The month of Shravan and Garudapanchami

The fourth month of the lunar calendar, Shravan, immediately follows Bheemana Amavasya. When we say Shravan, the thing which comes to our mind immediately is the monsoon. It is during this month that the monsoon starts lashing, first the western coast of the Indian peninsula and gradually extends over the entire Indian subcontinent. And it is during this month that Karnataka celebrates many festivals. The festivals which are celebrated with great enthusiasm are
Garudapanchami
Varamahalakshmi vrath &
Krishna Janmashtami or Gokulashtami .
There are some more festivals such as Mangalagowri Vrath and Shravan Shanivaar - The former is observed by newly married women for the first five years of their marriage on every tuesday in the month of Shravan; the latter is observed by devotees of Thirupathi Balaji on every Saturday in the month of Shravan.

NAGACHAUTHI & GARUDAPANCHAMI

On these two days , snakes are worshipped all over the country with great reverence. Probably, the festival began as a prayer by women to protect their men from snake bites when they worked in the fields. It was an indirect way of protecting wild life too as nobody dared to kill a cobra as it was greatly revered!

One day prior to Garudpanchami , Nagarachauthi is observed. ( Nagarachauthi falls on the 4th day of the month of Shravan and Garudapanchami on the 5th day of Shravan.) On both these days women devotees offer pooja to the Snake god "Nag." They go to anthills where snakes habitually live and decorate the anthills with flowers, garlands made of cotton and smeared with haldi kunkum and then offer milk to snakes. Women who cannot go to anthills do the pooja at home by placing a small idol of the snake(usually a fiveheaded cobra) on a silver plate and offer milk. Or they go to Naga temples and pour milk over stone idols of snakes. Nagara chauthi is mainly observed by the eldest female member of the household, as it is mainly one of fasting and offering prayers to the snake god for the welfare of the family members. This festival symbolises sanctity and devotion.. On this day , salty and cooked food is avoided

On Garudapanchami also women offer prayes to the snake god by offering milk to the snake god. Garudapanchami is more of a celebration . It celebrates brother-sister bonding. Women offer pooja to the snake god and those who go to the anthills bring back a little mud from it and along with the milk they smear it on the back of their brothers and pray for their welfare. Those who do the pooja at home smear a little milk mixed with ghee and pray for their welfare. Unmarried girls offer thier brothers delicacies which are lovingly prepared by their mothers. They offer them gifts too. Married women invite their brothers to their houses and do the same.

The delicacies prepared on the this day: Idlies and dumplings (both sweet and savory).



Sweet dumplings:(Telugu - Kudumulu; Kannada- kadubu; Tamil - koshukkattai)

Ingredients:

Raw rice flour .............. 1 cup
Coconut scrapings............ 1 cup
powdered jaggery............ 1 cup
cardomum powder.......... 1/2 tsp
Water .............................. 1 to 1 1/4 cup
oil .......................................1 tbl.sp
a pinch of salt

Boil one and a quarter cup of water. Add to this a pinch of salt and a tsp of oil. When the water starts boiling add the rice flour, cook it stirring all the time making sure that no lumps are formed. Keep aside and cover it with a wet cloth.

Mix jaggery and the coconut scrapings in a pan adding a little water. Heat this mixture on a low fire stirring the mixture till the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan. Immediately remove it from the fire and add cardomum powder and mix thoroughly and allow it to cool.

Now knead the rice dough well till it is smooth. Make them into small balls by applying oil to the palm. Take a plastic sheet, smear it with oil and place the small rice ball and start spreading it with oiled fingers into a full moon shape. Take half a tsp. of the coconut filling and put it in the center of the wrapping . Fold it into a half moon shape so that the the filling is completely covered and seal the edges. Remove it out from the plastic sheet. Prepare all dumplings similarly and steam cook them on a greased plate in a pressure cooker without the weight.


Savory Dumplings:
Ingredients:
The preparation of wrappings for this is similar to that of sweet dumplings.
There are two methods for making the filling. Method I is by making use of Idli flour. Method II is by soaking Urad dal.

Method I:

Ingredients:
Idli flour ........................................... 1 cup
Soaked chana dal(chick pea dal)..... 1/4 cup
Green chillies (cut into pieces).........4 or 5
chopped Coriander leaves ................1/4 cup
curry leaves .......................................1 sprig
ginger root(scraped)..........................2 tsps
raw coconut cut into fine pieces....... 2 tbl.sps
coarsely powdered black pepper.......1 tsp
Salt to taste

Mix all the above ingredients. Make the wrappings as for the sweet dumplings. Put a teaspoonful of the savory filling and fold the wrapping. Prpare the rest of the dumplings in a similar way. Steam cook them in a pressure cooker without using the weight.

Method II:
Ingredients:
Urad dal ........... 1 cup
Red chillies............6
Curry leaves.........2 sprigs
oil............................1/4 cup
hing(asafoetida)....1/2 tsp
a pinch of turmeric powder
salt to taste.
Soak the dal in water for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes drain the water completely. Grind the dal coarsely along with red chillies without adding water. Steam this coarse paste for 20 minutes. Allow the steamed paste to cool and then mash it well so that there are no lumps. Heat the oil in a pan, splutter the mustard seeds; to this add the hing, turmeric powder and curry leaves . Add the prepared dal mixture and salt and mix it thouroughly. Prpare the wrappings as described earlier and fill them with this mixture and steam.

The year Sarvajeet

The Hindu calendar (both solar and lunar) has a cycle of 60 years starting from Prabhava. The current year is called Sarvajeet which started on the 19th March 2007. So the birth year is repeated when a person completes his or her 60th year. The year Sarvajeet has 13 months just asa leap year has 29 days in February. In this case it is an entire month which is extra. This happens once in three years and it is unique to only the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is shorter than the solar calendar by 8 to 10 days. In India, both solar and lunar calendars are in use and the unique feature of the Hindu lunar calendar is that it does not lag behind the solar calendar (as in the case of Muslim calendar) though it is shorter by 8 to 10 days. This is because the days are put together once in three years and made into an extra month. In the English calendar it is only February which has one extra day in the leap year. But in the lunar calendar, different months have an extra month. For instance, in the year Sarvajeet it is the third month which has the extra month. It is called Adhika Jyeshta. The real Jyeshta follows the Adhika Jyeshta. By doing this, both the solar and the lunar calendars go hand in hand. The festivals also keep moving forward and backward in successive years. The Lunar new years' day was on 19th March 2007. Next year it will fall on 7th April, 2008. So the year Sarvajeet has 284 day.



Now getting back to our original topic of FESTIVALS AND RECIPES, there appears to bea lull in the festivities after Ramanavami. This lull continues till the end of the month of Ashada - the 4th month of the lunar calendar. But the period upto the onset of Ashada is considered very auspicious for celebrating weddings and upanayanams(Thread ceremony). In South India most of the weddings and upanayanams are celebrated during these months. The month of Ashada is considered inauspicious for conducting weddings and upanayanams. The last day of the month of Ashada heralds the beginning of the festival season in South India - especially Karnataka.