Ramlila, Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja are all celebrated on a large scale during the advent of the Sharad Ritu, whose full moon is supposed to dispense several boons, among them end of illness, good fortune, freedom from poverty and the realization of other unfulfilled desires. For this worship of the moon god and eating of kheer cooled in moonbeams are said to be essential. However, most people forget that this is also the season when the legend of Tesu and Jhainji is ritually celebrated, not popularly anymore but in some homes alright.
Sahapedia, an encyclopedia on Indian culture, is researching the legend through its coordinator Suparna Sengupta. Based in Safdarjang Development Area, the organisation covers such subjects as knowledge, traditions, visual and material arts, literature and languages, practices and rituals and other allied subjects.
There is not much observance of the Tesu-Jhainji ritual in Delhi though Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the two States where there is a lot of participation. But there was a time when Delhi too celebrated the ritual. The chief organiser of the annual Phool Walon-ki Sair, Lala Yogeshwar Dayal as also the historian Maheshwar Dayal, were among the last great Delhiwallahs who witnessed the Tesu ritual in the early 20th Century.
Lala Yogeshwar Dayal, who died some years ago, was a great raconteur. One evening in the October of 1958, he waxed eloquent at the haveli of Lala Chunna Mal in Chandni Chowk. He disclosed that while still a lad his mother told him one day not to sulk because “karhi” was not made to his liking at home but go to the Diwali Bazar, stretching from the Northbrook Fountain (Fawarra) to the Town Hall, and buy traditional toys like the gujaria, hundculia, with four parts like a pandan, and the idols used for Diwali puja. Young Yogeshwar went reluctantly and returned after spending a long time in the bazaar. Among the things he had bought were a Tesu and a Jhainji. He was intrigued by the last two until his mother told him about them.
It was during the Bangladesh war that S. P. Sharma, an ASI official was transferred to Delhi from Agra. One remembers that it was at his house in 1971 during the Dusshera-Diwali season that some friends and acquaintances were invited for an evening ritual dinner. The guests were accommodated on the terrace of a house in Daryaganj, bang opposite Golcha cinema, under a shamiana whose chief attraction were the idols of Tesu Raja and Rajkumari Jhainji. Sharmaji asked his children to light the diyas of the couple, throw kheel-batasha around them and dance Tesu-ka-raas. To their voices were added the more mature ones of their mother, aunts and still-a-bride, bhabhi, with Sharmaji sometimes joining in with his bass tones. It was a rare experience for the guests as ghungroos jingled on dancing feet and voices mingled in symphony.
It’s worth disclosing that the “raas” was famously danced in pre-Partition days by Chhammo (about whom the jingle went that if she were to die the bazaars would close – Chhammo mar gaye, bazaar bandh ho gaye) and Tara Jaan to the tunes of the harmonium and the magical voice of Jaani Babu. That was before the brutal assault on the two tawwaifs by some inebriated youths at a Kotha in Kashmere Bazaar, close to the Agra Fort. But now the story related by Sharmaji:
Sharad Purnima night is the most beautiful of the year in North India. The sky has been washed clean by the monsoon, the stars begin to acquire the cold, hard stare of winter, and the moon looks brighter and stronger. It was on such a night that gossip visualized the meeting of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal after the demise of the latter. But an older legend associated with Sharad Purnima is that of Tesu and Jhainji and the annual union of the two is a strange spectacle.
Tesu is believed to have been a son of Bhimsen, the most powerful of the Pandava brothers. He ruled an area in the Chambal region and on hearing of the Mahabharat decided to go and witness the battle. As he rode towards Kurukshetra he met Sri Krishna, disguised as an old Brahmin. Krishna had come to dissuade him from going to the battlefield as Tesu was a great warrior who had the knack of helping the losing army and ensuring its victory. Krishna asked Tesu for a boon: his head “How can I give you that?” said Tesu, “But you cannot deprive a Brahmin of his boon!” quipped Krishna. “Sure”, said Tesu, “but I am on my way to the Mahabharat and after that to keep my promise of marrying the pretty Jhainji.” “But your wishes will be fulfilled,” said Krishna. “If it be so, then cut off my head,” replied the chivalrous Raja. Krishna took the head to Kurukshetra, where he set it up on three poles. So Tesu watched the battle and was married to Jhainji too.
The legend finds a befitting finale on Sharad Purnima night when Tesu is symbolically married to Jhainji in some homes, tastefully decorated by the children. Tesu, depicted as a toy with laughing eyes, a red paan-stained mouth, his moustaches proclaiming his royalty, a red parrot in one hand and a hookah in the other, supported on three reeds is set up on the terrace. And Jhainji, as a decorated pot with many holes through which the light of a “diya” filters out is married to him.
The guests then sit down to eat the wedding meal, with the air fresh and keen, piercing through flimsy clothes. The moon smiles in all its glory and one feels transported to some ethereal setting. For such is the charm on the terrace on Sharad Purnima night amid the singing of ritual songs, when Dusshera bows out. A pity that Lala Yogeshwar Dayal’s idea of holding a Tesu-Jhainji spectacle alongside Phool Walon-ki-Sair could not materialise.
