Basant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which occurs 40 days later.
In India, Basant Panchami or Vasant Panchami is dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, arts and music, Saraswati. The day is celebrated with much pomp and fervour in North India.
In some parts of India, people also worship the God of Love, Kamadeva on this day. Interestingly, the day also heralds the arrival of Spring. Basant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which occurs 40 days later.
Here are a few lesser known facts of Basant Panchami, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the bright half of the ‘Magha’ lunar month and marks the onset of spring.
1. Many forms of 'Vasantotsava'
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Basant Panchami is one of the many festivals that have been celebrated in India for a long time as part of ‘Vasantotsava’ (“festival of spring”).”
2. Place in history
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One of the earliest textual references to the ‘Vasantotsava’ celebrations is in the ‘Taittiriya Aranyaka’ in which a passage (1.3.5) mentions that spring is ‘jaradaksha’, meaning “skilled in water”.
3. What does Sanskrit literature says about Basant Panchami?
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In Sanskrit literature, the onset of spring is associated with nature coming alive.
In the ‘Ritusamhara’ (“The Collection of Seasons”), well-known poet Kalidasa (4th century CE) begins the sixth and last canto with a beautiful description of the onset of Vasanta.
4. Banabhatta’s Kadambari
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A passage in Banabhatta’s prose-poem ‘Kadambari’ (“The Liquour”), the heroine describes the arrival of Vasanta and compares it with the arrival of her youth.
5. Shri Panchami
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According to Nityananda Misra, a well-known Sanskrit scholar, 'Basant Panchami’ is referred to as ‘Shri Panchami’ in Sanskrit texts and historically, it was Lakshmi (also called ‘Shri’) and not Saraswati who was worshipped on this date.
