Bala-Chaturdasi: The Day of Sprinkling Seven Cereal Seeds

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepalis believe that souls of humans after death travel for a year before reaching their final destination called the world of the dead often dubbed as Yampuri, where Lord Yama Raj rules and judges them on the basis of their worldly deeds done in the real human world. A popular belief is that sons, daughters and spouse ease the journey of the departed soul performing various religious rites during the year the soul travels.

One such ritual performed on the fourteenth day (Bala-chaturdasi) of the dark fortnight of the month called Mangsir in the Vikram calendar is the sprinkling of seven cereal seeds. On this day called Bala-chaturdasi, sons, daughters and spouse go to the nearest holy shrine to Lord Shiva and sprinkle seven cereal seeds such as rice, wheat, corn, barley, sesame and beans altogether called sat-bij in the name of the deceased person once in the first year after the death. They believe that by doing so they help the souls of their loved-ones to rest in peace.

Lord Yama Raj’s Minister called Chitragupta keeps the records of all humans from their birth to death. When a person’s term in the human world comes to an end, Chitragupta informs Lord Yama Raj, who in turn orders his messengers to bring the person from the Hindu world to his world called Yampuri. Lord Yama’s messengers come to the human world, and pick up the soul leaving the physical body behind causing the death of the person.

Hindu Nepalis believe that these messengers take the soul through many hurdles such as thorny trails, and fiery treks, and let it cross the dreadful river called Baitarni on the way to the world of Yama Raj. In order to ease the difficult travel of the departed soul on the way to the world of Lord Yama Raj, sons, daughters and spouse perform various religious rituals during one-year travel period when the soul of a person after the death supposed to be traveling to Yampuri.

A religious fair is held in the Shlesmantak forest for a night and a day. People from different parts of the Kathmandu Valley come to the holy forest called Shlesmantak in the Pashupati area in Kathmandu one day before Bala-chaturdasi, and spend a night there for performing rituals of sprinkling sat-bij next day. People usually light a torch made of a reed staff wrapped in cotton soaked in mustard seed oil, and keep awake the whole night chanting hymns, singing devotional songs, and praying for the peace of the departed souls. Some other people make bonfires. Someone plays a small drum called ‘madal’. Other people sing and dance to spend the night merrily. Keeping the whole night awoke is the part of the religious rites. Vendors put up tents to build makeshift eating-and-drinking places for serving food and drinks to pilgrims.

On the eve of Bala-chaturdasi, priests perform a purification ritual called “Mahasnan” means a special bath to the lingam (phallus) popularly known as the Pashupati in the inner sanctum of the temple in Kathmandu. They use five holy items such as yogurt, milk, ghee (home-made butter), and honey and sugar syrup in addition to water for a special bath. These five items together are called “panchamrita.” They keep all these five items in separate five earthen bowls. First, priests wash the lingam with water, and dry it with a piece of clean linen. Thereafter, the chief priest pours a bowl of one item after another on the lingam. Then, he dries the lingam with a piece of linen. All these items flowing from the lingam are collected in a container, and distributed to devotees as the blessed item and the blessing from Lord Pashupati.

After the holy bath they decorate the lingam with silver ornaments. Thereafter, they make religious offerings to the lingam. People believe that the silver ornaments were originally made of the bones of Balasur – the demon after whom this festival is called Bala-chaturdasi.

Next day, pilgrims sprinkle sat-bij. First, they take a dip in the holy water of the Bagmati River to purify their body early in the morning. Then, they make offerings to Lord Pashupati. From there, they go to Kailash sprinkling sat-bij on the way, and make offerings to Lord Shiva there. From there, they move on to Suryaghat, Gaurighat, Aryaghat, Guheswori, Mrigasthali, Bisworup, and Kirantiswori. At each site, devotees worship the deity. People believe that all thirty-three koti (33,333) deities come to the Shlesmantak forest to accept offerings on this day. So, pilgrims have a chance of making offerings to all Hindu divinities in the names of the departed people.

Some pilgrims believe that they can send messages to the souls of their departed loved-ones through the elephant-headed god called Ganesh at Mrigasthali, Kathmandu. So, they shake the stone idol of Lord Ganesh to wake him up and then shout the messages to the souls of the deceased relatives in the ears of the idol. Lord Ganesh serves as the messenger of the pilgrims on this day.

A legend has it that a man called Balananda used to guard the crematory at Aryaghat. One day, it so happened that the head of a burning dead body blew up causing to spread out the splinters of the brain all over the area, and one piece landed in his lunch box without his notice. He ate it unknowingly, and found it tasty. Next time, he stole a piece of human flesh from the crematory for his lunch. In this way, he developed a taste for human flesh and was addicted to it. Later on, he even assaulted the undertakers, and took the dead body for his meals. He became known as a demon called Balasur. He grew so strong that nobody dared to challenge him. So, undertakers had to give him the dead body they took for cremation. Relatives of the dead could not perform death rites, and became afraid of the soul of their dead loved-one would not rest in peace without the proper death rituals and rites performed. They therefore went to the king to complain about it, and demanded the king to get rid of Balasur- the demon.

Nobody dared to kill the demon. Finally, they found the demon’s childhood friend who agreed to assist them in eliminating him by a trick. They prepared a huge delicious meat dish and a jar of liquor for the demon. Then, the friend went to see the demon with the delicious food and drink. The unsuspicious demon was happy to see his childhood friend and gladly accepted the food and the drink he offered to him. As the demon ate and drank, he got tipsy. Then, the people killed him.

However, the friend of Balasur felt guilty of betraying the demon. Therefore, he went on meditating on Lord Shiva in atonement for a betrayal of friendship. In due course of time, Lord Shiva was pleased with him and appeared before him, and asked him what he has in his mind, and said to him that the lord would meet his wishes. Joining palms together at his chest in the gesture of saluting Lord Shiva, the man explained to Lord Shiva what he did to the demon, and he wanted to free the demon’s soul from his past evil deeds. Lord Shiva told the man to make ornaments from the bones of the dead demon and decorate the phallus representing Lord Pashupati with those ornaments, and perform special offerings to the lord on the eve of the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight in the month of Mangsir in the Vikram calendar, and sprinkle sat-bij all over Shlesmantak forest the next day. The friend of Balasur did what Lord Shiva told him to do to emancipate the soul of the dead demon from sufferings. Thereafter, Balasur’s soul rested in peace. People believe that Nepalis have set the tradition of sprinkling sat-bij since then.

Nepalis believe that the souls of dead people rest in peace if the sons, daughter and the spouse perform the sprinkling of sat-bij on the premises of the temple to Lord Shiva on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight in the month called Mangsir in the Vikram calendar. So, sons, daughters and spouse of dead person flocked to the premises of the temple to Lord Shiva all over Nepal on this day to sprinkle sat-bij and ease the souls of their dead loved-ones.

This year (2007) the day of sprinkling sat-bij falls on Saturday, December 08 in the Gregorian calendar.