Rainfall and Ancient Wisdom

Rainfall and ancient wisdom

I hail from Kerala but have spent most of my life in Mumbai. Both Kerala and Mumbai have a lot in common, a long coastline, plenty of fish, a large number of malayalees and above all, the monsoon, belting its fury for days on end from June to September every year.

As a child in Kerala, I used to often hear the elders predict rain, just by an event occurring the next day, be it the 15 day cycle of the moon, certain festivals or even the good old smell in the air.

As I grew older and moved to Mumbai, leading a reasonably professional routine, I noticed something very similar, the close proximity of rains to certain festivals.

Seasons do change and festivals, especially those falling during the monsoon season, have different dates, but the linkage of these festivals to rain is uncanny.

Thus the Coconut day festival, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, all have some very predictable showers waiting in the wings. Locals are able to predict the heavy showers that accompany the Janmashtami celebrations or the day including and preceding the Ganesh immersion, whether these dates fall in August or September. A little closer look at the traditional calendars and one understands the scientific depth behind these dates.

From my limited exposure to a few calendars, both traditional as well as Roman, what emerges is the regularity with which festivals change dates every year. And certain years, festivals go on for 10 days, some years, it is 11. While the Hindu almanac is precise on these aspects, very little correlation between nature / weather and festivals is seen in the Gregorian calendar the world swears by. The closest one gets to see in the Christian calendar is the changing dates of Easter, which is reportedly set around the March equinox, as per a decision taken by the Council of Nicaea in A.D.325.

The study of calendars and how they evolved is fascinating, but the common thread among all those who drew up such calendars is a lot of scientific assumptions based on empirical data either visual or projected,  again, subject to astronomical observations.

And like all grandmother remedies, rains also seem to be steeped heavily in tradition and science.

Just in case the reader is wondering why I wrote this piece, it is the sheer curiosity that drove me to explore a phenomenon that I have been tracking for years. And the trigger?. This year, after a huge down pour in June and July, Mumbai saw a dry August. Tomorrow, 18^th September is Ganpati Visargan and we have been having torrential downpours for the past few days with an hour’s heavy showers this morning with more expected for tomorrow.

Most years, devotees who accompany huge Ganesh idols get drenched and this year promises to be no different.

In Kerala I hear, most places had a very wet Onam this year.I do not recall too many wet Onams in my childhood. May be the times have changed or my memory fails me.And could also be the topic for some more research.

Job Xavier

Mumbai-91 98923 29188