Joys of Dhanteras, Diwali

The Festival of Lights - Diwali – holds great significance. Lord Rama came back to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, and the city erupted into joyous celebrations. Naraka Chaturdashi is celebrated to mark Lord Krishna’s slaying of the demon Narakasura. Symbolically, the connotation is about the victory of good over evil or darkness over light.

The festival is observed by millions of people across the globe and some countries have declared it as a holiday as well, acknowledging the Indian diaspora settled in those places. In the south, it is called Deepavali or ‘row of lights’. Oil diyas are lit outside and inside the house. The festival comes on a date based on the Hindu lunar calendar which counts its months according to the time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth. Diwali usually comes in the month of October-November, beginning just before the arrival of the new moon before the lunar months of Ashwina and Karthika, and is celebrated for five days.

There are different legends of Diwali and all of them are based on the victory of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu over evil forces. In Western India, the celebrations are for the banishment of King Bali, the grandson of the great devotee King Prahalad, by Vamana, the fifth avatar of Lord Vishnu. For the Sikhs, the festival commemorates the release of Guru Hargobind Singh after 12 years of imprisonment by the Mughal king Jahangir in the 17th Century. In Jainism, Diwali is the day when Lord Mahavira, the 24th and the last of the Jain Thirtankaras attained nirvana. And in Buddhism, the day is celebrated as the day when Emperor Ashoka (third Century BC) converted to Buddhism.

Today, Diwali is also considered as the first day of a new financial year by the business community. This brings us to Dhanteras or Dhanatrayodashi, the first day of Diwali. The festival is celebrated as Lakshmi Puja, performed in the evening and rows of diyas are lit in celebration. Bhajans or devotional songs are sung in praise of Goddess Lakshmi and traditional sweets are offered to the Goddess. Lord Ganesha and Lord Kubera are worshipped.

Since the word ‘dhan’ implies wealth, Dhanteras is marked by making new purchases, especially gold and silver items. The festival is about increasing wealth and prosperity and the undertones of cleansing, renewing and securing auspiciousness are marked with puja and celebrations.

There’s a popular legend of the son of King Hima whose death was predicted on the fourth day of his marriage. The King got his son married to a ‘lucky girl’ and on the eve of the fourth day, the girl hatched a clever plan to save the life of her husband. She gathered all her jewels and piled them up in front of the main door. To ensure that the prince does not sleep, she started to recite fascinating stories and sing melodious songs. When the God of Death, Lord Yama, tries to enter the room in the form of a serpent, he gets dazzled by the brightness of the gold stacked up at the door. The serpent sits on the pile of gold and begins to listen to the song and stories, enjoying every moment. The time to take the life of the prince elapses and Lord Yama gives up the idea. The prince escapes thanks to his wife. This legend is one of the reasons why people worship gold on Dhanteras.

Incidentally, on Dhanteras, the God of Health and Ayurveda, Dhanavantri, is also worshipped. In the South, women of the household prepare marandu (medicine) that is offered to god and eaten on Naraka Chaturdashi, a day after Dhanteras. It is said to keep the family healthy all year round.