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The abiding spirit of Janmashtami

What was Janmashtami like in the days of yore? R.V. SMITH takes us back to the Shah Jahan era, the time when the celebrations in Old Delhi are said to have begun

This past week, the nation took time off to pay obeisance to Lord Krishna but few cared to remember that Janmashtami celebrations in Old Delhi date back to the time of Shah Jahan. When the emperor built his new city he consulted astrologers and, while laying the foundations of the Red Fort is supposed to have had the bodies of several criminals buried in trenches by way of sacrifice (as dictated by tradition while building a house, temple, palace or fort).

Many of these astrologers had come from Agra with him, along with communities of Kasishtas, Kashmiris, Marwaris and local baniyas. Among them were bullion merchants (sarrafs), moneylenders, traders in cloth, skins, shoes and all other necessities. Many of them settled down in Chandni Chowk and nearby areas.

Right from 1639, when the foundations of the fort began to be laid, to the time of its completion and then the building of Shahjahanabad, the exodus to Delhi continued, not only from Agra but also from Lahore and Rajputana. With the Jama Masjid came up a number of temples too in the mid-17th Century - Shivalas, Devi mandirs and those dedicated to Ram, Krishna, Sita, Hanuman and a host of other deities. Most of them were small, but attracted a lot of devotees who couldn't make it to Jhandewalan and the old Hanuman Mandir at Connaught Place. It was there then that the first Janmashtami celebrations took place with the completion of Shahjahanabad. Blind mendicants, euphemistically called Surdas, came from Mathura and Vrindavan.

Bela's temple in Jhandewalan is said to date back to the time of her father Prithviraj Chauhan in the 12th Century. During Shah Jahan's reign Jhandewalan was outside the city limits and to travel to it at Janmashtami, men and women cane in bullock-carts. They were escorted by cops armed with swords, spears and lathis because gangs of goons were active in the area. They were members of the criminal tribes who thrived on robbery and plunder and abduction of girls and women. If they were caught they were either hanged or suffered amputation of their hands as per the emperor's command.

Blind mendicants

Blind mendicants came all the way from Mathura and Vrindavan - many of them on foot - taking several days to reach the Capital. There were cases when these votaries of Krishna were killed by wild beasts or snakes that infested the jungles in those days during the rainy season. Just compare that scenario with the present one, when it takes just about two hours to reach Mathura for a feel of the real Janmashtami spirit.

There are a large number of Surdases there - blind, poor and homeless - but quite reconciled to their lot and singing praises of the Lord, in whom they trust implicitly, for some of the piety of the celebrated Surdas rubbed on to them by force of association. Their devotion is matched by the cowherds. These are mostly Yadav boys who graze cattle on the mounds that have survived the ravages of time. Who steals the butter now? Most youngsters do, especially the ones who train in the wrestling pit (akhara) surrounded by kikar trees. It adds to their nourishment.Three thousand years is like yesterday for them, and they talk of the birth of the Lord like an event that had just happened in the neighbourhood. Not for them hoary tradition but the living truth of an ever-present Krishna Kanhaiya. So when there's a cloudburst they call out to him, for didn't he save their ancestors from a deluge by lifting up Govardhan hill with his little finger?

As for his beloved Radha, they think she still lives nearby, for Radha-ka-Gaon is only a few kilometres away. The bus takes a turn and you are in Barsana. Some visit it at Janmashtami (five months after Lathmar Holi) and some the day after, when Krishnaji's napkins are symbolically hung up by grandmothers, coloured with a dab of turmeric paste. And sure enough it rains that day so that they are washed clean - just as of old. Visit the place and Janmashtami will come alive for you as it never did even for those who first celebrated it in Shahjahanabad.

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