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By the time the autumn full moon is ready to rise on the dark horizon, Dussera
festivals are over and the eyes of merrymakers are turned towards shops full
of fireworks and sweets for Diwali. Sharad Purnima occurs exactly a fortnight
before Diwali. This is a harvest festival when Laxmi, the goddess of prosperity,
visits all homes to bring fortune and good luck to all people, young and old.
Kojagiri, as this special night is called, is celebrated with ice-cold, saffron-flavoured
sweet milk , shared in the cool moonlight. The full moon night is called Navanna
Purnima or the moonlit night of new food. The newly harvested rice is offered
to the gods and lamps are lit before the full moon.
In many Durga temples, the goddess who has gone to rest after the nine-day war
with Mahishasura, is awakened with music and drumbeats and taken around the temple
in a torchlit procession called chhabma. This particular celebration in the Bhavani
shrine in Chhatrapati Shivaji's templetown of Tuljapur, Maharashtra, is an awe-inspiring
sight. Sharad Purnima brings together two major aspects in the lives of agricultural
people - prosperity promised by good harvests being the result of hard labour,
as well as the seeking of spiritual blessings from a divine power which oversees
all human achievement and endeavour.
