September, 2003
The Ganpati Chaturthi Edition
Happy
Ganpati! What you see above are statues of the Hindu god Ganesh, the
elephant headed god, also known as Ganpati. He seems to be god of
a lot, but is usually known as a god of wisdom, learning and 'the remover
of obstacles'. People turn to him to get an auspicious beginning to any
enterprise; god of good luck, too. His birthday is at the end of August,
and observation of this has become one of the biggest festivals of the
year in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where Bombay is located. Over
the centuries the festival has taken on added dimensions, from being
used as a tool of nationalism against the British in the late 1800's,
to the commercial endorsements and ten day city wide street party of today's
Bombay.
We spent Ganpati in two places: Ponda, a small, regional capital in the state of Goa; and Bombay. In both cities the basic observance is similar: Families or neighborhoods place statues of Ganesh in their homes or in public pavilions and make offerings and prayers ('pujas') over the course of the festival. On the last day the statues are paraded to a nearby body of water and immersed, as people sing and dance, yelling "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle Baras To Jaldi Aa" (Father Ganpati, Come Back Quickly Next Year). The style of the celebrations in the two cities, however, was very different.
In Ponda the festival lasts two or three days. Many people place statues in their houses and lovingly decorate them. Special sweets are made or bought and taken to friends and family. Ganesh is a vegetarian, so the families eat vegetarian while Ganesh is in their homes. Garlands of orange, white and yellow flowers adorn the statues. Prominent families have priests come to their homes to lead the pujas, which are given before meals. The evenings are noisy with musicians going house to house, and as fire crackers (and larger recreational explosives) are used during the pujas to get the attention of Ganesh and make sure he's listening.
We spent Ganpati in two places: Ponda, a small, regional capital in the state of Goa; and Bombay. In both cities the basic observance is similar: Families or neighborhoods place statues of Ganesh in their homes or in public pavilions and make offerings and prayers ('pujas') over the course of the festival. On the last day the statues are paraded to a nearby body of water and immersed, as people sing and dance, yelling "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle Baras To Jaldi Aa" (Father Ganpati, Come Back Quickly Next Year). The style of the celebrations in the two cities, however, was very different.
In Ponda the festival lasts two or three days. Many people place statues in their houses and lovingly decorate them. Special sweets are made or bought and taken to friends and family. Ganesh is a vegetarian, so the families eat vegetarian while Ganesh is in their homes. Garlands of orange, white and yellow flowers adorn the statues. Prominent families have priests come to their homes to lead the pujas, which are given before meals. The evenings are noisy with musicians going house to house, and as fire crackers (and larger recreational explosives) are used during the pujas to get the attention of Ganesh and make sure he's listening.
Bombay,
being the cultural and financial capital of India, does Ganpati in
a big way. Imagine the streets filled with hundreds of statues, some
up to 30 feet tall, with drummers, a variety of explosives, dancers, and
crowds escorting Ganesh to the water. It's like an overly rambunctious
and very noisy Thanksgiving Day parade down every major thoroughfare
of the city, night after night for a week, virtually non-stop on
the final day from morning until well after midnight.
Chowpati
Beach is the main immersion site for Bombay. We were there at 7:00
PM in the midst of the largest crowd I think I've ever been in, and
they say it doesn't really get crowded until later in the evening. Ganeshes
large and small were coming in a steady stream with well wishers in
the hundreds of thousands. The largest statues or quite heavy and are
built on a steel armature. Teams of men, fisherman mostly, are hired
to carry them into the water, going out as far as they can, with their
noses barely above the water. Being made of unfired clay, the statues
are designed to desolve when immersed.
The
tide was out when we were at the beach at 7:00 PM. The statues heads
might be sticking out of the water, but if they are immersed at low
tide the statues would be easily covered with the rising tide. The problems
start when immersions are done at high tide. There's little they can do
about timing - the line of Ganeshes waiting for immersion is non-stop. We
returned to Chowpati Beach the following afternoon, again near low tide,
and witnessed the rather depressing sight of a beach strewn with half submerged
Ganeshes. To a serious devotee, this is not cool. However, the steel armatures
were being recovered from statues that had been properly immersed.
They will be reused next year. The morning after it was business as usual
in Bombay.
September
ends with some miscellaneous pictures of Bombay. Enjoy...
www.whitridge.org