Eruvaka Pournami – A Festival Celebrated by the Farmers
The festival of ‘Eruvaka Pournami’ is celebrated by the farmers every year on a full moon day in the month of ‘Jyeshta’, in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and other parts of South India, as a mark of the arrival of monsoon.
On this day farmers commence activities related to agriculture. This festival is also being celebrated in the name of ‘Krushi purnima’ in other parts of India.
Since the Vedic period, in India the chief occupation of a majority of people is agriculture. In the ‘Bhruguvalli’ chapter of ‘Taittiriya Upanishad’, there is a mention of four austere practices which are a part of ‘Anna Brahmopasana’ ordained to be performed to acquire ‘Brahma Jnana’.
Anna Brahmopasana
They are,
- ‘Annam na nindyat tad vratam’ – one should never blame food,
- ‘Annam na parirakshita tad vratam’ – one should never reject the food,
- ‘Annam bahu kurveet tad vratam’ – one should produce food grains in large quantities and
- ‘Na kanchana vasatou pratyaachaksha tad vratam’ – one should never deny food to those who are in need.
Anna Daata
The ‘Kshetrapati Suktam’ is a part of ‘Rigveda’. It constitutes Mandala – 4, Sukta – 57 of Rig-Veda. It is mankind’s first ever literary work specifically in praise of ‘Farmer’, the provider of food, ‘Anna daata’ to the entire world.
Kshetrapati Suktam
Let us explore ‘Kshetrapati Suktam’ to reaffirm the glory of the ‘Farmer’. Jai Kisaan!
- O’ Kshetrapathi!, it is through your kind grace that our living on the earth is made happy with all physical comforts and it is because of you, that we are becoming enriched with prosperity.
- O’ Kshetrapati!, O’ Farmer!, may your propitious looks, grant us an uncountable number of cattle and horses for our comfortable living.
- May the blessings of mother nature be bestowed upon you and may she energise you with her sweet waves (pleasant winds), may you produce harvest as abundantly as milk that flows from the udder of a lactating cow.
- O’ Kshetrapati !, may mother nature’s ‘Rita’ (divine law) that controls monsoons, rainfall, heat, humidity and seasons flow into your fields as quickly as pure clarified butter.
- O’ Kshetrapati! May you be propitious to us and bestow prosperity on us.
- O’ Kshetrapati !, may you be bestowed with divine blessings by Mother Nature offering to your fields, richly nourished, sweet and pure plants, sky, waters and space, so that your fields yield bountiful harvest.
- O’ Kshetrapati!, may you be as propitious as honey to us and kindly permit us to be your devoted followers so that we too like you get bestowed with mother nature’s bounty and tread the path of prosperity.
May your sturdy oxen drawing the plough, work enthusiastically in the fields, may you who drive the oxen during ploughing be strong and healthy, may the plough which makes furrows in the fields strong and perfect, may the strap that binds the plough to the tilling implement, hold it tightly and firmly, may the goad in your hand swing with much agility towards oxen for them to work actively, to impart us with prosperity.
O’ Kshetrapati !, may ‘Shuna’, the god of heaven (in Sanskrit Shuna means ploughshare, the cutting metal blade of the plough) and ‘Sira’, an earth goddess ( Sira means – the mark left on the field by the ploughshare), who are the prime deities responsible for the formation of clouds and rainfall get pleased by our prayers.
O’ Kshetrapati !, may Shuna and Sira drive clouds onto your fields and wet the fields with sumptuous rainfall so that you produce a bountiful harvest. May goddess Sita be propitious to us all through you. O! goddess Sita! (also known as ‘Sira’, an earth goddess of Rigveda), we praise you and worship you and seek blessings so that you bestow upon us a sumptuous harvest by enriching our fields with fertility.
O! Kshetrapati !, may Lord Indra the god of lightning, thunder and rain be propitious to you and protect furrows in your fields sown with saplings and may ‘pushan’ who is one among twelve Sun gods (Adhityas, the sons of Aditi and sage Kasyapa), sustain these furrows with saplings to grow healthily. Also, may Mother Earth endowed with brimming milk of fertility, yield us abundant crops year after year. May the ploughshare, the cutting metal blade of the plough that enables you to make furrows on the field bestow abundant wealth to all of us.
May you O’ Kshetrapati !, who till the field to make furrows by driving the oxen drawing the plough bring welfare to us. May ‘Parjanya’, the rain god sumptuously wet our fields with sweet, pure waters and bless us imparting a bountiful harvest. May Shuna and Sira the goddesses of farmers be propitious to us and bestow welfare and prosperity to all of us.
Thus ‘Kshetrapati Suktam’ glorifies the supreme prominence of the Farmer, who is the provider of food to the entire world. The well-being of mankind rests in the hands of farmers. We should be ever grateful to all farmers because of their hard work we are being nourished regularly and we are treading the path of prosperity.
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