Gujarát and the Gujarátis/The Baleva
THE BALEVA.
Another popular Hindu holiday is the Baleva, or Náliari Punema, what the Europeans are pleased to call the Cocoa-nut Day. On this full-moon day (in August) the violence of the monsoon is supposed to have come to an end, and Father Neptune is supposed to be ready, on the customary propitiations, to allow ships to have a safe voyage. In writing of the Cocoa-nut holiday, it would not perhaps be amiss to describe the scope and significance of this peculiarly Aryan fruit in shell. What of all other nuts it most resembles in form is the human caput. It is indispensable on every religious occasion. Its water is considered holy nectar. The hairy surface of its coating goes to make miniature coir purses, bags, &c. The coating, or husk, itself makes excellent hukás, or hubble-bubbles. For this purpose the kernel is removed through the "eye" of the nut, which is otherwise kept intact. When broken into two, the shell makes good handy curry or liquor cups, and oil vessels. When burnt to cinders and mixed with vinegar or lime, the coating is very good for ringworm and other cutaneous eruptions. If burnt by a peculiar process, the coating yields an oil, which is said to be peculiarly efficacious for the above purpose. Thus far the shell. Its kernel is good for children. Taken with date or molasses, it is excellent food for travellers. It enters into the composition of a thousand dishes, and is much relished alike by Hindus and Mahomedans. Its "milk" makes a very good hair-restorer, and one may often see Mahomedan and other lads buy a piece of the kernel, chew it, take the fluid in the hollow of the hand, apply it to the hair, and eat the remainder! Cocoa-nut oil is used in cooking. The oil is also a mild, pleasant burner. But at religious performances it is indispensable. It makes the ambrosia of the gods if mixed with ghee and sugar. When given to strangers, it means welcome; on the other hand, the phrase "to give the cocoa-nut" also means a peremptory and ignominious dismissal, exactly corresponding to your "give him the sack." But I presume this must mean the empty shell.
The Cocoa-nut holiday is a great day in Bombay. Your Gujarati servants generally become ill a fortnight before the day. You have to grant them leave, or they will stay away without any thought of the future. But this is not because of the cocoa-nut day; the whole month of Shráwan is a prolonged feast-day: there is a little fair every day of it at Walkeshwar. The Mondays are sacred to the goddess of revelry and song. The Vaishnava Máhárájs have the joiliest time of it all through the month.
At Bombay the Esplanade and Back Bay, and of late years Mody Bay, are worth a visit on Baleva day. The fair commences after three, and is kept up till very late. Merchants and traders first go to the sea, propitiate the deity with a cocoa-nut and some flowers duly consecrated. The merchant then receives the Brahman's blessing, with a thread on his wrist, and wends his way homewards through the slow-moving mob, picking up cheap things here and there from the stalls and booths erected on the Esplanade. Some people take a short cruise on the sea by way of first trial; others do the warming, and others still have the nautch performed. But on the whole, compared with other national festivals, Baleva is a tame affair as could be guessed. The show is mostly held on the sea-shore, and therefore affords a picturesque spectacle for griffins[1] and up-country Anglo-Indians.
- ↑ Fresh-arrived Europeans.