Agra erupts with secular festivities on Basant Panchami

AGRA - The city of Taj woke up to a sunny morning heralding the onset of spring with Basant Panchami festival Tuesday. But Agra had other reasons to celebrate too - the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Radhasoami faith and 18th century poet Mian Nazir Akbarabadi’s birthday.

“The long foggy and cold spell is over, the mood is upbeat and the lull in socio-cultural activities due to the severe winter is now over,” said Surendra Sharma, president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.

Young and old geared up for kite flying sessions, to feed monkeys on the banks of the Yamuna or to visit the Taj Mahal that turns a dazzling white in the soft spring sunshine.

In the Braj area, Basant Panchami signals the start of Holi revelries.

Tuesday also saw the beginning of celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Radhasoami faith. It was started by Huzur Maharaj, who preached secularism.

Hundreds of devotees from the US, Singapore, France and many other countries have gathered here to participate in the celebrations at Dayalbagh, which means ‘Garden of the Merciful’ and has Huzur Maharaj’s ’samadhi’ or memorial.

Dayalbagh, which is the spiritual home of the followers, is a sort of self-reliant and progressive commune founded on Basant Panchami more than 100 years ago. It was decked up with yellow flowers and ‘rangoli’.

“The entire stretch around the mausoleum and the colony looks out of this world with so many flowers and rangolis,” said a devotee from Andhra Pradesh.

Basant Panchami in Dayalbagh in a unique way combines Holi and Diwali. “Homes will be lit up with candles. During the day there will be colours all the way, red, yellow and green. The 150th year of the founding of the Radhasoami faith is a big event, a historic one,” said an organiser.

The day is also the birthday of 18th century poet Mian Nazir Akbarabadi, described as “people’s poet in sharp contrast to Mirza Ghalib and Mir who were patronised by the elite, the sophisticated and cultured citizenry”, said Jitendra Raghvanshi of the Indian People’s Theatre Association.

The modest tomb of Nazir was lit up as admirers queued up to pay homage to the poet, who sang of love and the life of the common man in Agra and gave the city its unique literary identity.

He wrote about ordinary things that touched the hearts of both Muslims and Hindus, like festivals, dance and theatre, bird fights and kite-flying. Nazir looked at the follies of the royalty with disdain but sang about the antics of Lord Krishna and poked fun at fundamentalists.

The staging of his “Agra Bazar” play made noted theatre personality Habib Tanvir famous. His poem “Sab thath pada rah jayega jab lad chalega banjara,” is still popular in Agra.

On Tuesday, the city had yet another reason to celebrate. Centenary celebrations of Pandit Sri Ram Acharya Sharma, who popularised the Gayatri Mantra, also began today in Mathura, Agra and nearby areas.