दिवेलागण

१Dusk

The call comes at दिवेलागण, the hour the lamps are lit. Hands, feet and face are washed, and the household gathers before the gods. An oil lamp is lit there, often with incense, and in many homes the bell is rung. Many homes leave the door open at this hour, to welcome Lakṣmī.

२Śubhaṃ Karoti

Everyone says it together, facing the lamp: a Sanskrit verse to the lamp’s flame; the Marathi lines every child learns first, in which the lamp lit before the gods throws its light on the tulsī, and the ills of the house go out as Lakṣmī comes in; and a closing Sanskrit verse that calls the flame the supreme Brahman. The words vary from home to home; the library gives the core that the printings share.

• शुभं करोतिShubham Karoti

३The stotras

Then come the longer texts, which differ from family to family. A Marathi memoir of a childhood in a wāḍā remembers the Gaṇapati Stotra and the Rāmarakṣā every evening, with the Atharvaśīrṣa added on Tuesdays and the Māruti Stotra, Bhīmrūpī, on Saturdays. One parvachā course for children today begins with the Gāyatrī and the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya.

• रामरक्षाRam Raksha Stotra
• अथर्वशीर्षGanpati Atharvashirsha
• मारुती स्तोत्रBhimrupi Maharudra
• गायत्रीGayatri Mantra
• महामृत्युंजयMahamrityunjaya Mantra

Not yet in the library: Gaṇapati Stotra (प्रणम्य शिरसा देवं)

४The parvachā

Molesworth’s Marathi dictionary of 1857 defines परवचा as ‘the evening-recitation of scholars’. After the prayers, children chanted their multiplication tables (पाढे) together: up to ten for the youngest, twenty or thirty for the older ones, and then पावकी and निमकी, the tables of quarters and halves. The same memoir remembers the grandmother telling the story that belonged to the day of the week.

५Before the meal

The younger ones touch the elders’ feet for their blessing, and the evening meal follows.