Tradition · Sikh martial gathering · India
Hola Mohalla
Three days at Anandpur Sahib after Holi, begun by Guru Gobind Singh in 1701 as a mock battle: the Khalsa was divided in two and made to fight for a standard, so that a festival of colour became a muster and a drill. It is still that — Nihang horsemanship, gatka with sword and staff, tent-pegging, poetry and kirtan, ending in a column that marches to Kiratpur. A community that had just been made into an army gave itself an annual review.
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 31.239, 76.503
Worth knowing
Guru Gobind Singh took the name from Holi and made it masculine — holā rather than holī — which is the whole argument of the festival in one grammatical change.
Connections (2)
- Shrine within cityAnandpur Sāhib
Anandpur is where the Khalsa was instituted in 1699 and Hola Mohalla is what Guru Gobind Singh did with the festival that followed it. In 1701 he divided the new order in two and set them to fight a mock battle for a standard, turning Holi into a muster — holā rather than holī, the masculine form, which is the whole argument in one grammatical change. The gatka, the horsemanship and the closing march to Kiratpur are still that review.
- AnalogueKila Raipur Sports Festival
Two Punjabi gatherings of physical culture, forty kilometres and two centuries apart. Hola Mohalla at Anandpur is martial and religious: Nihang horsemanship, gatka, and a standard fought for, instituted by a Guru in 1701. Kila Raipur near Ludhiana is agricultural and secular, begun in 1933: bullock carts, tractors, tug of war and feats that are half farmwork. Between them they are what the Punjab does with strength when it is not at war — and both have had to argue with modern law, one about weapons and one about animals.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hola Mohalla”. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee records; J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab.
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