This and all other Holi-related antics
are always described as “play” (khel),
and the operating assumption is that
one cannot become angry with the peo-
ple with whom one is playing, no matter
how outrageous the behavior or how
pointed the insults. The festival of Holi is
the one day in the year when the bound-
aries of the usual social hierarchy are
completely disregarded, along with the
taboos on physical touching that are pri-
marily based on the inherent concern for
ritual purity. Another characteristic of
Holi is that it is one of the few occasions
when socially respectable people con-
sume bhang, an intoxicating prepara-
tion made from ground-up marijuana.
The morning passes in a welter of
noise, confusion, and color, with (at
street level) absolutely no rules, symbol-
izing the chaos of cosmic dissolution. Yet
in the afternoon, cosmic (and social)
order are suddenly restored. People take
baths, change into new clothes, and go
out visiting without fear of being col-
ored, and any person bold enough to
pelt someone with dyes at this time is
subject to severe disapproval.
In recent times, particularly in the
larger cities, the license associated with
Holi has been taken as an opportunity
for all sorts of antisocial behavior: public
drunkenness, molesting women, destroy-
ing property, and the chance to settle old
grudges by physically harming people.
The chaos is so intense that in larger
cities many people stay in their houses
on Holi, “playing” with members of their
immediate family in the gentler spirit
that is characterized as “true” Holi.
Given the threat to public order, the
government has taken some action, but
the very nature of the holiday makes it
difficult to regulate—since it is a festival
of reversal, the government is one more
force to be disregarded on that morning.
Various government agencies have also
tried to discourage the practice of mak-
ing bonfires, although here the concern
stems from worries about deforestation
rather than the breakdown of social
order. For further information see
McKim Marriot, “The Feast of Love,” in
Milton Singer (ed.), Krishna: Myths,Rites,
and Attitudes, 1966; and Lawrence Babb,
The Divine Hierarchy, 1975.Holika
In Hindu mythology, the wicked sister of
the demon-king Hiranyakashipu.
Holika helps Hiranyakashipu try to
kill his son Prahlada, who is a
steadfast devotee (bhakta) of the god
Vishnu. Because of a divine power, she
cannot be harmed by fire. She tricks
Prahlada into sitting on her lap in a
bonfire, expecting that she will be
unharmed and he will die. Fortunately
Vishnu transfers her power from
Holika to Prahlada, and she is
consumed by the fire, while he remains
completely unscathed.
The myth of the burning of Holika is
the model for the bonfires for the festi-
val of Holi. On a mythic level, the bon-
fire symbolizes the triumph of good over
evil; on another level, since the materi-
als in the fire are supposed to be old and
broken things, the bonfire symbolizes
getting rid of one’s baggage from the
previous year, and starting anew.Holkar, Ahalya Bai
(r. 1761–1795) Hindu queen in the
Holkar dynasty. The family ruled one
of the successor states resulting from
the breakup of the Maratha empire,
whose capital was in the central Indian
city of Indore.
She came to power at a time when
the influence of the Moghul dynasty
had been greatly reduced and moved to
fill the political vacuum that this created.
During her long reign she managed to
wield genuine political power over
much of north-central India. She also
served as a highly visible royal patron at
several Hindu pilgrimage sites, includ-
ing Benares, where she funded the
reconstruction of the Vishvanathtem-
ple, and Haridwar, where she is said to
have paid for the construction of a ghat,
which is a structure that leads to a
sacred bathing (snana) area. For furtherHolkar, Ahalya Bai