Rajja Sourav Singh Sarmal
Lohri is one of the major festivals of the Dogras. It is commonly believed that this festival has its origin from Punjab and is limited to the story of Dulla Bhatti, with a history of only a few hundred years. However, the origin of Lohri goes back further than that and it’s roots connect it to Dogras. On Lohri, people eat sweets and dry fruits such as mangphuli, gachak, ryori, jaggery, dates, songi, chhuare etc. and distribute them among relatives and friends. If someone has a new marriage or a child whose first Lohri it is, their family members in the whole village distribute above-mentioned stuff.
Lohri Special
The history of Lohri can be related to the Mahabharata period, when Arjuna attacked the area of today’s Kishtwar. It is said that at that time, Lohit Nag, expecting help from Devraj Indra and other gods, ignited a huge fire on the last night of the month of Paush but there is another reason behind the celebration of this day as a festival. It was the Shastri/Dogra Samvat year 1087, approximately 4211 years ago, when King Brahma Prakash was on the throne of Jambu (Jammu). He was entitled to the great title of Durgareshwar because of his bravery and love for his people. However, his reign saw many ups and downs. In that year, a strange situation arose where, due to the combination of seven planets in Cancer, there was a lot of upheaval in the world, and in many places, sunlight almost disappeared. Due to incessant rains, the crops were damaged, and there was loss of life and property. The winters in Poush became so harsh that they became unbearable for the people. In order to mitigate this, people expressed their humility to all the stars and planets by lighting a fire and prayed to Dev Raj Indra and Surya Dev to not punish them any further.
On the last day of Sagittarius, which happened at the end of the month of Pausha, Dogras under the command of their Durgareshwar, lit a great and huge fire and, with the help of Jogi-Chelas, they awakened the gods and conveyed their message to Indra Dev and Surya Dev. On this day, the Dogras made an offering (Tricholi) of jaggery, rice, sesame etc. to Agni Dev and with the effect of which as the month of Magha progressed, Surya Dev showed his grace and relieved the people from severe cold and Indra Dev also gave rain.
From that day on, it became a custom that the last day of Paush would be celebrated as a festival every year so that they would never have to be deprived of the grace of Indra Dev and Surya Dev. Lohri, literally meaning “to light up,” tells the whole event of its history.This festival later spread to other places associated with the Dogras, such as Punjab and Sindh. It reached these areas because of Raja Jam Prakash, the son of Brahma Prakash, who was a very strong warrior and had taken these areas under his control. His influence was such that whoever ruled Sindh for a long time used his title ‘Jam’ and there Lohri was called Lal Loi.
King Jam Prakash made one of his sons Sindh Dev the ruler of Thattha Desh (Sindh), while another son Kishore Indra was made the ruler of Durgar Desh.Lohri in Jammu has special significance because of notable traditions associated with it. It includes Chajja making, in which a replica of peacock (Chajja) is prepared.
This replica is then carried by young men, going from one house to other for Lohri’s Salaami. Other noteworthy act is special Hiran Dance, during which the narration of valor of Dogra warriors like Rana Guggu and his associates Jattu-Pattu is main centre of focus. In hilly regions of Duggar, Kud dance is performed and special rituals related to Devtas are executed.The Festival whose origin is linked to Dogras is always seen as imported festival to Dogra Land which is surely the thing of great concern for all of us because it’s a indication that we are unable to protect our cultural heritage. We accept that, in many stages we have the common cultural knots but the base can’t be ignored. Happy Lohri to all the readers!
(The author is a Free-spirited Researcher in the history of Jammu Kashmir and it’s Allied territories.)
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