Rtu-Ritu - Ritu Chakra - SPRING: Abundant Earth

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RTA-RITU - An Exhibition on Cosmic Order and Cycle of Seasons

RITU CHAKRA...

SPRING: Abundant Earth

Holi celebration, Vrindavan

We are so much a part of nature, and nature is so much a part of us, that it is impossible for us not to be attuned to her moods and phases. When in spring the earth is resurgent, the blood swirls faster through our bodies, propelled by joyous spring-time momentum. Each fresh crop, each burst of flowers, each replenished river becomes cause for celebration and festivity in the human community across cultures in both hemispheres, even though spring comes to them at opposite times of the year.

Spring dance, Seraikella, Bihar, India

It is fitting that the arrival of spring anywhere in the world is greeted with the wild, mad colours, dancing and intoxicants of the Hindu Holi Festival; by the voluptuous carnivalesque pleasures of the Greek Dionysean festival; by the floral ambience and gaiety of the Christian Easter; by the sheer exuberance of the Sikh Baisakhi; by the gentle lights and camaraderie of the Chinese Lantern festival; by the culinary sweetness and brilliant yellow costume of the Bengali ‘Saraswati Puja’.

One of the few Muslim festivals connected with the solar (rather than the lunar) year is Nawvuz , the Iranian New Year observed on the vernal equinox. Some have attempted to trace its origin to pre-Islamic agricultural feasts in Persia, while the Betakshi order of Sufis in Turkey explain it as Ali’s birthday. For the most part, it is simply that the onset of spring is too universally delightful to withhold expression of spontaneous elation.

The revelry, banners and buntings of Goa’s February carnival give us in the present time a gloriously syncretic image of the plural character of Goan history. Cultural influences were grafted onto each other while Goa remained one, like the face beneath the colorfully painted masks in the community’s annual celebrations. We see the traditional Portuguese costume and missionary architecture, Konkani music and full-blooded coastal dance, the maritime gusto of sailors and the wine-soaked cuisine of the fisher-folk, all brought together in one boisterous salute to the spring.

Trees put forth flowers, waters abound in lotuses, women’s thoughts turn to love, the air is sweetly scented; mornings are pleasant and days delightful; all things are more alluring in springtime, my love.

Kalidasa’s Risamhara 6.2

Drunk on the honey mango blossoms,

the koel rapturously kisses his mate;

the bee, too, hummming among the lotuses,

whispers sweet flatteries to his sweet love.

Kalidasa's Ritusamhara 5.14

"One thing I remember

Spring came on forever,

Spring came on forever,"

Said the Chinese nightingale.

Vachel Lindsay

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,

Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

Zenrin Kushu

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