Bhai Tika: Brother Worship

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On the last day of the festival called Tihar, sisters perform the worship of brothers. It is called ‘bhai tika’ means ‘brother worship’. Tihar is the five-day festival. We honor crows on the first day, and then dogs on the second day and cows on the third day and bullocks on the fourth day and finally, sisters honor brothers on the last day.

We make offerings to crows to keep them happy for a year for not bringing any bad news. We believe that a crow is the messenger of Yama Raj. We believe that Yama Raj keeps the record of human-life span and vices and virtues humans have earned doing good and bad things while they are in the human world. We also believe that Chitragupta: assistant of Yama Raj comes to a newborn child after four days of birth and writes the destiny of a child, and also its life span, too. So, Yama Raj and his assistant Chitragupta have records of every human and when the lifespan of a human comes to an end on earth, Yama Raj sends the message from the records to the human through a crow, and then sends the messengers to collect the soul of the human whose lifespan in the human world has ended.

We make offerings to dogs on the second day also to keep them happy, as we believe that the dogs guard the entrance to the world of Yama Raj. We honor dogs so that the dogs guarding the entrance to the world of Yama Raj would let the souls of dead people enter the Yama’s world without hindrance. We believe that souls of dead humans if cannot enter the world of Yama Raj, hang out in the cosmos causing distress to them. So, we need to make sure that our souls enter the world of Yama Raj.

On the third day, we make offerings to cows. For Hindus, cows are synonymous with the Goddess of Wealth called Laxmi. There was a time when Hindus counted their wealth in term of a number of cows they possessed. So, they called cows the Goddess of Wealth. They live on the cows’ milk and other items made out of cows’ milk. So, cows have become mothers for them.

On the fourth day, we honor bullocks appreciating their contribution to the transport and agriculture. South Asian Hindus have used bullocks for plowing agricultural land and transporting agricultural products to their homes and markets, too. So, we appreciate them once a year on the fourth day of the five-day festival of ‘Tihar’.

On the fifth day, sisters perform worship to their brothers. Different communities and ethnic groups make offerings to brothers slightly differently but the main objective is to wish good luck and a long life to brothers. A few things such as grapefruit, a never drying flower called ‘makhamali’, another fruit called ‘katush’ (hazel nut), and a hard walnut are essential. They represent a beautiful and long lasting life. So, sisters offer these things to brothers wishing them to be as nice and fragrant as grapefruit, beautiful and never drying as ‘makhamali’, as healthy and never drying as ‘katush’ and as hard as a walnut. Brothers in turn present sisters with gifts or cash.

A tradition has it that women sing ‘bhailo’ songs at the doors to houses for collecting some money for buying various items needed for the ‘brother worship’. On the evening of the third day of ‘Tihar’ women go from house to house and sing ‘bhailo’ songs at the doors. Songs say why they come there and why they need some money, and urge the house-dweller to give them something. Thus, women collect something from the local community in cash or kinds for performing ‘brother worship’ on the last day of ‘Tihar’.

Similarly, on the evening of the fourth day of ‘Tihar’, men also go from house to house singing ‘deusi’ songs asking for money or something else. ‘Deusi’ songs flatter the house-dweller and attempt on extracting as much money or things from the house-dweller as possible. They use the money for buying gifts or giving cash to their sisters on the day of ‘brother worship’.

A legend has it that while performing ‘brother worship’ the messenger of Yama Raj came to collect the soul of the man going through ‘brother worship’, as the lifetime of the man has expired in the human world. However, a sister performing ‘brother worship’ has requested the messenger to wait until she completes the ‘brother worship’.

The shrewd sister invited the messenger to sit along with the brother and get the honor of ‘brother worship’. The sister did ‘brother worship’ so well to the messenger that he became very pleased with her and asked her anything she wished to have as a gift. The shrewd sister asked the messenger for a long life of her brother. Thus, she saved the life of her brother.

Another story about how the ‘brother worship’ has started is that Yama Raj has five days off, as Lord Vishnu gave the boon of ruling the three worlds for five days to Bali Raja. Lord Vishnu has tricked Bali Raja to go to a lonely dark world for his meritorious act that has shacked the heavenly kingdom of Indra. So, Lord Vishnu has granted him to rule all three Hindu worlds for five days in addition to agreeing on guarding Bali Raja for four months. Yama Raj’s world is one of the three worlds. So, he went to visit his sister, as he has not visited her for a long time.

Seeing brother Yama Raj, the sister became so happy, she did not know how to welcome the brother who has visited after such a long time. So, she did every possible thing to keep her brother Yama Raj happy for five days. On the last day, before going back to his world, Yama Raj made the presentation of a unique gift to his sister in return for her hospitality. We believe that she has set the tradition of ‘brother worship.’

So, we call the five days of ‘Tihar’ as ‘Yama Pancak’ means the five days of Yama Raj. On these five days we do everything possible for keeping Yama Raj happy, as Yama Raj is going to judge our vices and virtues after our death, and treats our souls accordingly. However, Yama Raj does not favor anybody waiving his/her vices rather treat everybody equally based on his/her vices and virtues earned in the worldly lifetime.

October 17, 2009.

Note: ‘Brother worship’ is on October 20, 2009 in this year.