Basant panchami also known as Sarasvati Puja, it marks the arrival of the spring festival. The festival is celebrated at the end of the Magha month, which is generally the end of January and the start of February. This is because, according to Hindu mythology, it was on this day that Lord Brahma created the universe.
Basant Panchami also signals the beginning of preparations for the festival of colors Holi
which takes place after forty days.
The colour yellow has a lot of significance on this day. Yellow symbolizes knowledge and also denotes mustard fields that are associated with the arrival of the spring season.
People wear yellow outfits and worship the goddess Sarasvati on this day.
SUFI BASANT
Despite the fact that Basant Panchami is a Hindu festival, the Sufi Basant sends a message of unity; visitors dress in yellow and offer mustard flowers at Nizamuddin Auliya's grave.
Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the Sufi saint with predecessors like Moinuddin Chishti and others, lived seven centuries earlier in his dargah. It is said Khusro would sing and Auliya, who had no children of his own and lived with his adopted family from his sister’s side, was especially attached to his nephew, Taqiuddin. Taqiuddin caught a sudden fever and died within days.
Hazrat Nizamuddin was inconsolable and went into mourning, stopped eating, and met his disciples. He was withering away until Basant Panchami arrived.
Amir Khusro spotted some women dressed in a yellow sari holding mustard and marigold flowers near Mathura Road (towards the Kalka Ji temple). He asked them what this is, and they replied that the day was auspicious and that if one wore yellow and prayed to the goddess that day, the wishes would come true. Khusro went back to the monastery, but this time draped in a yellow saree, with flowers in his hand and a dholak hung around his neck! He started dancing in the courtyard and making up the song.
"Aaj Basant manaley suhagan," (Oh Darling Let's celebrate the spring today.)
Nizamuddin Auliya stepped out and saw Khusro dressed in a yellow sari, singing, and dancing. It made him break into a smile, elevated his mood, and got him out of mourning.
Every visitor to the dargah, including the city’s heritage enthusiasts, politicians, devotees, and a wide-ranging mix of people wearing yellow and with bouquets of marigold flowers, crowded to move forward. There was also a set of junior qawwals singing popular qawwalis, and people said these qawwals are direct descendants of the original twelve students of Amir Khusro.
The crowd then returned to the dargah, and a yellow sheet of chadar was held out for wishes and donations, the crowd passed the graves of Mughal nobility, including Jahanara Begum (the daughter of Shah Jahan) and others.
There were more prayers near the dargah of Khusro; more yellow flowers were dispersed and more qawwalis were sung.
"Arab yaar tero Basant banaayo, rakhio jagat mein laal gulal,"
(Oh Lord, we celebrate your spring; keep this world happy and flourishing.), penned by Khusro himself.
Finally, the qawwals sat down and belted out one after another diverse number, captivating the audience, the only time of the year when music is allowed to be sung inside the dargah.
(Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusro, both died within months of each other. But for the past 800 years the tradition of Basant celebrations at Nizamuddin’s dargah, New Delhi has continued)'
(Inputs from Rajdeep Chakraborty's article published in National Herald & Clicks by Deepak Kumar during Sufi Basant festival 2020)
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