Peepali Poornima in Mount Abu

Today is Peepali Poornima-Full Moon day of the Indian month of Vaisakh. On this auspicious day, the tribals of Abu Hills gather in Mount Abu to immerse the ashes of their departed elders in the Nakki Lake. The tribals are termed as GIRASIYA as they are Gir Vasi-Residents of the Aravalli Hills. Bathing and shedding of the nails in the lake is customary and a sacred ritual on account of the firm belief of the colorful community that the Nakki Lake was excavated in ancient times by the sages with their finger nails-Nakh and so the name.

It is more a celebration.stoic and addiction to indolence and ease with an aura of nonchalance. While women adorn ethnic colorful clothes, the men, mostly in tribal garb and youngsters, now suitably modernized, as far as dress is concerned, sport western garb and together move about, profusely garlanded, brandishing spears and knick knacks, with song and dance, partaking of the delicacies on sale with due partiality to country liquor. After day long merry making in tipsy stupor and towards the evening, they reluctantly start the return journey to their respective abodes in the hills and plains.

Platonic Romance

Back to Holy Abu. To the south of Delwada Temples, a short distance away are the shrines of Kanya Kumari and Balam Rasiya. These bear an inscription of the year 1440 A.D. The folk lore is intriguing, romantic and tragic.

Kanya Kumari was the virgin daughter of a chieftain in Abu. Balam Rasiya, a sage in penance was enamored by her beauty and renouncing his afflictions, sought her hand in wedlock. The crafty mother, however, did not approve the match. But to honor the feelings of the saintly paramour, set him the impossible task of laying 12 different approach paths to Abu in a single night before the first crowing of a cock in the morning. Aided by spirituality, Balam Rasiya set to work zealously and had almost finished the project, but the scheming mother anticipating the loss of her comely daughter to a sage, feigned the crowing of the cock just as the work was about to be completed. Tricked, demoralized and frustrated, the ascetic in a rage, threw a magic spell that turned the mother and daughter into idols of stones. The idols, simply enshrined in a small temple, quite unpatronized but looked after by generations of priests, illustrate this fact and remind the interested and visiting onlookers of the romantic past.