In news– Ashadha Dwitiya, also known as Ashadhi Bij, marks the beginning of the new year of Kutch on July 1st.
About Ashadhi Bij-
- Ashadhi Bij is the second day of Shukla paksha of Aashaadha month, of the Hindu calendar, which is associated with the beginning of rains in the Kutch region.
- Kutchi community of Gujarat celebrate their new year on this day.
- The occasion is also observed by farming communities in the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and some other regions.
- The festival is marked as Kutchi New Year by the Gujarati population.
- Devotees worship Lord Ganesha, Goddess Lakshmi and other regional deities and organize satsangs, musical competitions, and other cultural programs on this day.
Communities in Kutch region-
- Rabari constitute a comparatively large group in Kutch and there lives a brave and noble community like Ahir.
- Harijan community also live in the region. They migrated from Marwar (Rajasthan).
- Mutva, Halepotra, Pathan, Raysipotra, are some of well known Muslim communities living in the region.
- Jat is another interesting Muslim community living in this region.
- There are some other communities living in Kutch. Some of them are Koli, Vaghri, Vadi, etc.
- These people traditionally hail from the Kutch district of the western Indian state of Gujarat and the Sindh region of Pakistan.
- Many of them speak Kutchi language an Indo-Aryan language.
- However, most Kutchis living in India are bilingual or trilingual, due to exposure to closely related neighbouring languages such as Gujarati.
- Kutch literally means something which intermittently becomes wet and dry; a large part of this district is known as Rann of Kutch which is shallow wetland which submerges in water during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons.
- The same word is also used in Sanskrit origin for a tortoise.
Source: The print
