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AUGUST, 1928)
THE GAYDANR FESTIVAL IN SHAHABAD
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treat given to the cattle after the completion of their toil in ploughing and harrowing the fields. However, though agricultural seasons largely govern the times for pilgrimages and other rites an. ceremonies, the reasons for their observance exist independently of the seasons recognized as suitable for their performance.
Nowhere, perhaps, is this festival kept with greater zest and thoroughness than in the north of the Shahâbâd district, the land of the Bhojpuris, where the Ahîrs are numerically the strongest caste. I append an English translation of a description of the festival as held in this area, written in Hindî by a resident thereof-a highly educated and orthodox Hindu gentleman in the hope that it may elicit further information as to the occurrence of similar or analogous practices in other parts of India, and perhaps evoke some suggestions as to the origin and significance of the custom.
Translation.
Gokrifā, Gäydäņr or Gäydāph. This festival is observed on the first day of the bright half of Kartik.11 The correct Samskrt name is Gokerird. 12 Under this name the festival is in vogue in all parts of Bhäratavarga; but in Bihar, and particularly in Bhojpur, it is called' gdydanr or gaydásh. Early on that day the annakuţ18 feast is obeer ved, and gobardhan puja 14 is performed. After mid-day, gopujá having been completed, the gokrfrd feast is held, and the gáydánr commences. This festival is kept with great enthusiasm by the GwAlAs or Ahirs. It is generally understood to be a festival peculiar to this caste; but all the Hindos take part in it. At noon on that day cakes made of pulse and rice-milk are eaten. In the GwAlle' houses ordinary sweetmeats (amarpitha) 15 are cooked. About mid-day all the Gwalds, having eaten and drunk plentifully, take big, red, polished sticks and turn out their cows and buffaloes, after gaily bedecking them, each desiring that his cow or buffalo, as the case may be, should look the best. In the way of an exhibition of cows and buffeloes the sight is a very pretty one, and spectators attend in large numbers to look on. After they have assembled on the ground they purchase and bring & pig, and, tying a rope to it, drag it backwards and for wards about the ground, and incite the cows and buffaloes to gore it with their horns. Any cow or buffalo that horns it, is praised, and the owner thereof also is choered. The timid cows do not att the pig, but seeing it, turn tail and run. Then the Gwalas seize hold of these cows ( 4**) and force them to attack tho pig with their horns. Perhaps it is on this account that the name gäydänr has been applied to the festival 16. In short, on this day the Gwalâs make their cattle hunt a pig.
In the end, when the pig is killed, the Gwalas cook its flesh and eat it. They drink liquor and become intoxicated, and sing and play with much morriment. The Gwalas generally keep this festival for a week, and go round singing birhd and loraki. 17 They go to the door of the proprietor of their village and to the houses of other important persons, and play single-stick, leap about and dance, and disport themselves generally. The village proprietor and other big men give them presente.
This feast is observed in almost every district of Bihar, but more particularly in the Shahabad, Gaya, Saran and Champaran districts18. It is essentially a festival of the Ahirs, during which their cows and buffaloes are turned out gaily adorned. In places where Vai pavas are predominant, and at centres of pilgrimage, guch as Ayodhya, Brindaban, Mathura, etc., a dark-coloured blanket is made into the shape of a pig and stuffed with chaft; and this is used for the purposes of the gokrird or gdydanr, as Vainavas abstain from taking life. In many places this practice is followed.
11 The Hindi month of Kartik includes the period from about the middle of October to the middle of November. The bright half is the second half of the month.
13 Gokrirá means "cow sport."
13 A festival kept on the day following the Divalt (which is held on the last day of the dark fortnight of Kärtik.)
14 See Crooke's Rural and Agricultural Glossary, 8. v. Gobardhan parva.
25 Amarpitha literally means "sweetmeat of immortality." Pithd is a well-known sweetmeat.
14 13 here means the spine' or 'backbone ', which is held just above the root of the tail.
17 Birha in the name of a special class of song sung by the cowherd oaste. As the name indicates, it is frequently a love song about "separation." Loraki is a song (or rather an interminable number of songs) about the doings of the famous Ahir hero Lorik.
18 I have sinco received an account of the observance of the festival between Monghyx and Jamalpur. (Monghyr district) on the 1st November 1927, when a pig was killed in the same manner.
