Ghya: Caku Sa(n)lhu [10]

"Sa(n)lhu " is the old Newari for the first day of a solar month. The Nepali Sanskritic term sankranti^[*][1] is used in ordinary references to this day. This sankranti^[*] , Ghya: Caku Sa(n)lhu [10],^[2] comes in the second week of January (in 1974/75 on the thirteenth day of Pohelathwa, in the Nepali month of Pausa^[*] ). It was of special importance in traditional South Asia as Makara-Sankranti^[*] (Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 211ff.) in that it marked the winter solstice, and the beginning of the udagayana , the "ascending," brightening half of the year. Like other sankranti^[*] in Bhaktapur, the day is special to Visnu^[*] , but on this day there are some extra activities related to the story of Visnu's^[*] dwarf avatar Vamana, in which form Visnu^[*] recaptures heaven and the earth from the Asura Mahabali. On this day an offering is given by every middle-status and

upper-status household to its Brahman purohita , or family priest.^[3] The offering consists of jaki (unhusked, uncooked rice), vegetables, uncooked pulses, and ghya: caku , a mixture of clarified butter (ghya :, or ghee) and molasses (caku ), for which the day is named. The offering, at least according to Brahman and Chathariya informants, signifies that the Brahmans as heirs to Visnu/Narayana^[*] were once the owners of all the land, an ownership that in some versions of the Vamana story, (e.g., Stutley and Stutley 1977, 321) was contested by the Asura, Mahabali, and restored through Visnu's^[*]avatar . In the morning of this day there are offerings of ghya: caku to the household deities. People eat ghya: caku during the day, and it is served at the household feasts that take place during the evening. Friends and affinal family, as well as phuki , are invited to these feasts, called nakhatya . A peculiarity of these feasts is that on this occasion alone boiled rice is served rather than the beaten rice that is always otherwise served at feasts. Ghya: caku is poured over the boiled rice. This is a striking and to contemporary people in Bhaktapur a mysterious and unexplained reversal of the customary practice. The ghya: caku is also made into sweetmeats that (as well as a certain kind of wild yam) are also traditionally eaten on this day.^[4] (Moderate.)