People have been coming to the streets supporting Anna Hazare. But this Monday evening people will be on roads in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi for a different reason. It is to celebrate “Mosaru Kudike” festival on the occasion of Sri Krishna Janmashtami.
“Mosaru Kudike” is called “Vittal Pindi” in Karnataka and “Dahi Handi” in North India, and is celebrated in different parts of the country.
The “Dahi Handi' has drawn the attention of the Maharashtra government which has decided to patronise it. Maharashtra's Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal announced at a press conference in Mumbai on Friday that the government will support, promote, and publicise “Dahi Handi” festival from this year onwards. Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will promote it as “The Govinda Festival” to attract tourists.
The Minister went on record that it will be promoted at the national and international level as a part of Maharashtra's cultural heritage.
According to H.K. Sureshacharya, Principal, Sri Madhwasiddantha Prabodhini Sanskrit College, Mosaru Kudike festival in Udupi has a history of 775 years. It is observed in Mathura, Brindavan, and Dwaraka.
A. Suresh Babu, president, Sarvajanika Sri Krisna Jayanthyutsava Samithi, Attavar, Mangalore, says the event in Attavar is more than a century old. It observed the centenary year of the festival in 2009. The samiti is celebrating its 102nd festival on Monday. Mr. Sureshacharya says Mosaru Kudike is nothing but demonstrating and imitating naughty actions of the then young Krishna and his young gopalaka friends. They were said to have sneaked into homes in Gokul like thieves to drink milk and curd. Unable to bear them, women hung the pots in the ceiling. He says Lord Krishna was born at midnight.
Hence Mosaru Kudike is observed the next evening to celebrate his birth by imitating the actions of Lord Krishna and gopalakas. But it has got a philosophical meaning, says G.N. Bhat, a Sanskrit scholar and Principal, Canara College, Mangalore. Mr. Bhat says the pot represents a body which is made of pancha mahabhutas (five gross elements). Curd or butter inside the pot represents atma or soul. If a seeker wants to achieve self-realisation to attain atmananda, he or she has to learn to break the shackles of these five elements.
Mr. Sureshacharya says forming human pyramids to break pots hung on long wooden bars or ropes is a recent development. In olden days, those who wanted to break the pots used to dress as gopalakas. Now this vesha has disappeared.
