HURUNGA : Holi Festival

If Holi is festival of colours, then here you could breathe Holi. And if you open your mouth, eat it as well. 30 km away from main town Mathura, lies the village named Baldeo. Named after Balrama, elder brother of Shri Krishna. The much festive weeklong Holi celebrations of Brajbhoomi concludes here. And it did with all the ingredients for which Holi is called the festival of Joy. Colours, more colours, water, flowers, crowd, more crowd, song, drum, dance, cheers, sweet and what not. As if everything what I had read in those Holi essays in school had come alive in full spectacle. The event is called Hurunga and is set inside the temple premises of Lord Balrama, Dauji Maharaj Temple. It is an age old tradition here that the women and men come to the temple here and seek permission from Dauji to play with the colours for the last time before concluding the Holi.

It is also said that after a weeklong festivity, women come to Dauji Maharaj to complain about Kaanha's playfulness during Holi. And in front of Balrama strip their men off clothes and beat them with wet clothes. This version is celebrated so beautifully and with such an aplomb that you would wish you were down there. What started with a dry gulaal and songs and dance went on to a water draping Holi as water was artificially poured from above. The temple floor was packed to an inch, colour and flower was all around sprayed from the top. The air was booming with braj songs and dancing along in various colours. As men poured gulaal and splashed coloured water over women, the women left no effort to beat the men. And all this with a spirit of Holi with no nuisance around. People perched on every space around the temple to watch this spectacle .It was a sight I had never experienced in any Holi earlier. I was a little sceptic initially as to whether go to such a far off village all alone. But, then I was determined to devour the feeling of the famous Braj ki Holi. The Hurunga celebration and Holi at Dwarkadheesh a day earlier has made me miss Holi for the first time in my life.