Many communities in India, celebrate the onset of Uttarayana season by feeding crows. The summer solstice or Uttarayana when the sun enters the northern hemisphere of the earth is celebrated on 14th January in India. It also coincides with the harvest season and is of special significance for the people of India.
But what is its connection to crows? In the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, the festival of Ghughati is celebrated as children’s festival where mothers prepare a special sweet dish and ask their children to feed crows. Many years back the Kumaon region was ruled by a King named Kalyanchand from the lunar dynasty. He longed for a son so that his dynasty would continue after him. But a number of years passed by and the King could not sire a son. A shrewd and wicked minister in the King’s court began to dream about becoming the next King in the absence of an heir to the throne. As time went on by his resolve to become the King grew stronger.
One day King Kalyanchand and his queen visited the temple of Baghnath and prayed for a son. The god finally answered their prayers and the queen in due course delivered a healthy baby boy. The baby prince was named Nirbhaychand. Prince was pampered with all sorts of toys. King got a special waistband with tiny bells made for the prince, and when the boy started walking, the sweet tinkering sound of the bells of the waistband was music to the King and his queen’s ears. Lovingly, the queen would call the prince Ghughati. ( Ghughuti is a bird found only in Uttarakhand)
As the little prince grew he became naughty and stubborn and started demanding more attention. Queen would affectionately scold him by saying she would ask the crows to take him away. “Kale Kaua Kale, Ghughati Mala Khale” ( Oh Black crow come and take away this pretty waistband of my little Ghughati). Hearing the queen’s call, crows would come and perch on a nearby tree. Watching crows perched on the trees, Ghughati would stop crying. And the queen would then feed the crows out of affection. Soon Ghughati became friends with crows and started playing with them.
Meanwhile, the wicked minister with his ambition of becoming the King was getting frustrated and began plotting to kill the prince now lovingly called as Ghughati. He even managed to win the support of a few ministers from the King’s council by promising them plum positions in the court once he became King.
One day he hired a group of assassins to abduct the prince and kill him. The assassins found the prince playing alone and they grabbed him and ran towards the jungle. A crow seated on the tree saw this and sensed the prince was in danger. He followed the abductors and started calling out to other crows to join him. As more and more crows joined in they started creating a ruckus. Ghughati sensed the agitation of the crows and started crying. The abductors got scared of the cacophony dumped the prince under a tree and ran off. The crow asked Ghughati to handover his favourite waistband with little tingling bells. Crow picked up the waistband in his beak, flew to the queen and dropped it in front of her. The Queen instantaneously recognised her son’s waistband and sensed danger to her son’s life. She demanded the King to send the royal soldiers and to follow the crow. Soldiers followed the crow who showed them the tree under which Ghughati was sitting and thus the prince was saved and returned to the palace.
Queen knew that the crows had saved her beloved son and to show her gratitude, she cooked various types of sweets and offered that to the crows. The King then continued the queen’s gesture of feeding the crows during the first day of Uttarayana. Eventually, feeding crows on the first day of Uttrayana became a tradition and the people of Uttarkhand began celebrating the event as Ghughati Festival.
Story collected by Kanika Singh
Source: as heard in her childhood
Location: Uttarakhand
Image Copyright: Vidya Kamat
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