 named The Celebration of Dipavali of his English translation of Padma Purana (1951) https://archive.org/ , N.A. Deshpande, describes the importance of lighting diyas.
Then at the break of night he should offer pleasing lights at the temples of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva etc., and especially at apartments on the tops of the houses, sanctuaries, assembly halls, rivers. ramparts, gardens, wells, streets, pleasure-groves near houses, stables and abodes of elephants also.
Lakṣmī is described as living in the cowpen on earth on the auspicious day of Dīpāvalī in Kārtika. The day after Dipavali is the first day of the new year in Padma Purana, and rituals are prescribed for it in lines 21-32.
Lines 33-42 prescribe rituals to be performed which include worshipping the deities and good men, and distributing food, gentle words, garments, tāmbūlas, lights, flowers, camphor, saffron, food and eatables, and special gifts to the village chief and soldiers. Further lines of the chapter also describe how a special floral arch should be created, decorated with different flowers, and offerings of eatables with jaggery and sweetened milk to be made.
Harsha’s Literary Play:
In one of the earliest literary documentation of Diwali, the ancient Sanskrit play Nagananda by Harshvardhana describes detailed rituals of Deepapratipadotsava in an interlude of Act IV. The play is written by the emperor Harshavardhana (606 – 647 CE).
In a dialogue between the chamberlain of King Vishvavasu and the doorkeeper, the royal and domestic traditions of the festival are described, wherein the royal family exchange gifts with each other, newly married couples also exchange gifts and many lamps being lit.
Finally,
Literature has always reflected culture of the period in which it is composed. Although thousands of years far in time, Harsha’s play does not seem so far. One still remembers studying Harsha’s Ratnavali in college, while friends happily learned the easier French language.
This time-related reference to the festival assures one that the world has been going on for thousands of years. But whether it will go on for thousands of years more seems to be in one’s own hand now, isn’t it? Cultural traditions must be saved. Mankind must be saved. And the Earth must be saved. Perhaps this Diwali, it is time to choose a part in this saving game.
