KATHMANDU: The great Hindu festival Bada Dashain, which begins every year on the first lunar day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin, has commenced from today.

The festival, celebrated with grandeur for 15 days until the full moon day of Ashwin, begins with Ghatasthapana on the first day.

On this occasion, lamps, a sacred water vessel, and Lord Ganesh are ritually established.

The worship is formally initiated with a Vedic invocation of Goddess Durga, the supreme deity of power, in the household shrine or community Dashain house.

Early this morning, after completing daily rites, devotees collected pure sand or soil from a nearby river or sanctified place.

The sand was placed in a sanctified space plastered with cow dung in the prayer room or Dashain house. Upon it, barley seeds were sown in a ritual known as Jamara planting.

Since sprouted barley is considered beloved to Goddess Durga, the green shoots (Jamara) are later offered to the deity during worship and distributed on Dashain Tika day along with the sacred Tika (vermilion mark with curd and rice grains) as a symbol of prosperity.

According to a scholar of sacred law and a member of the Nepal Calendar Determination Committee, Prof. Dr. Devmani Bhattarai, only barley is prescribed in the scriptures for Jamara planting. However, in some family traditions, other grains are sown together with barley.

Jamara also holds medicinal value in Ayurveda, where it is used as a healing herb.