Dear Editor,
Every Guyanese of the present and past generations, especially Hindus, knows that Diwali is a ritual festival of the ancient Indo Aryan Rig Vedic and Adivasi Puranic cultures of Ancient India. The festival was taken to British Guiana by Indian indentured immigrants who arrived in the country between 1838 and 1917. The indentured immigrants knew the festival in their Bhojpuri and or Awadhi Hindi dialects as ‘Deeya Diwali’. However, with the passage of time, and improvement in education the name was varied to Deepavali, Deevali or Diwali.
Language and linguistics notwithstanding, the rituals of the festival were defined by worship of Maha Lakshmi Mattaa, the Supreme Divine Mother Goddess, who as Saraswati is the regal consort of Lord Brahma, the Creator. The rituals were performed by mainly matriarchs, other women and young girls of Hindu families. The festival is essentially a night of worship that begins at 6pm of amawass, (later varied to amawasya) the darkest night of the year, when as Hindu folklore decreed, children, especially boys, born during amawass night were destined to become chores (thieves and/or evildoers) in their mortal journeys in this life.
The indentured immigrant elders, early benefactors of Deeya Diwali, were not unaware of the dynamics of janma (birth); karma (deed/duty), gunnah (intelligence) and swabhaw (civility) in Hindu cosmology, astrology, astronomy, genealogy, heritage and orders of precedence which defined the status of human beings. They were also not unaware of the solar and lunar influences on time and on night and day. They understood the influences of sattvic (spiritual) and tamassic (demonic) qualities that were inherent in men, women and children.
The Indian indentured immigrants were largely of the agrarian, pastoral, artisan, health care, service and environmental classes of workers. However, there were also small visible groups of pandits/pandas (scholars) and ex-Rajput sepoys among them. Some of the pandits and pandas had completed their ecclesiastical studies in Hindu philosophy, history, astrology, astronomy and in Hindi, Sanskrit and civics, as well as karma kaand (puja rituals) at the Universities of Allahabad, Lahore, Benares and Bodh Gaya. In the case of pandas, I should like to reference pages 46, 47 and 48 of Sir Shridath Ramphal’s Book Glimpses of a Global Life (2014).
I personally knew, shared in and benefited from the experiences of some of these pandits, three of whom lived and worked in Buxton, my native village. One was a Sanskrit scholar of Lahore University in Punjab of undivided India. One specialised in astrology (jyotish), at the University of Allahabad and the other was a designated Shastri Pandit of Kashee Vidyapeeth (the Ecclesiastical College of Benares University). There was also, a fourth pandit. He was a Latin scholar. He lived at Mahaicony and was a graduate of Allahabad University.
Deeya Diwali was historically and culturally decreed as an event for amawaas, which was the darkest night of the year. Never did any of the indentured immigrant elders and/or any of these Hindu scholars articulate Deeya Diwali as a festival for a day of pomp, pageantry and extravagant pleasurable displays and expressions of narrow partisan socio-political behaviour.
Diwali pujas were always performed at night starting punctually at 6 pm of amawaas night. They were defined by the flickering lights from the kohar (potter) kiln-made deeyas or hand-made sun-dried deeyas of fresh mud and cow dung that were diligently and piously shaped by mothers and daughters. One of the hand-made sun-dried deeyas, was specially selected as the main deeya for the opening prayer: “Asato maa sadha, gamayah, mrytor maa amritam gamayah” ‒ from darkness on to light, lead us Divine Mother”. It was preceded or followed by “Lakshmi karotoo kaliyanaam, arogyamh sukh sampadam, mam shattroo vinashayeh, deep jyoti, namastutey” ‒ Divine Mother, we pray for contentment and the banishment of evil in and from our homes and in our lives, Salutation to thee, Divine Mother. The ghee for the deeyas was methodically prepared from the cream of pure cow’s milk carefully collected, ripened, skimmed and slowly liquified on a slow fire by grandmothers, mothers or daughters, then cooled and reverently stored for use in amawass and other pujas.
Amawass kajal was often collected in a silver or copper tablespoon or kajrowta (receptacle for kajal) from the soot of lighted flickering puja deeyas and used from time to time for minor ailments; and with mehendi and sindoor as a cosmetic for ceremonial or decorative purposes.
Yours faithfully,
Rampersaud Tiwari
Canada
