Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s3.11

v2.c27.s3.11

Festivals in Mewār. Naurātri Festival.—In a memoir prepared for me by a well-informed public officer in the Rana’s court, on the chief festivals celebrated in Mewar, he commenced with those following the autumnal equinox, in the month Asoj or Aswini, opening with the Nauratri, sacred to the god of war. Their fasts are in general regulated by the moon; although the most remarkable are solar, especially those of the equinoxes and solstices, and the Sankrantis, or days on which the sun enters a new sign. The Hindu solar year anciently commenced on the winter solstice, in the month Pausha, and was emphatically called ‘the morning of the gods’; also Sivaratri, or night of Siva, analogous, as has been before remarked, to the ‘mother night,’ which ushered in the new year of the Scandinavian Asi, and other nations of Asiatic origin dwelling in the north.