SOFT STEPS OF HEMANT

OMETHING beautiful is happening if we but hark.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

The holy month of Agrahayana or Margashirsha begins on November 22 this year and ends on December 21. The North Indian panchang says it began on November 6 and ends on December 4, so by that reckoning, we are already in it. It is the ninth month of the Hindu lunar calendar and the Indian national calendar. The name of the month comes from the position of the moon near the Mrigashirsha nakshatra on full moon day. Its season is pre-winter, when the harvest is done; the delightful time we call Hemant. Since pre-winter begins earlier in the temperate zone of the North than in the tropical zone of the South, the dates slide, too. That is how it was once explained to me.

Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, Canto 10, Verse 35: brihat-sama tatha samnam gayatri chhandasam aham/masanam marga-shirsho ‘ham ritinarh kusumakarah, meaning, ‘Among the hymns in the Samaveda know me to be the Brihatsama; amongst poetic meters I am the Gayatri. Of the twelve months of the calendar, I am Margashirsha, and of seasons I am Spring, which brings forth flowers.’