Skip to main content

Wish you a happy Makar Sankranti

Rebati Mohan Sinha


Makar Sankranti is one of the most auspicious occasion, the Hindus celebrate in almost all over the country with great zeal and enthusiasm. It is known as a harvest festival. Generally, Makar Sankranati always falls on January 14 every year. In Punjab, it is known as Lohri, the festival of bonfire; in Tamil Nadu it is time for three day Pongal celebration; in Gujarat it is known as Uttarayan and it is synonymous with kite flying while in Maharashtra and a part of Karnataka it is known as Sankranti where there is a custom of exchanging tilgul ladoos, and greeting with the words “tilgul gaya ani god god bola”, the meaning “speak sweetly just as this sweet”. In Assam, it is known as Bhogali Bihu. Assamese celebrate the festival with great devotion, fervour and gaiety. We, the Bishnupriya Manipuri celebrate as Tila-Sankranti with Tilua (sugar candy) and home-made Utong chak, made with bironor choul, prepared in a bamboo piece of thin wall thickness.

The festival marks the northward journey (uttarayan) of Sun, in other words the Sun enters the sign of Makar or Capricorn from tropic of Cancer i.e., Makar Sankranti is the day when the glorious Sun God begins its ascending and entry in to the northern hemisphere and thus it signifies an event where in, the Sun God seems to remind his children, may you go higher and higher, have more and more light, never to darkness.

To Hindus, the Sun stands for knowledge, spiritual light and wisdom. Makar Sankranti signifies, we should turn away from darkness of delusion in which we live and begin to enjoy a new life with bright light within us to shine brighter and brighter. We should gradually begin to grow in purity, wisdom and knowledge, even as the Sun God does from the day of Makar Sankranti.

In the epic of Mahabharata, Bhishma Pitamaha even after being wounded, lingered on till Uttarayan to set in, so that he attain Moksha.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Rishikesh Sinha15 January 2012 at 00:13

    Makar Sankranti can be considered as the beginning of New Year. It is also the ushering of festivity. It begins the chain of festivals one after another giving us the spirit of celebration that remains through out the year.

    A very good article touching upon each and every possible aspect of Makar Sankranti. 

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all love comments. It is moderated

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Sadhu Thakur

By Ranita Sinha, Kolkata Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Thakur, the great saint of the Bishnupriya Manipuri Community was born on 26th October, 1871, in a remote village of Cachar district called Baropua in the state of Assam. He was born to a Xatriya Manipuri family. His father Sri Sanatan Pandit was a Sanskrit teacher and mother Srimati Malati Devi, a house wife. Sadhu Baba from his childhood was indifferent to all worldly happenings. He was engrossed in chanting the name of Lord Krishna. Along with other students of his age, Sadhu Baba started taking lessons of grammar and other spiritual literature from his father. At a very young age he lost his mother but he was brought up with utmost love and care by his step mother. At the age of eighteen, Sadhu baba lost his father, so, to continue his spiritual education under the guidance of Rajpandit Mineshwas Swarbabhwam Bhattacherjee, he went to Tripura. But within one year he made up his mind to visit all the holy places and as such he took permis
9 comments
Read more

A short history of the Bishnupriya Manipuri and their religio-cultural consciousness

Undoubtedly, the accurate period of the emergence or the development of religious consciousness of the Bishnupriya Manipuri is difficult to ascertain, but it is an old one that is undoubted, writes Rini Sinha , Guwahati . Religious beliefs are found virtually in every human society. Religious beliefs usually relates to the existence and worship of a deity or deities and divine involvement in the universe and human life. Religious knowledge according to religious practitioners may be gained from religious leaders, sacred texts or personal revelation. The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultural communities. The accurate period of emergence or development of religious consciousness of the Bishnupriya Manipuries is difficult to ascertain, but it is an old one that is undoubted. However, on the basis of the views of different scholars, pre-historic and historical remain whatsoever is available and from the logic of personal observations, we may put forward some view
6 comments
Read more

The 'Star' Krishankant Sinha of Space City Sigma

By RK Rishikesh Sinha, New Delhi It is a myth that the all-knowing Internet knows everything. One such myth relates to old television stuff aired on Doordarshan before 1990. Search in Google “Space City Sigma”, the search engine would throw up reminiscent results from the people who still long for those days. Those days were really golden days. Krishankant Sinha in the role of Captain Tara in Space City Singma For those who have watched Doordarshan some 15 to 20 years back, am sure they will have nostalgic memories of it. The days when possessing a now ubiquitous looking television set was a luxury. It was a neighbour’s envy product. It was a visual product to showoff, to flaunt that we have a television set . Those were the days when black and white, locked television was rarely found in homes. The days became immortal for teleserials like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Swami’s Malgudi Days (Ta-Na-Na-Na…), Ek-Do-Teen-Char (Title song: Ek do teen char, chaaro mil ke saath chale to
26 comments
Read more