The Legend Of Holika Dahan

The festival of holi marks the end of Shishir ritu (winter) and beginning of Vasanta ritu (Spring).  The celebration of holi is marked by lighting a bonfire to commemorate the legend of Holika dahan and to celebrate the victory of good over evil.

Holika dahan is one of the popular stories from the legend of Bhakta Prahalad.  Prahalad was the son of the demon king Hiranyakashyap.  Hiranyakashyap, after a long penance, extracted five boons from Lord Brahma.  They were:

• Neither a human nor an animal would be able to kill him.
• He would not be killed inside the door nor outside the door
• He would not be killed during the day nor at night.
• He would not be killed by any weapon.
• He would not be killed on the land, in water nor in the air.

After receiving these boons, Hiranyakashyap deemed himself to be immortal and no less than a God.  He forbade his subjects from worshipping Lord Vishnu or any other God.  When he was undertaking penance, Indra and the other devas had attacked his home.  His pregnant wife was then protected by Sage Narada as he deemed her to be sinless.  The unborn child, Prahalad, was thus exposed to chants of "Narayana, Narayana" and stories of Lord Vishnu as narrated by the sage.  Prahalad later became a devoted follower of the Lord.  This angered Hiranyakashyap to the extent of filicide.  After many unsuccessful attempts at killing his son, Hiranyakashyap enlisted the help of his sister, Holika, who after a penance, had received a robe from Lord Brahma that would protect her from fire.  Hiranyakashyap requested his sister to sit on a pyre covered in the robe and challenged Prahalad to accompany her on the pyre and pray to Lord Vishnu to save him from the fire.  It is said that, as soon as the pyre was lit, a gust of wind blew the robe from Holika to Prahalad and saved him while Holika burned to death.  Some legends claim that Holika knew what she was doing was a sin and covered Prahalad with her robe to protect him, signifying the triumph of the good in her over the evil within herself.  Hiranyakashyap was later killed by Vishnu in the Narasimha (half lion, half man) Avatar.

Thus while following the tradition of Holika dahan, we must resolve to kill the evil in us and to live virtuously.

Image credit:  Mithila