My interview with a traditional sculpture artist based out of Varanasi -Â
who is conserving the thousand years old tradition of Holika Dahan
Saurabh: Whatâs your name and what you do?
Rajkumar: I am Rajkumar, am born & brought up in Varanasi and am continuing my family traditional business of making sculpture art.
S: Tell me what are you making right now, is it Holika?
R: Yes, youâre right. Weâve been making these statues of Holika and Prahlad for almost 50 years now as we get orders from local people. We spend around 2 months before Holi every year in this. Normally, we get around 100 orders. Earlier, it used to more, we recorded 500 in the year 2000 and since then it a downturn.
S: 100, is it good to sustain?
R: Not exactly to run a family of 6 but we used to get more orders earlier and over the years people have stopped burning Holika.
S: Can you put more light on Holika and this tradition of burning her with Prahlad?
R: As stated in the verse of Bhagwad Gita (9.31):
kaunteya pratijÄnÄ«hi
na me bhaktaḥ praá¹aÅyati.
Translation: âHe quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishesâ.
So the story goes like this. Prahlad was the son of a well-known demon king named Hiranyakashipu. He started praying Lord Vishnu and became his faithful devotee but king Hiranyakashipu couldnât tolerate this and called his demon sister Holika to kill Prahlad. Now, Holika had a divine gift that fire could not burn her, so they decided that she would sit with Prahlad in a fire. Because of her boon and the magical clothing sheâd adorn, the fire would not do anything to her, but it would burn Prahlad. However, when it was time and Prahlad was made to sit on Holikaâs lap, he began to utter Vishnuâs name, and chant, âOm Namo Narayanayâ. The pyre was set on fire but owing to Vishnuâs grace and love for his young devotee, the fire burned the demon Holika while her magical clothing saved Prahlad from the fire.
In the end, Holika died in that fire and this instance was taken as a sign of the triumph and victory of good over evil. All over India, itâs celebrated as Choti Holi a day before the Badi Holi, which is the festival of colours.