[Reader-list] sixth posting

[lalit batra]

Water and its Rituals

Rahiman paani rakhiye bin paani sab soon
Paani gaye na oobre moti, manus, choon

This couplet by Rahim sums up the exalted and sacred place given to water
in the consciousness of a huge mass of Indian people, especially those
having bonds with the countryside where survival, very often, depends on
the vagaries of that unpredictable god named monsoon. If you doubt the
wisdom of the poet then hear what Shakuntala, a poor middle-aged woman,
living in the resettlement colony of Bhalaswa has to say, “It is very
important to worship water as it is the purest substance available”. This
is thus the basis for an entire edifice of religious-cultural practices
having water as its centre. But does this centrality continue when people
migrate from rural areas to a mega polis like Delhi where the water bodies
that they worshipped aren’t to be seen? 
First let us look at some of the practices and rituals that, as my
respondents recounted, are prevalent in their native villages. Since most
of my respondents were women the practices that they talked about related
to marriage and childbirth. Some of the typical practices that I came
across are as follows:  
·	Kamla, a woman in her early 40s, living in Gautam Puri, Molarband, is
originally from Faizabad, U.P. She told me that in their area, before the
marriage ceremony the groom is carried in his maternal uncle’s lap who
circles the well five times. Stopping each time to let the groom tip into
the well an oil lamp made of atta. 
·	In Faizabad women are not allowed to draw water from the well or touch
household utensils for forty-five days after nativity. After this period
she resumes its usage by a ritual conducted at dawn when she places a
handful of mustard seeds on the parapet of the well and draws out a lota
full of water.  
·	Shakuntala, originally from Badayun, U.P., but presently living in
Bhalaswa says that before digging a pond the spade is anointed and a puja
is performed in honour of the elephant god Ganesha.
·	Renu is from Nalanda. She says that the well and the village pond are of
great salience on different auspicious occasions in rural life. At the
time of a wedding, women go to both wells and ponds fill water in their
pots and sing songs. 
·	The mundan ceremony for small children, involving the tonsuring of heads
is more often than not performed at the village pond. 
·	At the birth of a male child, women apply a tilak of rice grains and
vermillion on the well. They return home after having drawn and poured
away five buckets of water from it.
Thus we see that there is a whole range of life cycle rituals centred
around water. I asked my respondents whether they continue indulging in
these practices in the slums and resettlement colonies they live in Delhi.
If yes, then how do they do it? The answer that I got was that all of
these practices continue but in slightly modified forms. Hand pumps and
taps have now taken the place, which was earlier occupied by wells and
ponds. But this is, of course, not without a sense of loss as the obvious
fact of water being a cause of many diseases in these settlements
discourages people, to an extent, to treat handpump and tap water as
sacred enough. Also, there are many people who even now go back to their
native villages on all the important occasions. Renu’s family, when she
was in village, used to do Chath Puja at the village. Now they go to
Jamunaji for the same.   


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