Hindu festivals, fairs and fasts

The celebration of life, joyous and exultant, fostering song and dance, the splendour of festivals and the bustle of fairs, has been the most characteristic feature of the Indian tradition from time immemorial. The impulses to the revels have been both secular and sacred. The seasons which signal to man the time for work and the time for relaxation, the commencement of the agricultural cycle with sowing in spring and its culmination with the harvest of golden grain, have their associated festivals. And then of course we have, in endless variations of legend and myth, the great perception that there is an ever-renewed war of light and darkness, of the divine and the demoniac, in the evolution of the world. But the richness of the Indian heritage is not exhausted by the Hindu tradition. History has made India the homeland of Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Zoroastrains, Muslims, Christians, and Jews. They too have their festivals. Thus every region of India, from the snows of the Himalayas to the surf of Kanya Kumari, celebrates life and the year pulses to its joyous rhythm with a festival almost every other day. The work presents a vivid account of as many as 172 festivals of all eight religious communities of this unique country, India, which makes it almost encyclopaedic in its thrust and coverage. Further, the mythology of all the festivals is also most detailed and comprehensive, providing interesting legend and reference material to a scholar. The rich visual experience of the splendid panorama is spread over the whole book (in black and white and colour) through specially made and selected photographs and etchings.