With green bangles and henna on their hands, women queued up to enter the Mahendreshwor Mandir at Makhan in Kathmandu on the first Monday of Shrawan, the fourth month in the Nepali calendar. Shravan is believed to be the month of Lord Shiva and Monday is regarded more auspicious than other days, and hence the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was busy the whole day with devotees pouring in.
After waiting in line for more than one and a half hours and finally done worshipping, Lalita Bhattarai, 36, a housewife, sips a glass of mixed fruit juice with her friends at a nearby juice shop. Dressed in green and red kurta salwar that compliments her bangles, Bhattarai and her friends have been fasting the entire day.[break]
Photos: Dipesh Shrestha
“Lord Shiva is believed to be pleased at his devotees if they fast every Monday in the Shravan month,” she says while her friends nod in agreement. She adds that they have been fasting in Shrawan for more than seven years. “Earlier, my mother used to drink only water, but we aren’t able to do so,” she says as she gestures to her juice glass.
The month of Shrawan, which falls approximately in equal halves through the months of July and August, is considered as the holiest month by Hindus around the world as it hosts many religious festivities. Apart from being the appropriate month to worship Lord Shiva, other festivals such as Krishna Janmasthami and Nag Panchami are also celebrated during the course of this month.
But in Nepal, and especially in Kathmandu, Shrawan is marked with the abundance of green color, profusely adorned by women. It has also progressed as an occasion to gift bangles and other makeup accessories to close relatives and friends as well as host vegetarian luncheons and dinners.
Laxmi Thapa, 45, a schoolteacher, says that she need not buy bangles and other accessories during Shravan.
“Gifts from friends and families are enough for me. In fact, some gifts from last year still remain unused,” she says. But she adds that she buys green bangles in large quantities to gift them to friends and relatives. “If someone doesn’t wear green bangles in Shrawan, people will force her to wear at least one, as a symbolic gesture,” says Thapa.
In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is worshipped by women for the long life and success of their husbands. It is also believed that if an unmarried woman worships Lord Shiva, it ups her chances of getting a good husband. Therefore, Thapa believes that bangles, makeup materials, bright clothes and henna stand to signify the importance of the bridal status for Hindu women.
Durga Prasad Karmacharya, a local resident of Makhan and occasional assistant of the priest at the Mahendreswor Temple, however, says that unlike other things that confirm the importance of Shrawan in the religious texts, bridal makeup or the use of green bangles and henna is mentioned nowhere. “Many things were later modified and developed according to people’s convenience,” he says.
He also points out that many cultural scholars are in a fix regarding the popularity of such accessories among women.
“Women here may have been inspired by the Tarai region of the country where these accessories are a must for bridal makeup. But its prevalence in regard to Lord Shiva is unexplained,” he says.
He adds that the color green is mentioned only while referring to belpatra, the leaf of the bel fruit, that’s offered to Lord Shiva. The trifoliate leaves are believed to have a calming effect on the hot-tempered deity.
“Green and yellow are believed to be Lord Shiva’s favorite colors,” claims Praneshwor Rajopadhyaya, priest of Mahendreswor Temple, adding, “So devotees may have translated that into wearing green to please Lord Shiva.”
Thapa, on the other hand, presents yet another interesting reason.
“Green is considered as a calm color and may have been picked up to avoid the hot and humid environment during rains. Similarly, henna is also supposed to help bring down the body temperature,” she says. However, she also agrees that its usage is popular as many people believe them to be Lord Shiva’s favorite colors.
There is no specific explanation to the usage of green color by women, be it clothes or bangles, but its usage has definitely been soaring in the last couple of years. Regardless of age, women are seen with henna and green bangles during this month. Apart from the religious connotations, this has also emerged as trend among Nepali women.
“I don’t fast or observe any religious occasions but I love wearing these bangles during Shrawan anyway,” says Anjali Shrestha, 23, a salesgirl at a clothing store. Donning green bangles and elaborate henna on her hands while dressed in jeans and a casual top, she says that it’s only during this month she can wear traditional glass bangles with any type of clothing.
Apart from wearing green and worshipping Lord Shiva, Shrawan is also considered as the ideal month to organize pujas like Rudri, a ritual observed to get rid of the negative energy at one’s home. Though this puja can be done at any time of the year, organizing it during the month of Shravan is considered more auspicious by the devotees of Lord Shiva.
“It’s believed that hosting any puja related to Lord Shiva in the month of Shrawan is a thousand times more fruitful than in any other month,” says Karmacharya.
Jayandra Sharma, a pundit, says that Rudri may have been regarded more fruitful during Shrawan as it’s the time of the year when germs are more prevalent.
“To organize Rudri, the house should be thoroughly cleaned, and in addition, it’s also believed that the sound of sankha (conch shell) can kill minute germs in the radius of 500 meters,” he says.
While many like Karmacharya still go through religious texts to find the reasons behind human behavior regarding the worshipping of Lord Shiva in different ways, devotees like Thapa and Sharma consider many beliefs to have been constructed by long-run traditions but modified according to people’s changing necessities.
In addition to the usage of green bangles and holding Rudri Puja, there’s also one peculiar tradition followed by Nepali women. It’s believed that in the first Shrawan month after marriage, a woman should stay separately from her mother-in-law. However, Sharma says that there’s no proper explanation behind this tradition.
“This tradition has been handed down from generations but there aren’t specific details that explain why it was practiced in the first place,” he says.
There are many different traditional and cultural aspects to Shrawan which varies according to different Hindu communities across the world. But as inscribed in Hindu mythology, during the churning of the oceans in Shrawan to produce the eternal-life potion known as Amrit (‘no death’), a large amount of poison was also produced. To avoid the spreading of the poison, Lord Shiva drank it all and held it in his neck. The poisonous effects made His throat turn blue, thus causing him to acquire another name – Neelkanth, the “Blue Throat.” This is another reason why Lord Shiva is worshipped during the month of Shrawan: to acknowledge his role in saving the world from destruction.
Although there are different significances of the month of Shrawan for different peoples, it’s now celebrated as a colorful month. An important month for the devotees of Lord Shiva, it has also come up as a fashionable month for women of all ages. Regardless of the various motives behind celebrating the fifth month of the Hindu calendar, it’s one of many such festivals that promote communication among family and friends, be it sharing gifts or organizing pujas or visiting Shiva temples.
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