Kojagara

At dusk the groom dons the new clothes gifted by his in-laws and is seated on a wooden peedha over a freshly-drawn aripan (the Maithil floor-art in rice-paste). The women perform the auspicious chumawan — circling a tray of durva grass, akshat (unbroken rice), curd, supari and a lamp at his brow, shoulders and knees — singing chumawan geet, while the elders bless him with durva and rice.

The rite formally folds the new son-in-law into the household as an auspicious member, under the rising full moon.

Kojagara centres on Lakshmi — in Mithila often the household Grihalakshmi / Annapurna — invoked for wealth, health and peace under the Ashwin Purnima, the brightest, most benign full moon of the year, whose rays are believed to carry a cooling, nectar-like (amrit) power. A kalash and the goddess’s image are set on an aripan; lamps are lit, and makhana, batasha, fruit and the moonlit kheer are offered.

The puja is kept through the night — for this is the one night Lakshmi herself is said to walk the earth.

The festival’s very name is a question. Lakshmi is believed to roam the earth this one night asking “ko jāgarti?” — “who is awake?” — and to bless with wealth whoever she finds wakeful (and, the old verse adds, playing at dice). So families keep an all-night vigil, the hours passing over the cowrie-and-dice game Pachisi / chaupar and cards — the new groom often matched against his saro (brother-in-law) — amid folk music and laughter.

Makhana kheer — fox-nuts simmered in milk — is left out in the moonlight through the vigil, so the Sharad rays “infuse” it with their cooling nectar, and is then fed to the new groom for health and long life, makhana standing for fertility and abundance (and grown in Mithila’s own ponds). At dawn the makhana, batasha and paan are shared across the neighbourhood — read as a sign of Mithila’s social harmony, the son-in-law’s blessing spilling out to the whole village.

Where the rest of India keeps the Ashwin full moon as Sharad Purnima, Mithila turns it into the festival of the new son-in-law (jamai): the bride’s family sends a bhaar of makhana, paan, batasha and sweets, and the women bless the groom with the chumawan. Tradition traces the custom to King Janaka, said to have first kept it for his son-in-law Rama (some tellings have Sita send the gifts). It is also a Lakshmi night — she is worshipped under the full moon and said to roam asking “ko jagarti?”, “who is awake?”, blessing the wakeful, so families keep an all-night vigil playing Pachisi with cowries. Makhana kheer left in the moonlight is fed to the groom for long life, and the makhana, paan and batasha are shared across the neighbourhood — a sign of Mithila’s social harmony, and one of the festivals most distinctly the region’s own.