Sithi Nakha [36]

Sithi Nakha^[6] falls on the sixth day of the waxing fortnight Tachalathwa (May/June). The Nine Durgas have to perform their last dance drama^[7] on either the Sunday or the Thursday prior to Sithi Nakha, depending on the day of the week that Sithi Nakha will fall. Sithi Nakha, like all the annual calendrical events of the Devi cycle, has a significant connec-

tion to the events of the rice producing agricultural cycle, all being related either to the rice planting and harvesting activities themselves or to the phases of the rainy season on which they are dependent. Sithi Nakha marks the expected end of the dry season, the day when wells and ponds and roads are to be cleaned in preparation for the coming rains.^[8] Anderson notes that "Chronicles tell how the city of Bhadgaon [Bhaktapur] was once surrounded by a thick fortifying wall and moat, the maintenance, renovation, and cleaning of which were the responsibility of every citizen of the town, regardless of caste. Any person who failed to complete his assigned section by Sithi Nakha Day was duly punished" (1971, 70). This day also marks the beginning of the period during which rice seeds are to be planted to produce the rice paddy plants that will be transplanted in the next stage of the rice production. For farmers, this day anticipates the beginning of a long period of hard work and anxiety and traditionally was the (the only , it is sometimes said) day in the year when farmers bathed their bodies completely, as a kind of purifying preparation for the period to come. The evening before Sithi Nakha marks the termination of the seven-week Dewali [30] period during which, on their particular days, various phukis worship their lineage deities as Digu Gods.

Like most calendrical events, the day has a miscellaneous additional set of references and activities, some being derivations of its wider areal and historical uses. This day elsewhere in South Asia and Nepal commemorates the day on which the god Kumara was born,^[9] but this connection is largely lost for Bhaktapur. On this day a mandala^[*] containing a six-petal design is made in the Taleju temple and in the homes of the Brahmans associated with Taleju. Although such a mandala^[*] is in some other Nepalese communities thought of as representing Kumara, it is locally interpreted as the Goddess Prthivi^[*] , that is, the earth, a reference that is closer to the agricultural implications of the Devi cycle.^[10] In Bhaktapur Prthivi^[*] is thought of quite concretely as the actual earth, the soil in the fields and beneath human constructions. Pujas to Prthivi^[*] are held in many homes on this day. In the evening many households have special dinners.

Sithi Nakha is a threshold day, the ending of some of the year's activities and a preparation for something new. What is being prepared for with the anticipation of the seasonal rains is an encounter with nature vital to agriculturally based Bhaktapur, an encounter full of risks. This "nature" is the environing and supporting realm of Bhaktapur's public moral, civic life.