Guest guest Posted January 14, 2003 Report Share Posted January 14, 2003 Namah Shivaya, Could anyone tell us something about the significance of pongal? In Amma¹s grace, premarupa Aum Amriteshvaryai Namah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 15, 2003 Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 Yeah, I was wondering about Pongal too, since I keep seeing it mentioned on the south Indian news site I visit for news from Amma's tour. It's a major thing in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. But I hadn't heard anything about Pongal celebrations here, even though there are almost as many Tamil speaking Sri Lankans in Canada as in Sri Lanka! Keval http://www.tamilcanadian.com/festivals/pongal/ PONGAL: The Tamil harvest festival is celebrated with decorated cows, processions and decorative rangoli. Pongal is a sweet porridge made from newly harvested rice and eaten by all, even the animals. The festival is celebrated as the end of winter in other parts of the country and as Makar Sankranti or the Kite Festival in Maharashtra. Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 15, 2003 Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 Namah Shivaya dear Keval, Thanks for the info. you sent. I've been attending American Hindu Association satsangs here and they're celebrating Pongal this Friday and will be talking about it, so I will know more afterwards, but wanted to learn a little more beforehand if possible. Will let you know if any decorated cows show up for the pooja In Amma's grace, premarupa Aum Amriteshvaryai Namah > Yeah, I was wondering about Pongal too, since I keep > seeing it mentioned on the south Indian news site I > visit for news from Amma's tour. It's a major thing > in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. But I hadn't heard > anything about Pongal celebrations here, even though > there are almost as many Tamil speaking Sri Lankans in > Canada as in Sri Lanka! > > Keval > > > http://www.tamilcanadian.com/festivals/pongal/ > > PONGAL: The Tamil harvest festival is celebrated with > decorated cows, processions and decorative rangoli. > Pongal is a sweet porridge made from newly harvested > rice and eaten by all, even the animals. The festival > is celebrated as the end of winter in other parts of > the country and as Makar Sankranti or the Kite > Festival in Maharashtra. > > > > > > > Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus. > > Aum Amriteswarayai Namaha! > > Ammachi > > > Your use of is subject to > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 15, 2003 Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 Pongal is celebrated during the harvest season. It is known with different names in different parts of India. Sankrati in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh etc. It is known as Baisaki in Punjab(northen India). Basically it is all celebrated due to the commencement of Spring season, which is known as Vasant or Basant(in bengali). To summarise it signifies celebration of prosperity, greenery etc. Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 16, 2003 Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 Maybe I am mistaken, but does Pongal not have something to do with harvesting time? Baisaki (celebrated in the Punjab) is the New Year for the Punjabis (just like Vishu is celebrated in Kerala). And both of these come about in April, unlike Pongal which is celebrated in Tamil Nadu in the month of January. Does it not strike you as odd that 'spring' commences in different months in different states in India? I tend to think all these festivals are not necessarily equivalent and are not necessarily for the same reason. Pongal / Gudi Padva (aka Sankranti) are a celebration of the good harvesting season (hence cows are decorated because agriculture in India is maily manual, i.e. crops are reaped using cows etc), wheras Baisakhi and Vishu are the celebration of a New Year ( New Year is decided according to the culture's calendar). The again Onam (Kerala's famous festival in September with boat-races etc) is supposed to be a harvest festival. Harvesting in September? when the monsoons are at their peak? All the festivals in India are too confusing for me... I have never really kept track of them... but common sense tells me not to club them all together. Jai Ma! Ammachi, avinash ramidi <avinash7_99> wrote: > > Pongal is celebrated during the harvest season. It is > known with different names in different parts of > India. Sankrati in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh etc. It > is known as Baisaki in Punjab(northen India). > > Basically it is all celebrated due to the commencement > of Spring season, which is known as Vasant or > Basant(in bengali). > > To summarise it signifies celebration of prosperity, > greenery etc. > > > > Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Then theres that OTHER festival, having nothing to do with Sankranti or harvest, also with a similar name. Ive heard it called Pongala, also spelled Ponkala. It is a goddess festival celebrated only by women and is a HUGE festival in Trivandrum where it has emanated from the Attukal Temple. Tens of thousands of women of all castes and religions gather to cook pongala for Bhagavati often in thanksgiving for blessings received for their families the previous year. The festival is said to have developed form a story about Kannaki, heroine in Prince Ilango Adigal's SHILAPPADIKARAM. Even though the story was written by a Prince in Tamil, it is well known and loved in Kerala. The princely author loved Carnatic music so there are lots of references to music therein as well as luscious poetry. Kannaki was married to Kovalan and they are described as a nearly perfect couple. Kovalan, however, is fascinated by a beautiful dancing girl (opportunity for music, dance, etc. in the story telling) and gets invovled in a long affair away from his new wife. When he returns to her, filled with remorse, she forgives him. Meanwhile he has spent al the money with which he would have cared for his wife. Kannaki gave him one of her anklets to sell along the way to finance his search. Along the way he is captured and falsely accused of stealing the queens anklet which is identical to Kannaki's on the outside. With no trial, Kovalan is executed for the crime. When Kannaki hears of this, she gains audience with the king, proves to him that her husband was innocent (queen's anklet and her anklet are filled with different jewels), curses the king and kingdom for this injustice. She is so consumed with angewr that she wrecks great havoc and destruction wherever she goes even injuring herself. Somewhere along the way, she is visited by a being who tells her that she will become the Goddess. I'm not sure at what point exactly she becomes divine. The King I think was in Madurai. By the time she gets to what is now Trivandrum, Kannaki is exhausted by her long expression of anger. She is hungry too. A very poor woman who would have been considered untouchable in those days sees Kannaki and takes pity on her. She doesn't have fancy food but she makes pongala, a simple rice porridge with raisins, cardamom, coconut milk and jaggery (whole sugar) for Kannaki, who by then is the Goddess. (It can have other ingredients too like cashews). Kannaki proclaims, the Goddess is so happy with this simple woman's generosity that she proclaims that pongala is her favorite food and should always be cooked for her. So the tens of thousands of women come to cook pots of this dish on the feast of Pongala. They fill the city of Trivandrum. Somewhere I have a picture of MKG Road, the main road, completely full of women cooking pongala. Ill try to find some photos and post them in t he Photos section. I have never heard of anyone here in the US celebrating this festival. That doesn't count my professor Dianne Jenett from whose dissertation I would share the photographs. If she is completely unable to go to Trivandrum for the festival, she does it at home in Palo Alto, California. Aikya Aikya Ammachi, Kenna <kenna@m...> wrote: > Namah Shivaya, > Could anyone tell us something about the significance of pongal? > In Amma¹s grace, > premarupa > Aum Amriteshvaryai Namah > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 20, 2003 Report Share Posted January 20, 2003 I've been searching the www.newindpress.com site for news of Amma's Coimbatore programs. Didn't find any Amma news on the site today, but I did find this Pongal item... (this is in Tamil Nadu) No nude dance ritual this year at Vellakadai SALEM: The controversial nude dance ritual (Ammana Koothu) performed by tribal women of Vellakadai village in Yercaud as part of Pongal celebrations was not held this year after officials stepped up pressure on the villagers. However the customary pooja, performed two days after Pongal (Karinal) to invoke the blessings of Kalliamman and Mariamman for rain, was held on Sunday in the presence of women police. Keeping with the traditions, men of the village were kept away. A pole was laid on the main entrance of the street to the village and men were not allowed beyond the point. (The villagers believe that if any man sees the ritual, he would be punished severely by the gods.) After the main Kalliamman pooja, the women police on duty told this website's newspaper, "Rituals were done by only women and girls of the village. As per traditions, girls collected ragi roti from all houses. Then the women gathered at a particular spot in the village and kept the ragi roti along with bananas and pooja materials on the ground. Looking skywards, they worshipped Kalliamman." The pooja that was scheduled to be conducted at 9 am was held at 11.30 am. The Kalliamman pooja (in which Ammana koothu is held) is followed by worship at the Marriamman temple situated in the village square. Significantly, men were not allowed even during this ritual on Sunday. The RDO A Mani and the Yercaud tahsildhar visited the village on Saturday and got an undertaking from the villagers that no nude ritual would be conducted. The villagers told the officials that they had discontinued the nude dance ritual as modernism has set in. But they wanted their traditional pooja to be performed at any cost. The pooja was thus allowed with police security. Another notable aspect is that only women police entered the village. Yercaud Inspector Mohan Raj and two constables were on vigil outside. Residents of the neighbouring villages told this correspondent that Vellakadai villagers might hoodwink the officials and perform the nude ritual later. Tribals staunchly stick to traditions and even feel that they would invoke god's wrath if they did not follow age-old practices, they felt. On the other hand, some Vellakadai women said that they felt maligned by the media. The women said that they were much enlightened than their ancestors and had not been practising this ritual since their childhood. Anger and deep resentment writ large on their faces, these women said that they would conduct a fast in protest against the false propaganda. Annadurai (36), president of Vellakadai Panchayat said that the Ammana Koothu was not being conducted the way it was performed earlier. But since the deities were very powerful, men were not allowed during the pooja till date. Salem District Collector Dr Radhakrishnan said that assistance of self help groups would be sought to spread awareness among women. Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.