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RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
On the full moon, or Púrnimá, the Ráná goes in state to an open pavilion in the centre of a spacious plain, where he is attended by his chiefs, and passes an hour listening to the Holí songs. The surrounding crowd amuse themselves with throwing the red powder on all within their reach. After this, the Ráńá feasts his chiefs, and presents them with cocoanuts and swords of lath, in burlesque of real swords; "in unison,” Tod observes, “with the character of the day, when war is banished, and the multiplication not the destruction of man is the behest of the goddess who rules the Spring.” At nightfall the forty days conclude with the burning of the Holí, when they light large fires into which various substances as well as the abíra are cast, and around which groups of children are dancing and screaming in the streets. The sports continue till three hours after sunrise, when the people bathe, change their garments, worship and return to the state of sober citizens; and princes and chiefs receive gifts from their domestics.
Amongst the Tamils, or people of Madras and the farther south, the Dolotsava, or Swing Festival, does not occur until about a month later; but on the fifteenth of Phálguna they have a celebration more analogous to the Holí of Hindustan, and which is no doubt a genuine fragment of the primitive institution, the adoration of the personified Spring as the friend and associate of the deity of Love. The festival of the full moon of Phálguna is the Káma-dahanam, the burning of Kámadeva, whose effigy is committed to
