Jitiya 5
Katerine Aldrige
Why Jitiya? The desire for a male child is ritually manifested in the jitiya vrat that falls in the pitr paksha, when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors, and through specific food cooked and desired by mothers who wished for a long and healthy life for their children.
Soon after the birth of my daughter, my mother-in-law suggested that I keep the Jitiya fast for the long and healthy life of the child. I learned later that only women who have given birth to male children keep them, so my mother-in-law was upending the prevalent custom. Nowadays, many women in Bihar observe fasts despite having only daughters, while others continue to abstain in the same situation. The zeal of the people in my place of posting, and the availability of things needed for the rituals, influenced my jitiya fervour, too.
The Jitiya fast begins with Nahay khaye when mothers bathe before eating the specially prepared food. The mother prepares the prescribed foods in ghee with sendha namak but without onion or garlic. Though mandatory foods include noni ka saag, madua ki roti and satputia with the main meal of chana dal with lauki or bottle gourd with fine-grained rice, my dishes have often shrunk to dal chawal with jhingi. The same food is eaten at night, but perhaps with madua ki roti or madua ka halwa. Before the 24-hour nirjala fast, women get up early, around 4 am, to eat sargai or sehri. Sehri, the pre-dawn meal, is a Persian term and connotes the meal eaten just before dawn; its association with a Hindu fast, gives credence to the idea of porous cultural boundaries.
We eat no specific food on Sehri. I prefer dates soaked in milk while others might prefer a full-course meal. The main function of the pre-dawn Sehri is to help women to sustain the 24-hour fast without water and to perform their household and religious duties with devotion. On the second day, towards evening, the altar is prepared in which the figures of chilh and siyar (eagle and fox) made from clay are kept beside the figure of Jimuthvahan, made from Kusha grass. After offering flowers and fruits to the idols, reading the katha or story of jitiya with aarti completes the evening puja.
While many women follow the difficult injunction of not having any water, others have started to take nimbu paani (lemon water with sugar but without salt) or tea after the puja is over. I have wavered, and except for a few occasions of not taking anything, the sweet and deeply fulfilling nimbu paani has quenched my thirst and filled my belly. The fast has made me revere food and water that I might never have truly appreciated otherwise.
One cannot overlook the fact that the chana dal with lauki and arwa rice combination is considered auspicious in this region because it is made during festivals and on special occasions in the family. Presumably, the abundant production or fecundity of chana made it worthy enough to give company to arwa rice, which again is pure enough to be an offering to the deity. The other primary source of carbohydrates is Madua or ragi or finger millet, a nutritious healthy cereal that can survive extreme heat and drought. The high protein content and presence of many minerals make this a superfood that is said to balance hormones in young mothers. But for Jitiya, madua is chosen because, unlike wheat and rice, being hardy makes it less susceptible to pest attacks like weevils. By making ragi rotis or halwa and eating them, mothers hope to transfer the quality of endurance to their progeny. A similar reason is seen behind the choice of other vegetables and foods in this fast, some of which I have mentioned in the following paragraphs.
Noni ka saag is a common creeper, seen in potted plants or by the side of the road. It spreads quickly and flourishes in all types of conditions. The quality of proliferation without any aid is what mothers wish for their offspring. Cleaning the small entangled leaves of noni is quite a tedious process, but when eaten as bachka or saag, it is delicious.
Then there is turai, which with its two close cousins have become my favourite. While ridge gourd or jhingni was available elsewhere, satputia became part of my shopping bag only in Patna. Satputia belongs to the family of turai, but unlike it, comes in bunches, and hence the name seven sons or satputia. Earlier, offspring died in infancy or early adulthood since childcare and maternal care were non-existent, so the only safety was in numbers. Eating satputia would have conferred seven strong sons to mothers, fulfilling her motherly desires and increasing their standing in the family. From the nutrition angle, the high-water content and plenty of cellulose in these vegetables would have helped the fasting women to stay hydrated and ward off constipation after the prolonged fast.
Poi ka saag or malabar spinach is a much-loved green in many parts of India and is often part of satvik offerings to deities. A robust and hardy climber with its heat-tolerant nature and other nourishing properties makes it part of the Jitiya food list. One can make saag from the leaves or eat it as the much-loved bachkas, the latter being fried poi leaves dipped in besan and rice flour batter. The crispy poi adds crunch to the dal-chawal main course.
After a 24-hour fast without water, and this duration can go further as per the beginning of the Navami tithi according to the Hindu calendar, the women break their fast by swallowing five seeds of soaked black gram and five seeds of cucumber or five seeds of kusi kairav. After the puja, mothers put the jitiya thread around the necks of their children before they end their fast. Before partaking in the solid food specially prepared for the day, an offering in the leaf of nenua is placed in an open area for ancestors and birds. These food items may vary across households and regions. The offerings for the birds, revered as visiting ancestors, make jitiya an important ritual, which invokes the blessings of forefathers for future generations.
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