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Over to the fan following
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Fans, laddoos, horses, R.V. Smith reminisces about what all is on offer in shrines
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People trying to fall asleep on the terrace on a summer night strain their ears in disbelief as the sound of music comes faintly at first and then in a cadence. Some rush downstairs, others lean on the parapet. A pankha is being taken to the distant shrine and the music makers are the qawwals.
Many are aware of the pankhas offered at Mehrauli during the annual Phool Waalon-ki-Sair but the offering of pankhas at the dargah of Shah Abul Ullan at Agra is peculiar to that city. In the Delhi of the 1960s one sometimes did see pankhas being offered at various shrines. A procession usually accompanied them from Suiwalan, starting from near Kamara Bangash, opposite which the shrine of a pir is situated. There's a tree growing right in the courtyard of a house and underneath a grave covered with a green cloth. Women generally come to this place in ones or twos and sometimes in a group too, but that's during the afternoon when their chores are done and they are free to spend a little time by themselves.
But the pankha is usually taken out in the evenings, passing by Matia Mahal and the Jama Masjid crossing, then down the steps of the Mina Bazaar to the dargah of Hazrat Kalimullah-rarely to Bhure Mian's grave across the road situated on a mound under the walls of the Red Fort. But pankhas are offered at the Mare-Bhare shrine too.
Peculiar practice
One doesn't see so many pankhas being taken out now. But one practice peculiar in the Jama Masjid area is `ghode charhana'. This is a strange sight, for on a caparisoned horse (mostly a mare) sits not a bridegroom but a child, who is taken right up to the steps of the Jama Masjid and then back home. Ghode charhana is an act of thanksgiving by the family of the child for some divine favour.
It may be recovery from an illness, a miraculous escape or the culmination of the circumcision ceremony a month or so after the operation, when the boy is completely cured. Or it could be the attainment of the age of five by a child prone to sickness in infancy. There could also be other reasons for the ghode charhana - like prayers for long life and also success in some venture. But sad to say these rituals are fast losing popularity because of the changing social mores and the loosening hold of tradition.
In this context one would like to mention the washing of laddoos on a dauna (leaf plate) at a crossing . In this a woman comes with a dauna, places it in the middle of the road and the bhishti (water-carrier) following her empties his mashak on the dauna. But this is a Hindu practice and one can only get to see it at the rear of the Jama Masjid, where a sizable number of non-Muslims live. What happens to the laddoos? The street dogs come and eat them and thus take on themselves all the woes of a sick child.
But coming back to the pankha ceremony, it started losing popularity after 1947. But some do still observe it. The offering is in perpetuation of a vow - a marriage, the birth of a child, recovery from illness, employment and various other reasons.
Hardly a fan
The pankha is hardly a fan. It is more in the shape of a small doli, decorated with curtains and a vase in the centre with joss sticks burning. The one who is offering the pankha is among the procession of friends, relatives, acquaintances and others who join out of fellow feeling, devotion to ritual or just for the fun of it.
Women peep from behind curtains, chicks or half-closed doors, while the indiscreet stare at the unveiled faces, trying to catch a glimpse. Meanwhile, the pankha procession reaches the shrine. Gone are the unveiled faces and gone is the hustle-bustle of the bazaar. The place is a serene setting of faith as the pankha is solemnly offered. The trappings, the doli is returned to the man from whom it was hired.
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