With mandalas drawn on the floor and encircled by bright lights, the ambience of every household of the Newar community comes alive on the auspicious occasion of Mha Puja – a ritual of worshipping one’s own self. But this day not only marks the celebrations of performing a self-puja to purify and strengthen oneself, as it is also the New Year’s Day as per the Nepal Sambat, the national lunar calendar of Nepal.
According to Prem Singh Basnyat, military history researcher, Nepal Sambat was widely used officially during the Malla era and it is believed to have been started between 879 and 889 AD. All diplomatic correspondence has been found to have been done in Urdu, Nepal Bhasha (the Newar language) and Nepali Bhasa during that era.[break]
Rajendra manandhar
For easier comprehension, it must be noted here that it was the Kathmandu Valley which was originally known as “Nepal Khaldo” before Nepal, as it is known today, came into being on the world map. In other words, it was the Newar Nation of the Kathmandu Valley that was known as Nepal, and it lasted until the end of the Malla Dynasty in the 1760s with the arrival of the Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah who made Kathmandu his new capital of an enlarged kingdom.
“There’s a room in the Department of Archaeology where I got to see a document some ten years back which clearly shows that these languages were used in our official writings, and Nepal Sambat was being practiced at that time. From the rule of Prithvi Narayan Shah onwards, these languages and the Sambat have been used for diplomatic correspondence as well,” says Basnyat.
Cultural expert Govinda Tandon mentions that the Nepal Sambat was first known as Pashupati Sambat. When the Bikram Sambat was 137 years old, the Nepal Sambat was just one day old and it first appeared on handwritten epics and legal documents. While the Bikram Sambat contains 365 days in a year, there are 354 days in the Nepal Sambat.
“In the Nepal Sambat, the year and month are mentioned but instead of “gatey” or day, the “tithi” is used, which often fluctuates. That made it difficult to find out the exact day for reference and other purposes. So, due to its inconvenience, it was replaced,” explains Basnyat.
He mentions that from 1820 AD onwards, Nepal started sending its men as Gurkha soldiers to the British Indian Army as per diplomatic protocol. But it was hard to deal with official papers since they used different calendars. So it was during the rule of Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana that the Nepal Sambat was replaced by the Bikam Sambat which is the official calendar of the country to this date. But even after its removal, it was seen in ceremonial uses in many communities.
As per Tandon, since the Bikram Sambat was established well before the Nepal Sambat, the former came much into prominence and use. But with time, the Nepal Sambat was reincorporated into newspapers, especially in Gorkhapatra, and in communities like those of the Newars, it was mostly used due to its relevance with various religious rituals and social customs. It was also later used in coins, copperplate inscriptions and chronicles as well.
He also stresses on the importance of the Nepal Sambat. “Since it’s associated with our country, it definitely needs to be promoted,” says he who is also the Joint Secretary of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT).
Tandon further explains that in the Gopalraj Bangshawali, it has been mentioned that the Nepal Sambat was started during the era of King Raghav Raj Dev of the Licchavi period, the preceding era of the Malla centuries.
In the genealogy of language known as Bhasha Bangshawali, which was written in the 19th century, it has been mentioned that during the reign of King Raghav Raj Dev, a priest told a local trader called Shankhadhar Shakhwa that if he could bring sand from a crossing between two rivers, that sand could turn to gold. So when that actually happened, he cleared the loans of those people in debt; and since it called for a celebration, a new calendar was launched.
Supporting Tandon’s explanations, Suresh Kiran Manandhar, Editor of Sandhya Times, a Nepal Bhasa daily, says that people believe in the anecdote that it was 1,100 years ago when Shakhwa’s financial generosity cleared the debts of the people in Kathmandu. “Though there’s a saying that sand turned into gold, it’s also believed that he was a businessman and a social worker as well, and that’s why he gave away his own hard-earned money for releasing his people from their chronic debts,” he says.
Since people were cleared of their debts, they believed that a new era had started. So they wanted to celebrate that day by launching a new calendar.
Mha Puja was celebrated thousands of years back when the Nepal Sambat was not even established. “Since Mha Puja is considered an auspicious occasion, it was chosen as the day to mark the first day of the Nepal Sambat, the national lunar calendar of Old Nepal,” explains Manandhar.
Manandhar mentions that this is the only festival where a person worships his own body.
“In the Newar culture, people worship farming tools. Since Kartik is a harvesting month and is considered the time when farm work comes to a halt, farmers prepare themselves for a new start and new work, and to make their body pure and maintain good health, they perform Mha Puja,” he says.
According to cultural expert Satya Mohan Joshi, Mha means body, and in Sanskrit it is also known as atmah, which means mine. “Our body has a power, a kind of cosmic energy and without that, we won’t be able to speak nor perform any task. We have an element of consciousness and a soul and it gives us the feeling of being alive. So in order to understand that and reflect upon our own selves, we need to celebrate Mha Puja,” he says.
Mha Puja begins by drawing a mandala which is a symbol of a person’s body. By following Tantric rituals, a replica is made which is drawn in the shape of an eight-petal lotus inside a circle marked with water. The mandala is like looking at a mirror. Depending on the length of your chin to the forehead, the exact same length, which is around six inches, an oil lamp is made and is kept in front of the ritual mandala.
A small circle is made with mustard oil at the center of the mandala which is surrounded by five main elements like red rice, black lentil, black soybean, unhusked rice and puffed rice, all as per family traditions.
A thakali, the main female member of the house, starts the process and puts tika on the family members and gives blessings of longevity. From children of five months old to old aged people participate in this ritual.
“There’s no need of a priest to perform the Mha Puja rituals. As a sagun, dry and fresh fruits are also given to the family members. The rituals can be performed from morning till night but is preferred during night as during the dark, bright lights adds more to the rituals,” says Joshi.
Though Mha Puja is celebrated in the Newar community, its special significance and meaning adds more to the beauty of the festival.
Malla K Sundar, cultural activist and Founder Member of the Nepal Bhasha Academy, says that usually in all rituals of different religions, a ritual or prayer is offered to idols of gods or divine power or someone who is in heaven. But this culture signifies worship of the self, because at one point of time in life, it is believed that divinity can be developed in human beings as well.
In the Newar culture, gods are defined in the forms of human beings, like the Kumari and masked lakhey dancers as they believe that they have powers too.
“It’s also about developing a value system and a divine system. The Mha Puja is a kind of a self-evaluation because on that day, a person on his own reviews all the good and bad deeds he has done throughout the year. And he looks forward to starting a new year from that day and this is a very important occasion to mark a new beginning,” concludes Sundar.
The Nepal Sambat is in its 1,134th year this year. There has been a lot of advocacy to have the Nepal Sambat officially restored and to promote it as a national calendar. But its association with an age old tradition like the Mha Puja has helped to keep its significance intact over the years.
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