Note 70 — Chapter VI · SOME RURAL FESTIVALS AND CEREMONIES.
Reading edition
We have seen that the primary basis of this and similar rites is probably the propitiation of sunshine. But the present observances in India are probably a survival of a very much more primitive cultus. We have already seen that in one form of the popular legend, Holî is the sister of Sambat, the year, and revived him from death by burning herself with his corpse. We find the same idea in Nepâl, where a wooden post adorned with flags is erected in front of the palace, and this is burned at night, representing the burning of the body of the old year, and its re-birth with each succeeding spring.70