Deepawali is the festival of light celebrated since time unknown in every part of the land, from a grass-thatched mud hut to a palace, and from a commercial or industrial establishment to a shrine.
Not merely Hindus or the followers of other indigenous sects, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, even Christians and Mohammedans are enthusiastic about it, and it is not only the door of a Christian's house or that of a Mohammedan but even that of a chapel or a Dargah, a saint's holy burial, is often found lit with a lamp dispelling the darkness of the darkest night, the Amavasya in the month of Kartika, the eighth month of the Indian calendar.
Crackers, an essential feature of Deepawali celebrations, are every youth's love, and which eye, old or young, do not glow when a spray of multi-coloured lights scatter over the high skies, transforming into multi-forms from a peacock to the tri-colour national flag.
Mangal Deep (Special Bhajans for an Auspicious Diwali) (Audio CD)
More than a religious festival or the festival of a community or race, Deepawali is perceived as the battle of light against darkness – a tiny lamp's determination to illuminate the earth and the sky, setting them free from the all-enshrouding darkness.
Deepawali celebrates this victory of the tiny lamp, its humble effort to fight out the gigantic darkness. People see in the effort of the tiny lamp their own effort to wade across the ocean of adversities, and this sense fills them with renewed confidence and fresh vigour for the days to come.
Seated Ganesha-Lakshmi Temple
Indeed, Deepawali is the festival of renewing confidence in oneself and among all. It is a festival that inspires universal goodness and prosperity for all beyond caste and creed. Whatever its sectarian contexts, for centuries, it has attained the magnitude of a national festival that breathes a strange sense of belonging to all.
Whether the lamp is lit in a temple or chapel, in a hut or palace, before the image of Christ, Mahavira, Buddha or Lakshmi and Ganesh, or before the sacred Bir – Holy Scripture, in a Gurdwara or at home, it is essentially a desire for light, an intrinsic determination to combat darkness, inherent compulsion for freeing oneself from all that is narrow, besides a lot of shopping and display of good taste, that now define the festival of Deepawali.
Sectarian contexts apart, light imparts to Deepawali universal breadth, unique magnificence, and divine dimensions rarely associated with a festival. As light is benevolent and auspicious, light's birth, its emergence, is by itself a celebration. Seers saw light as both the Supreme Creator and the creation.
Re-iterating Kabir, when Guru Nanak sang: 'Eka noor te saba jaga upaya', that is, the entire universe is born of one light, or when Prophet Mohammad uttered that the universe is nothing but the extension of His 'noor' – light, they both saw the Creator as a glow of light.
It was hardly different for Shaivites who consecrated the Supreme Being as Jyotir-linga – the light combined with phallus, the fertility factor. This Supreme One wished: 'Ekoham bahusyami' – I am one but wish to multiply, and thus out of His expansion the cosmos came into being.
Hardly different from these philosophical utterances is the common man's allegory when, at a child's birth, a mother sings: 'jaga ujiyaro hoya', that is, with the child's birth, which symbolises to her the emergence of light, 'the world is illuminated'.
Alike, when a living self passes away, the wise say: 'jyoti mein jyoti samani', that is, the flame has merged with the Supreme Flame. The Buddhist tradition depicts, both in scriptures and art, a glowing flame passing off the body of Buddha to portray his Maha Parinirvana – final extinction.
Deepawali (Diwali) at the Shrine
The Rig-Veda holds Surya, the sun-god, in highest reverence, for unless there was light, even the manifest does not manifest. The Upanishadic interpretation of the Rig-Vedic Sukta is far clearer. Emergence of light is also the emergence of cosmos, for even if the cosmos existed, it would not manifest unless there was light.
That is why the tradition re-iterated: 'Tamsoma jyotirgamaya' – let the darkness depart and the light emerge, in which manifested the desire of the Unmanifest. Metaphorically or otherwise, it is by the emergence of light that the factum of Creation has been indicated, not in India alone but also beyond.
The Biblical tradition heralds: 'let there be light, and the light was there'. Here also the Supreme One desired the emergence, and once the light was there, there was the Creation too. Maybe the light's relation with the Creation was just symbolic, suggesting that the world existed in light and disappeared in darkness. However, light is God's verse that he writes on the face of the universe, and hence, whatever is divine is endowed with light, while dark avenues are the devil's abode.
Lakshmi Ganesha Shubh Labh Door Hanging with Bells
This light is the endless celebration, the man's as well as nature's. Perceptions, perspectives, dimensions, and forms, all are light's creation, and beauty, splendour, goodness, purity, its finer shades. Light is associated with love, optimism, delight, festivities, and everything auspicious, holy, or divine.
In its intrinsic form, light is the attainment of ultimate knowledge and thereby of the supreme bliss, and thereafter there is no darkness and nothing in between the seer and the seen. The light is, thus, the ultimate vision of this world and the world beyond, and so its celebration, a thing of this world as also of the other.
Historical evidences reveal that the earliest celebrations that the semi-civilized man organised were held around light and fire, maybe for protection against wild animals that the fire frightened, and the light alerted against emergent dangers.
Out of this cult, perhaps those from early civilizations developed their own festivals of light, independent ones discovering the glory of light, as the Indian festival of Deepawali, or those associated with some religious events, such as Christmas and the New Year in the Christian world, or the Shab-i-barat in the Islamic world. Whatever the theological contexts attached, the primary thrust of these festivals, to whatever degree, is the victory of light over darkness.
Celebrating Deepawali
The origin of the festival of Deepawali, or Diwali, when or how it was begun, or who initiated it, is not known. The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, has made brilliant efforts in its volume XXVI to trace the origin of Deepawali celebrations, but even such efforts could take back its origin only up to the beginning of the Christian era, not beyond.
The Hindu tradition relates Deepawali celebrations to the event of Rama's return to Ayodhya after his victory over Ravana, but the Ramayana does not allude to any such celebrations. Massive arrangements were made to welcome Rama at Nandigram, and every inch of land between Nandigram and Ayodhya was leveled, sprinkled, and beautified. Flags were posted on every house, and all inhabitants of Ayodhya were out on the streets to welcome him with folded hands, but it all took place during the early part of the day.
In this sub-canto, perhaps only one allusion to lamps or light is made. As commanded by Shatrughna, servants of the state rushed with oil lamps, beds, and cushions, etc., to the palace where Sugriva stayed. It seems that by the time of Valmiki, auspices were carried out only during the day, and there was perhaps no tradition of holding corresponding celebrations during the night.
Fine Quality Peacock Urli with Diyas and Hanging Bells
The so far known earliest text that alludes to celebrating a night with multitudinous lights – a kind of the festival of light, is the Kama-Sutra by sage Vatsyayana, datable to around the 3rd-2nd century B.C. to the 1st-2nd century A.D. Most significant among the nights that Vatsyayana recommends to celebrate is the night of Yakshas, or the Yaksha-night.
Vatsyayana ordains that on the Yaksha night, the houses should be illuminated with the light of tiny earthen lamps placed in rows close to each wall and window ledge, and the gardens should have bonfires. Yakshas were celestial beings fundamentally inclined to enjoyment. Thus, Yaksha Night was the festival of light and merriment.
At another place in the text, Vatsyayana recommends gambling as a sport for the Yaksha night. Thus, Vatsyayana's Yaksha night was celebrated with light, merriment, and gambling, something that continues ever since as part of Deepawali celebrations.
The term 'Deepawali' comprises two syllables: 'dipa' and 'awali', one meaning 'lamp' and the other 'row', that is, a row of lamps, exactly as Vatsyayana ordains Deepawali celebrations. In their commentaries on the Kama-Sutra, the Jain Acharyas Hem Chandra and Yashodhara, too, have identified the festival of Yaksha night as an early form of Deepawali.
☀ Kalaratri – the deadly night, ☀ Maha Ratri – impenetrable night, ☀ Muhka Ratri – night of initiation, etc., are Yaksha Ratri type other names by which the Puranas have addressed Deepawali.
Goddess Dhana Lakshmi Seated on a Lotus in a Pond
In his play 'Nava-Nand', King Harsh, who had a long tenure from 606 A.D. to 648 A. D., talks of Dipotsava, a festival of lamps. The Dipotsava of King Harsh is quite similar to the modern Deepawali. Nilamata Purana of the Kashmiri origin, composed between 500 A.D. and 800 A.D., gives a more elaborate account of the Dipa-mala festival.
All round illuminations, decorations, especially by hoisting up festoons, feasting Brahmins and relatives, gambling, music, passing nights in the company of ladies, wearing rich apparel and jewels, and making presents of new garments to friends, relatives, Brahmins, and household were some essential features of Deepawali celebrations.
In his Yashastilakachampoo (A.D. 959), Someshvarasuri makes special mention of decorating houses on Deepawali. According to him, the houses were white-washed, and their tops were decorated with rows of bright lights. In his Tahkik-i-Hind, the known traveler Alberuni, who was in India in A.D. 1030, gives an identical account of Deepawali celebrations.
In addition, he talks of people visiting temples, giving alms, exchanging betel leaves, and areca nuts. He also talks of gambling and some Deepawali-related legends. He says that it was considered the day for trying one's luck, and it was on this day that Goddess Lakshmi was liberated from Bali's clutches.
In his memoirs, the Italian traveler Niccolò Conti gives an elaborate picture of how Indians celebrated Diwali. In about 1420-21, Conti was in Vijayanagara and recorded how in temples the lamps were kept lit day and night, and on house-tops, the whole night. In his Ain-i-Akbari, Abul Fazl circumscribes Deepawali as the festival of Vaisyas, the trading community, but such was its popularity and attraction that Akbar himself participated in its celebrations.
Deepawali was now the most captivating annual event celebrated with enthusiasm by both households and recluses; however, except for some ritual practices added to it, it had no mystic, mythological, or symbolic dimensions. It was still seen as the epitome of people's endeavour to fight against darkness, which later widened into a battle against all that was evil, dark, and gloomy – the victory of good over evil.
The Marathi saint Jnyaneshvara, in Jnyaneshvari, equating Deepawali illuminations with the light of spiritual knowledge, added to it divine dimensions. Chakradhara, the founder of the Marathi Mahanubhava sect, a social-cum-religious organisation, prescribes for his Gosavi pupils the way of celebrating Deepawali befitting a saint.
In his Chaturvargachintamani, a mid-13th century text, Hemadri laid the tradition of sisters feeding their brothers on the occasion of Deepawali. Brahma Purana and others had already prescribed worship of Lakshmi or Mahalakshmi on Deepawali, but after some kings, such as the Kolhapur king Siddharaja, began worshipping the goddess, the cult reached every house.
In his Prabandha Chintamani, Merutunga, a saint-cum-thinker of Gujarat, gives elaborate details of Siddharaja worshipping the goddess with offerings of gold, jewels, garments, and camphor. As reflected in the entire body of Indian theology, irrespective of this or that sect, some kind of utility aspect – ethical, social, moral- is found linked with all major religious practices and popular beliefs.
How to Worship Goddess Lakshmi, Shri Mahalakshmi Deepawali Poojan Vidhan (Shri Lakshmi Pooja Padhati) (Sanskrit, Roman with Simple Hindi-English Meaning)
After Deepawali gained popularity among various sects, it was also linked with hygiene, strengthened ties, social, and within the family, improved living, and inspired charity. As per one's status and means, every household was required to repair and put in proper shape their monsoon-worn house and disinfect it with lime-wash. The Brahma Purana acclaimed that lighting lamps on Deepawali is as virtuous as distributing alms equal to one's body weight.
It cautions that one should not celebrate Deepawali unless the house has been duly cleaned and one wears new, or at least neat and clean, bejeweled clothes, and further that it is inauspicious to eat any food unless one shares it with those held in reverence, members of the family and the village, and the household servants.
As Holi, the other Deepawali-like popular festival, was associated with the harvesting of one crop, Deepawali was associated with the other. Deepawali now had a set of rituals relating to dung-heap worship and the worship of cow-dung deified as Govardhana, the mythical mount, the worship of which Krishna had initiated. These rituals aimed at conserving the natural source of re-energizing agricultural lands, which rains rendered dull, depriving them of their fertility power.
By the 17th-18th century, the cult of celebrating Deepawali had spread over the entire subcontinent from the Himalayan hill-region, Kashmir, and Siam to the deep South. It was celebrated by lighting the lamps, usually in large numbers. The use of fireworks – crackers and sparklers- was a late addition, perhaps after the invention of gunpowder in the 14th century.
As becomes evident from the mid-17th century miniatures from the period of Shahjahan, fireworks had emerged as part of Deepawali celebrations by then, though their display became more popular by the 18th century. Not restricted to crackers or sparklers, the gun powder was now also mixed with inflammable pulps for moulding out of them effigies of mythological figures like Ravana, Meghanatha, and others.
Historical Rama
Such effigies were put in public squares and were shot at to set them ablaze. Maratha history contains an interesting episode relating to such gunpowder effigies. Kota rulers used to cast, besides the effigies of Ravana, Meghanatha, and others, a model of Lanka, monkeys, and a huge figure of Hanuman from this inflammable pulp and gun powder.
First of all, Hanuman's tail was set ablaze, and then it burnt the entire Lanka, including Ravana and others. When at Kota, Mahadji Scindia, founder of the Scindia dynasty and one of the generals of Peshwa Madhava Rao, who ruled from 1774 to 1795, witnessed the episode and, highly impressed as he was, he narrated it to the Peshwa when he was back at Pune.
Later, Peshwa asked Mahadji Scindia to get constructed the similar model of Lanka and effigies of others, including Hanuman, beneath the Parvati hill, and when they were burnt, he witnessed them with his courtiers from the Parvati temple.
However, later, when Dashahara and Deepawali were linked with Rama's conquest over Ravana, as two major events of the Rama-katha, the story of Rama, this part of the Deepawali celebrations: burning the effigies of Ravana and others, was shifted to Dashahara, the day Rama killed Ravana.
Hindus relate Deepawali to Rama's return to Ayodhya on completion of his fourteen-year exile in the forest, exactly twenty days after he had killed Ravana. Some astrological studies have established that the day of Rama's return to Ayodhya was the same as the one on which Diwali is celebrated, but when exactly the two were linked together is not known.
As discussed earlier, the Ramayana by sage Valmiki, which tradition assigns to Rama's lifetime, does not allude to any kind of celebrations held that night. It is the same with the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas. The Ramacharita Manasa, too, does not talk of any kind of night celebration, not even that people adorned their houses with light.
Another section of Hindus relates Deepawali to the elimination of Narakasura, the demon king of Pragjotipura in the north-east, by Krishna. Narakasura daily sacrificed one unmarried girl and abducted every woman he could lay his hand on. As the legend has it, every young girl was required to worship him and offer herself for sacrifice.
The number of women he had abducted, before he was killed, was sixty thousand. In Bundelkhand and several other backward parts of the land, the young unmarried girls still worship the cow-dung images of Narakasura for a fortnight preceding Deepawali. With lamps in hand, these young worshippers of Narakasura move around the village in the form of a procession.
Krishna killed the demon and rescued all sixty thousand women. After he was killed, the entire country was illuminated, and his effigies were burnt, a tradition of which Diwali is the continuation. Some traditions fix Chaturdashi as the day of the elimination of Narakasura, and hence celebrate it as Chhoti – small or mini Deepawali. It is sometimes called 'Naraka Chaturdashi'.
Vamana Purana with Hindi Translation
The Skanda Purana links Deepawali celebrations with the destruction of the demon king Bali and Vishnu's incarnation as Vamana, the Dwarf. As the legend has it, the demon king Bali, son of Virochana and grandson of the legendary Prahlad, had acquired enormous celestial powers by the observance of great austerities.
With such powers, he captured all three worlds, made Lakshmi his captive, and deprived Indra and all other gods of their abodes. Unable to win back their lost position and prestige, all gods and Indra went to Vishnu and prayed to him for rescuing them from Bali's torments.
On the banks of the river Narmada, Bali had held a great yajna, a sacrificial ritual, to which hundreds of Brahmins were invited. Vishnu incarnated or transformed as Vamana, a Brahmin with the body size of a dwarf, and joined the yajna as one of the Brahmins.
On his turn, during the course of the distribution of alms, he prayed to Bali for giving him a piece of land measuring just three strides. Bali happily granted the prayer. To make surer Vamana prayed the demon king to take a vow as prescribed, which Bali did. Thereupon, Vishnu so much expanded his form that in two strides he covered all three worlds, and with the third, pushed Bali to nether land, his rightful place.
Jharokha (Window) Painted with King Bali Pledging Himself to Vamana Avatar of Vishnu
This appears to have been the earliest of all three Deepawali-related Hindu myths, for, as becomes evident from the memoirs of Alberuni, the legend must have been quite popular even during the early years of the 11th century when Alberuni visited India. Alberuni mentions that people celebrated Deepawali for Lakshmi's liberation from the clutches of Bali.
Jains celebrate Deepawali, or Deva Diwali, as the day of the Nirvana, final extinction, of Mahavira, their twenty-fourth Tirthankara. When 72, Mahavira had his Nirvana at Pavapuri, in modern Bihar, in late night of Chaturdashi, that is, the early morning of the Amavasya of the month of Kartika, the day on which Diwali is celebrated.
As the Jain tradition maintains, after the Nirvana of Lord Mahavira, eighteen kings who were his followers conferred and said: since the light of holy knowledge has passed away, let there be material illumination', and then the lights were lit. The lights were lit in the morning as well as in the evening that followed.
Jain Acharya Hem Chandra holds that it was thus that the dipotsava was begun, and that the yaksha-ratri of Vatsyayana in Kama-Sutra was conceived on the line of the dipotsava, though with the objective of merriment. Jains' evening celebrations have the same form as under the common tradition, including the invocation of goddess Lakshmi, though their morning part is completely different and is ritualistic.
The fast is observed on the day of Chaturdashi preceding the moment of the Master's Nirvana. The Jains would rise in early morning, take a bath, and reach the temple where they would offer last prayers to the departing Master and would offer as oblation Nirvana-ladu, sugar ball, something like the last mass.
The tradition is claimed to begin from the day of Mahavira's Nirvana, which might be an exaggeration, but, as becomes evident from early texts like one of Acharya Hem Chandra, its antiquity is doubtless. Sikhs celebrate Diwali in the same manner, wearing new clothes, lighting lamps, burning crackers, etc., but they have their own context of Diwali, and it adds to it greater significance and auspiciousness.
Sikhs celebrated Diwali earlier, also of which clear evidence is seen during the period of the fifth Guru Arjan Deva, but it was because of the release and return of Guru Hargobind, Sikhs' sixth pontiff, to the Golden Temple on the day of Diwali that it gained special significance for Sikhs.
Annoyed for feeding his rebel son prince Khurram, who later succeeded him as Shahjahan, in his langara – community feasting, Jahangir had arrested Guru Hargobind and imprisoned him in the fort of Gwalior. Later, convinced by Mir, a Sufi saint, Jahangir ordered his release. He reached Amritsar on Deepawali.
Baba Buddaji, the eldest Sikh, and other devout Sikhs lighted lamps and illuminated Sri Harmandar Sahib, distributed food to all, held special sabad-kirtan – musical recitation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and ardas – prayer, and held a special congregation. It continued for three days, and accordingly, Sikhs celebrate Deepawali for three days, though lighting in Sri Harmandar Sahib and decoration continue for about a fortnight.
In most of the major festivals in other traditions of the world, celebrations stretch over a period of many days. Deepawali celebrations stretch into a group of at least five minor festivals, and thus Deepawali is a festival of composite nature.
The first of them is Dhana-Terasa. 'Terasa' is the corrupt form of Trio-dash, meaning thirteenth; 'Dhana' means wealth; and thus, Dhan-Terasa means 'thirteenth, the day of wealth', that is, two days before Deepawali, which takes place on the fifteenth – Amavasya.
Dhana-Terasa marks the beginning of Lakshmi's welcome rites. In the evening, some lamps are lighted and placed outside the door for Yama, the god of death, to keep him away. Actual Deepawali shopping, especially of utensils and jewellery, is done on Dhanteras and is considered exceptionally auspicious; these new things replace the old.
As already discussed, Chaturdashi is celebrated as minor Deepawali in all sects, as Naraka Chaturdashi in the Hindu tradition, and as the day of Mahavira's Nirvana, amongst Jains. Govardhana-puja, worship of Mount Govardhana, that takes place on the day next to Deepawali, is another minor festival.
In some parts, there is the tradition of worshipping a cow-dung model of Govardhana along with cows, while in others, it is celebrated as Annakuta – the worship of the pile of the first harvested grain of the season.
The next day, which is 'Doja' – the second day of the second half of the month, is celebrated as Bhaiya-Doja. It is the day when sisters put a tilaka mark on the foreheads of their brothers and feed them with the food they prepared with their own hands, a tradition which perhaps Acharya Hemadri had introduced in the 13th century.
Bhaiya-Doja is also known as Yama-Dwitiya, having a Vedic context of Yama and Yami, the son and daughter of Surya. As is the story, Yami proposed to Yama to marry her, something common in primitive society, which did not see a man and woman as other than a male and a female.
To change this position, Surya instructed Yama to turn down Yami's proposal. In the course of time, this relationship was identified as brother and sister. Bhaiya-Doja aimed at strengthening the ties between them.
Deepawali celebrations are fixed for the Amavasya night of the month of Kartika, but this Amavasya is not a mathematically counted day. It is rather the outcome of the planetary position. The Zodiac is divided into twelve parts, having twelve Zodiac signs, namely, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
The Royal Celebration
The cycle of the sun's movement across them is the basis for determining both Deepawali and Holi, another popular festival of India. Deepawali occurs on the day when the sun transits from Virgo, the sixth sign, into Libra, the seventh, a planetary position on the Kartika Amavasya.
From this Amavasya, the latter half of the planetary year begins. The planetary position on this day determines the prospects across the year, not only of those born under this or that zodiac sign but also of the society in general, the nation, and the world.
Being linked with the arrival of a crop that equips all with buying capacity, Deepawali has special meaning for traders, and accordingly, they maintain their account books from Deepawali to Deepawali, often maintaining this periodicity as their calendar.
For Ritual Worship of The Goddess of Fortune
Lakshmi is unanimously revered as the presiding deity of Deepawali. In the Deepawali context, Lakshmi is the presiding deity of riches, prosperity, fertility, and well-being, and here her Vishnu contexts seem to become largely irrelevant.
In its Gautami-Mahatmya part, the Brahma-Purana perceives her as God's grace, grace of penance and yajna, one who gives prosperity, fame, popularity, learning, intellect, happiness, salvation, forbearance, accomplishment of all desired, quiescence, and all faculties of mind, and as one who herself is the water, earth, space, light, darkness, Maya, and all that is manifest and unmanifest.
Hence, in Deepawali rituals, Lakshmi is thrice worshipped. Analogous to Kala-ratri, the first night after the Great Deluge when the process of re-creation was commenced, Deepawali begins its rituals with the joint worship of Lakshmi and Ganesh, one representing the primordial energy and the other who channeled it into the creative process by controlling detriments.
The Supreme Duo of Ganesha and Lakshmi in a Gold Temple Frame
The image of Ganesh, when accompanied by his consorts Riddhi and Siddhi, has greater auspices. While Ganesh checks negatives, Riddhi and Siddhi operate and produce results. This joint worship of Lakshmi-Ganesh is followed by the worship of nine planets, sixty-four Yoginis – manifest forms of primordial energy, sixteen mothers, knowledge of architecture, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Then Lakshmi is worshipped independently without Ganesh. Different from primordial energy, she is now worshipped as the goddess of riches and abundance. Hence, before she is worshipped, scriptures prescribe worship of Yaksha Kuber, the custodian of riches.
And finally, after one has worshipped the means of livelihood, the means of rituals and knowledge, etc. Lakshmi is worshipped again, and this time the related hymn is thrice recited, thrice is made an offering, and thrice the head should be bowed as the goddess pervades all three worlds, and prayers should reach them all.
Rig-Veda Samhita: edited by F. Maxmuller; English translation by H. H. Wilson, Poona.
Mahabharata: Gita Press, Gorakhpur; Critical Edition, Poona; English translation by Pratap Chandra Rai, Calcutta.
Valmiki Ramayana: Gita Press, Gorakhpur
Skanda Purana: Gita Press, Gorakhpur
Bhagavata Purana: Gita Press, Gorakhpur
Vishnupurana: Bombay; Gita Press, Gorakhpur
Brahma Puarana: Gita Press, Gorakhpur
Vayu Purana: Gita Press, Gorakhpur
The Magic Makers: P. C. Jain
Krishna : Raga se Viraga Tak: Dr. Daljeet & P. C. Jain
Sri Harmandar Sahib: Body visible of the Invisible Supreme Krishna: Dr. Daljeet & P. C. Jain
Hindu Myths: D. O. Flaherty
Indian Mythology: Veronica Ions
Festivals, Fairs and Fasts of India: Shakti M. Gupta
The Development of Hindu Iconography: J. N. Banarjee
Bulletin of the Bhandarkara Institute of Oriental Research, Pune, vol. 26
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