Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 612

THE PONGUL FESTIVAL
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for regarding it with joy.
One is because the month pre-
ceding the Pongul, which is entirely made up of unlucky
days, has at last passed
the other is because the month
which follows it must invariably consist of lucky days.
During the inauspicious month which preceded the
Pongul, sannyasis, or mendicants l go from door to door
about four o'clock in the morning, waking all sleepers by
beating their gongs, warning them to be on their guard
and to take every precaution against the evil influences
of this unlucky period, by appeasing, by means of prayers
and sacrifices, the god Siva, who presides over it. With
this purpose in view, the women of the house every morn-
ing prepare a small patch about a yard square outside the
door, smearing it with cow-dung, and tracing several white
lines upon it with rice-flour.
They then place within this
square several pellets of cow-dung, each adorned with
a pumpkin flower. I believe these pellets are supposed to
represent Vigneshwara, the god of obstacles, whom they
seek to appease by offering him a bouquet. But I do not
know why it is that the pumpkin flower is chosen in this
case.
Every evening these little balls of cow-dung, together
with their flowers, are carefully collected, to be kept till
the last day of the month. When this day arrives the
women, who alone are charged with this ceremony, put
them into a new basket, and accompanied by musical
instruments and clapping of hands, they solemnly carry
them away beyond the precincts of their dwellings and
throw them into a tank or some other retired but clean
;
,
spot.
The Pongul, or Maha-sankranti. always takes place
during the winter solstice, the period when the sun, having
finished its course towards the southern hemisphere, turns
to the north again and comes back to visit the people of
India.
The feast lasts three days the first is called
Bhoghi- pongul (Pongul of joy).
On this day visits are
;
exchanged between relatives and friends, who make presents
and give entertainments to each other the day passes in
diversions and amusements of all sorts.
The second day is called Surya-pongul (Pongul of the
;
1
These are pandarams, not sannyasis.
— Ed.