Janai Purnima: Full Moon Day In Shravon

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepalis call the full moon day of the shravon (July-August) in the Vikram calendar ‘Janai purnima’, as Hindus wearing a sacred triple twine of cotton threads called ‘janai’ change it on this day. This festival is important for both the Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal, as Buddhists celebrate this day revering Buddha at various shrines.

‘Janai’ is a sacred triple twine made out of cotton threads. In the Hindu society of Brahmin, Chhetry, and Nevah a tradition has it that a male coming of age needs to wear a ‘janai’ after the ‘janai’-giving adulthood ceremony performed to the male adults.

Following the Hindu tradition, parents need to hold an adulthood ceremony called ‘upanayan’ to their sons when they come of age. A priest performs rites of giving ‘janai’ to a young man at the time of performing an ‘upanayan’-ceremony. After this ceremony, he needs to wear a ‘janai’ throughout a year. After a year everybody wearing a ‘janai’ changes it on the full moon day in shravon. Therefore, the changing of this sacred twine is a special occasion for Hindu men particularly Brahmins, Chhetries and Nevahs. This is, they do on the full moon day called ‘Janai purnima’: the most auspicious day for replacing the old worn-out ‘janai’ with a new one.

One day before ‘janai’ purnima, all ‘janai’-wearing men perform purification rites such as shaving the head, paring nails, taking a purification dip in the waters of a holy river, eating a single vegetarian meal, and observing celibacy for the night to keep their mind and body clean for a day. The next morning, they usually go to the nearest riverbank where a priest holds a ceremony of replacing old ‘janai’ with a new one and then they wear a new ‘janai’ for a year. Some people change their ‘janai’ at home inviting a family priest to hold religious rites of changing a ‘janai’.

On this day, Brahmin men or women go around with a ball of yellow cotton twine from house to house offering to wind the twine around the wrist. They offer clients to adorn their wrists with the consecrated yellow cotton twine. They recite mantras as they wind the twine around the wrists of their clients. They receive a small payment as a fee for performing the winding of a protective twine around the wrists of men, women and children. Women wear such a protective twine on their left wrists and men on their right whereas children also wear on the left or right wrists following their sex.

Nepalis call this sacred yellow twine ‘rakshka bandhan’ literally meaning wearing a protective twine. Nepalis believe that it protects them from evil spirits. They wear it until the day called Laxmi Puja means making offerings to Goddess of Wealth called Laxmi celebrated about three months later. On this day, they perform worship to cows, and they take off the worn-out ‘rakshka bandhan’ and wind it around a tail of a cow. This is done in the belief that the souls of humans after death need to cross a spiritual river called ‘Baitarnai’ that tests the vices and virtues of dead persons. They hold the tail of a spiritual cow and cross the river with ease and move on to ‘Yama loka’ means the world of dead persons.

In the Hindu society, a cow represents the Goddess of Wealth. Hindus have set the tradition of worshipping a cow from the time when their economy has depended on a number of cows they own. At that time people assessed their wealth in a number of cows they possessed. So, some people called it the period of livestock economy. Since, then Hindus have stopped killing cows for meat making the cows the Goddess of Wealth.

People visit ‘Gosain kunda’ a holy place at about 14,300 ft located at one of the Himalayan Range called Ganesh Himal to the north of Kathmandu. Nepalis and other Hindu pilgrims visit this area to take a dip in the ice-cold holy waters of six main holy lakes called Ganesh Kunda, Surya Kunda, Sarasvoti Kunda, Gosain Kunda, Bhairava Kunda, and Naga kunda on or before the day of ‘janai purnima’. They do so not only to wash off the dirt from the bodies but also the sins from their minds. People believe that everyone visiting the area gets the vision of Lord Shiva in a different form reflecting from the water of these lakes. Some Hindus changes their ‘janai’ there.

Nevahs believe that husbands together with wives should not go to the Gosain kunda because they might lose their wives on the way. Once it so happened that a man lost his wife on the way to Gosain kunda. Concerning this tragic event, Nevahs sing a song called ‘silu-may’ describing the wife’s insistence on going with her husband to Gosain kunda and the husband losing her, as the local lord kidnaps her for her beauty. This song is only for singing in this month.

Tamang ’Jhankris’ visit Gosain kunda dancing in the tune of a hand drum they play. Everyone carries a circular hand drum set on a handle in a left hand and the right holding a stick plays the drum. Upon return from Gosain kunda they visit Kumbheswore Mahadev in Patan on the day of ‘janai purnima’ to complete their religious journey to Gosain kunda. They believe that Kumbheswore has a direct link with Gosain kunda and the Gosain kunda is the source of water for the water spring at Kumbheswore but recently it has gone dry.

People from the surrounding areas and Hindu pilgrims from the neighboring countries and from within the country visit Muktinath at about 13, 000 ft in the Mustang District on the day of ‘janai purnima’. Devotees take a shower from the 108 waterspouts set on the three sides of the temple to Lord Muktinath. Thereafter, everyone takes a dip in turn in the two ponds in front of the temple. Then, they make offerings to Lord Muktinath. ‘Janai’-wearing Hindu men change it there on this day. Muktinath is Lord Shiva for saivities, Lord Vishnu for Vaisnavis, and Avaloketesvor for Buddhists.

Gurungs living in the Manag district and the surrounding areas have a tradition of taking their sisters and daughters to Muktinath for purification rituals on this full moon day when they reach the marriageable age. They perform special purification rites to their daughters and sisters at Muktinath and the monasteries there to make them eligible for marriage.

This area is also known as Muktichhetra literally meaning the area of liberation from sin. A legend has it that Lord Vishnu has received a curse from Brinda: a spouse of holy man called Jallandhar for seducing her by deceit. So, Lord Vishnu has incarnated in a stone called ammonite getting liberated from the curse Brinda has put on him. Hindus believe that the fool’s gold in the ammonite is Lord Vishnu and the spiral shape of ammonite is the coil of serpents. Thus, ammonite represents Lord Vishnu lying on the coil of serpents.

The night before ‘janai purnima’, people celebrate a special festival of Mahadev at Kumbheswore, Patan. Priests bring out the copper image of ‘Shiva lingam’ and bathe it in the waters of the Kumbheswore pond and then set it at the center of the pond for devotees to make offerings to it. This is a great occasion for devotees of Lord Shiva. So, they gathered there to make offerings to the ‘Shiva lingam’ with five faces of different deities and get blessings from all the deities represented in all the faces. The east face of the ‘Shiva lingam’ represents Lord Vishnu, the south face Lord Bhairava, the west face Lord Som, the north face Lord Buddha and the fifth face turning to the sky Lord Ishan or Yogeswore.

On this occasion, an assembly of nine different musicians belonging to a musical association called  ‘guthi’ play various music at Kumbheswore on this night. All their musical instruments are decorated with gold and silver ornaments. This can be seen at Kumbheswore only on this night. Devotees bathe in the Kumbheswore pond, and then offer worship to Lord Khumbheswore’. The next day, people visit Khumbheswore to worship ‘Shiva lingam’ from dawn to dusk.

Nevah Buddhists celebrate this full moon day in their own way visiting different Buddhist shrines. They celebrate this day as the Gautam Budhhha’s victory over demon called Mara and evil singers of the underworld who attempted to distract him from the meditation. On this day, Buddhists clean off every monastery, caitya and civa and perform Buddha puja on them. They exhibit metallic, wooden and clay idols of Buddha and ancient Buddhist paintings called ‘pauva’, ancient gowns and ornaments, records and books written in golden letters and dedicated to various sects of Buddhism at the Buddhist monasteries in the Kathmandu Valley for seven days.

Nevah Buddhists believe that Svoyambhu Buddha appeared on a lotus grown on the Kathmandu Valley Lake on this full moon day. The current hillock also called Svoyambhu is considered to be a lotus that took roots at the place after Lord Manjusri cut off a piece of the Covar hill making an opening for the water to flow out of the Kathmandu Valley Lake. Therefore, people from the different parts of the Kathmandu Valley visit Svoyambhu to pay homage to Lord Buddha on this day and earlier in the night.

Both Hindus and Buddhists celebrate this full moon day eating a special dish called ‘quati’: a soup prepared from nine different bean sprouts fixed together. People believe that ‘quati’ helps them recover from the stomach upset caused by drinking murky water during the monsoon period.

Every full moon day is an auspicious day for performing various life-cycle rituals and rites. However, the full moon day in shravon is a special day for the ‘janai’-wearing Hindus, as they need to replace the old ‘janai’ with a new one on this day. So, you will see thousands of ‘janai’-wearing Hindus performing the rites of replacing the old ‘janai’ with a new one at Pashupati and on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu and on the banks of other rivers elsewhere in Nepal.

This full moon day is equally important to Buddhists. So, they visit each and every Buddhist shrines and make offerings to Lord Buddha.

July 30, 2009.

Note: ‘janai purnima’ is on August 5, 2009 this year.