As a child, I would often accompany my grandmother on her morning stroll. While she walked, I cycled alongside, both of us bonding in the lush gardens. I remember her pointing to the bright orange flowers growing around our home in Bhavnagar. ‘Flame of the forest’ or ‘Kesudo’, as it’s referred to in Gujarat, would be soaked in water overnight and used as a natural colour during the festival of Holi. She fondly narrated her experience of playing Holi in her hometown in the Braj region, with this coloured water and leather mugs called ‘dolchis’.
The state flower of Jharkhand, these are essentially scentless and not the most attractive bunch when plucked from trees. But their properties as a skin elixir have made them regain popularity as an alternative to the normally used cheap synthetic colours.
Kesudo grows wild around India around the month of January to March, bidding farewell to winter, inviting spring and the harvest season.
Pichhwais, Phad and Miniature paintings are just some of the age-old crafts, which beautifully depict the festivities of Holi. People enveloped in deep red, bright orange and yellow colours, spraying water playfully at one another, dancing and making merry. There are also the soft and sensual works of art. Lord Krishna and Radha smitten, gazing at one another, Krishna aims the pichkari or the water gun and Radha blushingly turns the other way. A common enactment of this, with similar gestures and body language is also seen in classical dance and music such as Kathak recitals.
But then there are also the works of art, which may suggest a heavier sexual innuendo. A fine example, part of the Mehrangarh Museum Trust Collection, is a miniature painting depicting Maharaja Bakhat Singh celebrating the festival of Holi in Nagaur. The Maharaja is seen in a pool of water bathing, pichkari in hand, alongside a group of women each holding a pichkari or small cones of colour. Some others outside the bath throw colour from larger bags playfully. The viewer is left to wonder what happens next as a mood of flirtation and friskiness prevails.
Maharaja Bakhat Singh rejoices during Holi, 1748–50, Mehrangarh Museum Trust
Material culture sheds light into the way the playing of Holi has evolved and how despite being categorised as a Hindu festival, it is inclusive, a celebration which welcomes everyone irrespective of religion, race, caste. This has been a norm since historic times, with the Mughals having their own Holi celebrations. Shahjahan would call it Id-e-Gulabi or Aab-e-Pashi while during Jahangir’s reign, it was termed as Mehfil-e-holi. The Mughal ateliers have produced some exquisite miniature paintings of the rulers partaking in the celebrations of Holi.
Artists continue to depict the festivities of Holi in their own unique way. Be it the Modernists or the contemporary artists of today. One of the works which stands out for me is Holi by M.F. Husain, part of the Grosvenor Gallery catalogue presently. The composition is a riot of colours with figures inspired by ancient Indian statues and sculptures indulging in the playing of Holi with hints of abstraction and cubism.
Each region of India has its own uniqueness and peculiarity where the celebrations of this colourful festival are concerned. Art and music are always at the helm of helping one understand these cultural traditions. For example, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Lathmar Holi is played. Inspired by the tales of Lord Krishna and Radha, women playfully strike with sticks towards men. Folklore has it that the men from Krishna's village come to Radha’s village to play, and the women playfully beat them away with sticks. Colour or ‘gulaal’ is showered as men and women coquettishly tease one another. On the contrary in the same state, in the town of Vrindavan, colour is ditched for flowers. Locally termed as Phoolon ki Holi, petals of flowers are showered as music and dance is indulged in.
With time, even the tools used to play holi have evolved. A beautiful, ornate silver water syringe with a spout the shape of an elephant's head was on auction last year at Sothebys. Attributed to the 18th century, the pichkari is testament to how ostentatiously the festival was celebrated by royalty and aristocracy.
An Indian Silver Water Syringe for Holi (Pichkari), Late 18th Or Early 19th Century, Sothebys
Songs sung and danced to during the celebrations of Holi in utmost fun and frolic are also integral documentations of the evolution of music from folk and classical to even a genre of its own titled Hori. The songs of Hori with their ragas and thumris, eventually transcended to popular culture, making their way to mainstream Bollywood cinema. Many of these border on crassness, vulgarity and involve a sense of catharsis, celebrating a time to throw caution to the wind, to let go just as paintings and art works have depicted over time. Wild behaviour is forgiven.
‘Moksh’ in Hinduism is believed to be the one true goal. Freedom from the cycle of birth and death with good ‘karma’ or actions. But Holi, a time for indulgence and liberation, beckons the soul to be free and liberated through the tribulations of life itself.