Festival story · 4 tellings · East India, Pan-India, South India
The day of first letters: Vasant Panchami, Vidyarambham and the goddess under the creepers
Why children write their first letters before Saraswati: Krishna's own puja on the fifth of Magha in the Shakta Puranas, the Panachikkad goddess who came home in a brahmin's umbrella and receives children on Vijayadashami, and Bengal's Hatekhori.
Kizheppuram Namboodiri, childless, leaves for Kashi and stops at Kollur Mookambika.
The goddess tells him in a dream that he will have no child of his own, but may adopt one of a neighbour's twins.
Home again, he leaves his palm-leaf umbrella on the tank bank and bathes, and afterwards cannot lift it.
A passing sage tells him the goddess has come with him and wants a temple; her image lies in the forest near the Vishnu temple, under a Yakshi's guard.
He pleases the Yakshi with tender coconut, fried rice powder and jaggery, finds the image and sets it facing east; a second, formless image faces west and alone is worshipped.
Creepers cover the east-facing goddess; they are never cut and are said never to wilt.
On Vijayadashami children sit in a teacher's lap; the teacher writes Hari Sree on the child's tongue with a gold coin, and the child writes it in sand.
South India · Panachikkad, Kottayam district, KeralaAll traditions
Of three Namboodiri families near the temple, Kizheppuram's had no children. The brahmin set out for Kashi and stopped at Kollur Mookambika, where the goddess came to him in a dream: no child of his own in this birth, but a lady of the Karunattu house would bear twins and would give him one to adopt, and his family would grow. Back home he left his umbrella on the bank of the temple tank, bathed, and could not lift it. A passing sage said the goddess wished a temple here; her image lay in the forest near the local Vishnu temple, guarded by a Yakshi who must first be pleased with tender coconut water, fried rice powder and jaggery. He found the image and consecrated it facing east, and on the sage's advice a second, formless image facing west, which alone is worshipped. Creepers called Panathi Kuthu Chedi cover the eastern goddess and may never be cut; people say they never wilt, and wind or rain gives a rare glimpse of her. On Vijayadashami, in Navaratri, children beginning their education sit in a Guru's lap; the Guru writes Hari Sree on the tongue with a gold or silver coin and the child writes it in sand. The temple is called the Mookambika of the South.
Saraswati Puja and Hatekhori (Bengal, Bangladesh, Nepal)
East India · Bengal, Bangladesh, Nepal, OdishaAll traditions🪔 Vasant Panchami (Saraswati Puja)
On the fifth day of bright Magha, the puja of the goddess is held at home, in schools, colleges and universities, with the morning anjali and prashad. Children are formally introduced to learning that day in the rite called Hatekhori, a slate and chalk put in the small hand for the first letters, or, as a Nepali memoir of a Kolkata childhood puts it, a pencil placed in the child's hand. Books, pens and pencils are laid before the image and nobody studies that day; girls borrow their mothers' saris; yellow is worn. In Odisha the first letters are Khadi Chuan, on Ganesh Chaturthi or this day. The memoir adds what Bengal says of her: a daughter of Durga, and the swan that parts milk from water.
What is different here:
No temple and no founding story; the rite belongs to the spring day, not to Vijayadashami; a slate and chalk instead of a coin on the tongue.
Devi Bhagavata 9.4 and Brahma Vaivarta: the first puja on the fifth of Magha
Pan-IndiaShakta🪔 Vasant Panchami (Saraswati Puja)
Krishna himself worshipped Saraswati on the fifth day of the bright half of Magha, 'the day when learning is commenced', and after him Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ananta, Dharma, Sanaka and the sages, all kings and all people. The worshipper controls the senses the day before, sets a jar, worships Ganesha first, and offers sixteen mostly white things: ghee, curd, milk, rice, sesame sweets, sugarcane, honey, coconut, plantains, white flowers, white sandal, white cloth and a conch; the dhyana is of a white, smiling goddess with lute and book. The Brahma Vaivarta's Prakriti Khanda calls the same day the day of Vidyarambha and worships Ganesha, Surya, Agni, Vishnu, Shiva and Parvati first.
What is different here:
The scriptural warrant for the date and the white offerings; no children in the text.
South India · Tirur, Malappuram, KeralaAll traditions
At the birthplace of Thunchath Ezhuthachan, father of the Malayalam language, children from all over Kerala are brought on Vijayadashami for Vidyarambham (Ezhuthiniruthu), one of the few places the rite is done outside a temple; the iron stylus he wrote with is kept there and carried in procession at the February festival. In the rite the child sits before a lit lamp; Hari Sree Ganapataye Namah is written on the tongue with a gold ring and then traced with the child's finger in a tray of rice; the teacher's fee is a betel leaf, areca nut, a coin and cloth.
What is different here:
A poet's birthplace rather than a goddess's temple; no legend attached.