In India, Basant Panchami or Vasant Panchami is dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, arts and music, Saraswati. The day is celebrated with much pomp and fervour in North India.
In some parts of India people also worship the God Of Love, Kamadeva on this day. Interestingly, the day also heralds the arrival of Spring. Basant Panchami also marks the start of preparation for Holika and Holi, which occurs 40 days later.
- Basant Panchami is one of the many festivals that have been celebrated in India for a long times as a part of Vasantotsava ( Festival of Spring).
- One of the earliest textual references to the Vasantotsava celebrations is in the Taittiriya Aranyaka in which a passage mentions that spring is jaradaksha meaning skilled in water.
- In sanskrit literature the onset of spring is associated with nature coming alive.
- In the Ritusamhara well known poet kalidasa 4th century CE begins the sixth and last canto with a beautiful description of the onset of Vasanta.
- A passage in Banabhatta's prose poem Kadambari ( The Liquour) the heroine describes the arrival of Vasanta and Compares it with the arrival of her youth.
According to Nityananda Misra, A well known sanskrit scholar, Basant Panchami is referred to as Shri Panchami in Sanskrit texts and historically, it was Lakshmi (also called Shri) and not Saraswati who was worshipped on the date.
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