Govinda Aala Re! Significance of Dahi Handi festival in Maharashtra

Mumbai, Aug 24: Dahi Handi is a famous sportive event organized in the cities of Maharashtra and Goa. Dahi Handi is celebrated on the next day of Krishna Janmashtami. Krishna Janmashtami is also famous as Gokulashtami. Dahi means curd and Handi is earthen pot used to process and keep the milk products. Dahi Handi celebration is also known as Gopalakala in Maharashtra.

In Mumbai, Dahi Handi is getting emerged as a competitive sport. Hundreds of team participates every year in the event. Famous celebrities are invited to promote the event. In recent years the prize money has reached to one crore which is equivalent to 10 million of Indian Rupees.

Significance of Dahi Handi festival or Gopalakala

Dahi Handi celebration commemorates the way of living of Lord Krishna. In His childhood, young Krishna was very fond of the curd and the butter. While growing up the fondness of curd and the butter increased and young Krishna became notorious for stealing it.

When Krishna and His troop started eyeing neighborhood homes to quench their thirst for milk products, female folks in the entire neighborhood became cautious and started hanging milk products from the ceiling like a chandelier. The idea was to take advantage of short height of young Krishna and His troop and keep Dahi Handis out of reach of small hands.

To defeat the idea of female cowherds, Krishna devised the idea of forming human pyramid. Human pyramid was used as the ladder to climb up and reach the Handi. Since then it has become part of Indian folklore. Every year during Janmashtami this event from the life of Lord Krishna is played by the young troop of boys.

During Janmashtami in Maharashtra Dahi Handi festival is a celebrated with high-spirit, to make the task challenging Handi is kept at several floors high at the open ground or at the street crossing. Dahi Handi could be up to several floors high in the sky. Women folks who represent female cowherds from the tale of Lord Krishna thwart any attempts to create human pyramid by throwing the water or some slippery liquid on the pyramid formation. With time the whole event has its own slogan Govinda Aala Re!