Gokulashtami OR Krishna Janmastami

Krishna Janmashtami OR Gokulashtami was celebrated just a week back. Being in US, missed seeing the "Dahi Handi" breaking. Time to post traditional Gokulastami Thindi's ( sweets and savory items ) . Pictures are taken from my own preperation and also my mom 's (the ones i could not prepare here). She had sent it to me especially for this. Few of the items i have already posted in malas-kitchen and made in my kitchen and the rest i will post it now one by one every week. Also i have made seperate folder in the right side bar so it is easily accesible for all the viewers.

Gokulastami (Krishna Janmashtami ) is lord krishna's birth day. In most of the iyengar houses this is celebrated in a grand manner. A mantap is specially made for keeping just varieties of krishna idols and colorful big rangoli's are made in front of them. One of the idols which will be present in all iyengar homes is "thottilu krishna" (Krishna in a cradle). Right from the doorstep to the mandap, a picture of two small feet is made in paint or white color powder or freshly made rice powder. This is to depict the newborn Krishna walking in / coming in. The puja is done late in the evening. This is because it is known that Krishna was born in the night. Two special items are offered to the god during the puja. They are Butter & Poha (flaked rice). Butter because of the obivous reason of being a favorite dish of Krishna. Poha (flaked rice) is also considered a favortie of Krishna as depicted in the folktale of Krishna-Sudama.

Any occassion is not complete without its share of special dishes like Chakli, Mucheru, Thenkol, Kodulbale, Khara sev, Puri unde, Aral unde, Mysore pak, Kobri Obbatt, Sajjappa, Rave Unde, Kobri metai, etc., All the above mentioned are both Khara (not sweet) and Sweet Items. My mom , every year, usually makes 6 khara / savory and 6 sweets . The number of items should be even and the prepartion starts 4 to 5 before the day of the festival. As children we used to get involded for decorating mandap with color papers, tying all type of fruits and flowers, decorate the mandap with lights etc., All this used to start from morning itself.

All this used to end up in the evening and after that my dad used to start puja and doing aradhane for baby krishna idol . I remember that the puja used to go on late into night till 10 clock and culminate in MangalaArathi. The next day again we used to decorate the mandap with flowers and put new color rangoli's and we called up friends , neighbours and relatives for aarthi for baby krishana and distribute the thindi packets to everyone. This was the entire process for the festival of gokulastami (krishna janmashtami) . We used to look forward for the same every year.

My Parents House Decoration (Mysore)

My Sister's House Decoration (Bangalore)

My House Decoration (US New York)

My In-Laws House Decoration (Mysore)

| Copyright © Malas - Kitchen 2009 | | All rights reserved