Uthana Dwadashi

On Uthana Dwadashi, South Indians perform the wedding of Tulasi. The main part of the pooja consists of drawing an elaborate and colorful rangoli in front of the house. Rangoli means Ranga + Avali, i.e. it is the auspicious sign to bring in Lord Krishna. We place an idol of Lord Krishna on a peetha or a small stool on the rangoli. Then, we perform His pada pooja and bring Him inside saying that we are performing Tulasi’s wedding with Him.

However, we have not been able to perform this preliminary ceremony because of Our Lady of Intolerance’s intolerable torture. The woman keeps sending her slaves to throw stones at our door. At this rate, Mom – a great rangoli artist – would not be spared again. Once Our Lady of Intolerance’s son had thrown his chappal on my Mom’s hand while she was drawing a rangoli, 4 years back. Her hand has not recovered fully after that. After that they have damaged the rangolis we made, the moment we come into our home, after drawing them. Similarly, Mom would have kept a handmade Lakshmi Pada with silver light anklets. These people pick it up and leave as if nothing has happened.

Once, Mom had made paper lotuses and kept Lakshmi Padas over them coming toward the inside of our home. She had left an oil lamp nearby, which is again a ritual. These people had burnt the lotuses with the flame of the lamp. For 2 years, they threw small stones at our door. In the beginning, for 6 months, we threw them away. Then, we began saving the stones. For the initial 2 years, they might have thrown only about 10 stones. But, in the last 3 months, there has been a shower of stones. We have decided to hand over the stones to the police. These people have even challenged the police. I am sharing the photograph of the stones, here.

Because of the above reason, we could not perform the initial ritual of the wedding called Janavasa. Anyways, we performed the reception of the wedding on Ekadashi. I have shared the picture last time. We performed the actual wedding on Dwadashi.

We placed a piece of sugarcane behind Tulasi plant. We also placed Amla plant with Tulasi. Mom also placed an amla fruit in the Tulsi pot. We placed Shalagrama also there. We performed the wedding with an antarpata in between and said that they are man and wife from that moment. We, then, exchanged the garlands of Tulasi and Shalagrama. We tied the mangalsutra to Tulasi on behalf of Shalagrama. Then, we placed the Shalagrama within the pot of Tulasi. Finally, we tied the auspicious roli thread around the plants and the idols.

Post that, we performed the Saptapadi with 7 flowers and amla fruits aarti. Then, we offered flowers and concluded the wedding rituals. I am also sharing the photographs of this.

There is a story connected to this festival. I will share that in the next post.

To be continued…