Stories Of Yugadi Festival

Stories of Yugadi Festival

Yugadi,as the name itself suggests,is the day of the beginning of a yuga or era.It is also called Ugadi, which comes again from ugama or beginning of the era.It is told in the Brahmanda purana that Lord Brahma, the creator, created the world on this day,ie: the first day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra month, the pratipad or padya of Shukla paksha of Chaitra maasa.Hence,it is the New Year's day for Hindus.Lord Brahma is worshipped along with the Panchanga or calendar and the Panchanga is heard.Misdeeds committed previous year are repented(prayashchitta)by prayers,shanti prayers are chanted to ward off evils,and the presiding deity of the year (if Yugadi falls on Sunday,Sun is the presiding deity of the year.If Monday, moon, and so on), along with other deities and Lord Vishnu are worshipped.It is customary to eat a mixture of neem leaves and jaggery to indicate that sorrow and happiness both should be taken equally in the same spirit.

        It is said that the king Shalivahana got coronated on this day,and started his own calendar called Shalivahana Shaka.This is a lunar calendar, and hence the Yugadi celebrated on this day is called Chaandramaana Yugadi.This is celebrated in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra,while in some places like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bengal,where a solar calendar is followed, Yugadi is celebrated in mid April.This is called Souramaana Yugadi.In Kerala,it is known as Vishu, while in Bengal it is known as Vaishakhi.

        The year is called Samvatsara in Sanskrit,and from this day,a new Samvatsara or year commences.There are totally sixty Samvatsaras and they keep repeating like a cycle.There is a popular legend of how these Samvatsaras were born.This can be traced to Bhavishya purana, according to which,Sage Narada once went to Lord Vishnu at Shvetadweepa and asked him to explain the nature of maaya or illusion.Vishnu took him to a place which had a lake and said they had to bathe in that lake before meeting Sage Vasishtha who was living there.Vishnu first bathed and came out.When Narada bathed,he immediately turned to a beautiful girl! Now being Naradi,he got confused and wandered around.At that time,a king called Taaladhwaja came around hunting,and seeing Naradi of astounding beauty,fell in love with her.He asked her who she was, and Naradi, having forgotten her past, said she was an orphan.Taaladhwaja immediately took her with him and married her.He enjoyed with her for twelve years in various beautiful places like pools, gardens and hills.In the thirteenth year,she became pregnant and gave birth astonishingly to a big gourd!When the gourd was cut open,fifty boys came out!All these grew to become strong,sturdy youths,and they in turn had children and grandchildren.However,all these men once quarrelled amongst themselves like Kauravas and Pandavas and killed each other! Naradi couldn't control her grief and cried beating her chest, calling God.Taaladhwaja too sat by her side lamenting.Now,Lord Vishnu came in the guise of a brahmin along with few other brahmins,and explained her that time cannot be surpassed by anyone, however mighty he would be.The brahmins told her that this was indeed Vishnu maaya and asked her to take bath and do the last rites of the dead ones.And when she took bath, she immediately turned out to be Narada! Lord Vishnu took him to Shvetadweepa and told him this was indeed the nature of his maaya.Whatever he had experienced was illusion.

        The story ends here.But a popular legend says this in a different version, where,Narada once felt like having a wife and approached Krishna.He asked him to give him one of his sixteen thousand wives.Krishna told him to take anyone who was not with him.Narada visited each one,and saw that there was a Krishna with everyone!A tired Narada went to the river Yamuna and dived in it for relief.When he got up,he had turned to a beautiful girl!A sage saw her and married her.Every year she begot one son from him,upto sixty.Tired of begetting so many children, and remembering her past,she appealed to Vishnu to stop this and give her original form.Vishnu appeared and said that he himself was the sage and all this was his maaya.He then made the sixty children Samvatsaras and made them each rule one year (Based on Gorur Ramaswamy Aiyyengar's writings).I am however not aware of the original source for this version of the story.The story of the Bhavishya purana might have got modified in folklore in this way.

     Thus,it is generally accepted that Samvatsaras are the children of Narada when he was a female.The names of these Samvatsaras are,Prabhava,Vibhava, Shukla,Pramoda,Prajapati,Angira,Sreemukha,Bhaava,Yuvaa,Dhaataa,Eeshwara,Bahudhanya,Pramaathi,Vikrama,Vrisha,Chitrabhaanu, Swabhaanu,Taarana,Paarthiva,Vyaya,Sarvajit,Sarvadhaari,Virodhi,Vikriti,Khara,Nandana,Vijaya,Jaya,Manmatha,Durmukha,Hemalambi,Vilambi,Vikari,Sharvari,Plava,Shubhakrit,Shobhakrit,Krodhi,Vishwavasu,Paraabhava,Plavanga,Keelaka,Soumya,Saadhaarana,Virodhakrit,Pareedhaavi,Pramaadi,Ananda,Rakshasa,Nala,Pingala,Kaalayukta,Siddharthi,Raudra,Durmati,Dundubhi,Rudhirodgaari,Raktaakshi,Krodhana, and Kshaya. The present Samvatsara is Sharvari.

        It is said that Lord Vishnu took up the Matsyavatara or Fish incarnation on this day.Briefly recounting the story of Matsyavatara,a demon called Hayagriva had stolen the Vedas from Lord Brahma,and the time for pralaya or dissolution of the world was nearing.At that time,a righteous saintly king called Satyavrata was ruling the earth.One day as he was offering libations to gods a tiny fish came in his handful of water.The fish told him that bigger fish would devour it,and asked him to protect it.He took it in his waterpot to his home.However, by overnight the fish grew to the size of the pot.The king shifted it to a bigger bowl,and very soon it grew to it's size.The king then shifted it to a pool,and then to a lake, and when it grew upto the size of the lake too he shifted it to a river and finally to the ocean.By now he was convinced that the fish was some great soul and asked it who he was.The fish said it was Lord Vishnu himself.Lord Matsya then told him to collect all the species of plants and animals,one sample each, and get ready with the seven sages in a big boat in seven days, and he would come back to take all of them to a safe place, for dissolution of the world would occur.The king did so, and the fish returned by seven days, now with a horn on it's head.He asked the king to tie the boat to his horn with the divine snake Vasuki,and the king did so.The fish pulled the boat crossing the ocean,when it rained heavily drowning the whole world.On the way, the fish killed the demon Hayagriva and recovered the stolen Vedas.He then brought the king and others to safe land and explained him philosophical teachings till the onset of the next kalpa,or the day of Brahma.He then blessed the king to be born as Vaivasvata Manu(Manu is the head of an epoch called Manwantara,and there are fouteen Manus for fouteen Manwantaras, the present being Vaivasvata Manwantara), son of Surya in the next kalpa,and the sages and other lives would continue the creation.The philosophical teachings of Lord Matsya came to be contained in Matsya purana.

        It is also said that Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya from his forest life on this day,and got it celebrated.

       In Maharashtra, Yugadi is celebrated as Gudi Padwa,a flag hoisting ceremony.A long bamboo pole, decorated with silk, and a copper or silver vessel placed over it, with a garland of sweets and neem leaves tied over it is fixed on the terrace of the house.It is called Gudi and worshipped,then removed by sunset and the sweets and neem leaves are distributed to everyone.It is said that it is a flag hoisting to commemorate the killing of Vaali by Rama.But it has a basis in a story from the Adiparva of the Mahabharata.Accordingly,there was a king called Uparichara Vasu who was ruling the kingdom Chedi.He was however always doing penance instead of ruling.Lord Indra, the king of gods got a doubt that he was doing penance for acquiring his post.He appeared to Vasu and advised him to do his duty of ruling the kingdom, rather than doing penance,if he wanted to go to heavenly worlds.He also said that he would be his friend thereafter, and gifted him an airplane and a lotus garland called Vaijayanti maala.He said that he could go to any place in the universe in that airplane.He also gifted him a bamboo pole, saying that it would give him anything he asked.He himself settled in the pole in the form of a swan.Vasu took all these gifts and stopped his penance.He worshipped the bamboo pole and Lord Indra in it and did the same every year, beginning a celebration called Indrotsava,or the festival of Indra.The day on which he received the bamboo pole and started it's worship was this day, and hence it is celebrated as Gudi Padwa.The king's name Uparichara became adjective to him,as he then often travelled in the sky in the airplane given by Indra (Upari-above,chara-moving).

       Thus, Yugadi, the new year's day of Hindus is a very important festival, which is very much rejoiced.It is considered to be one of the four most auspicious days, the others being,Vijayadashami,Balipadyami, and Akshayatritiya.It is also celebrated as the beginning of the Vasanta Navaratra, the nine night festival of the  spring season, the other Navaratra being Sharannavaratra,or the Navaratra of the Autumn season or Dasara.