PARV 6 OF 30 · BAISAKH
अक्षय तृतीया
Baisakh Shukla Tritiya (April–May)
"जो आज बोया, कभी घटे ना"
Katha · The story
Akshaya means that which does not decay. The scriptures hold that on this day Satya Yug began, that Vyasa began dictating the Mahabharata to Ganesh, and that Sudama walked to Dwarka with a handful of poha for his friend Krishna and came home to find his hut a palace. The story told in Malinagar is Sudama's: whatever is given in true friendship today is returned beyond measure.
For farmers it has a plainer meaning. The seed for the kharif, the rice and the maize, is set aside and blessed today, and the first symbolic handful is sown.
Mahatva · Significance
A day when no muhurat needs to be checked: weddings, land deals, first ploughing and new ventures all begin on their own. Gold is bought in the cities; in the village it is seed, a new ghara and a daan of water and sattu to travellers.
"सुदामा चले द्वारका, तीन मुट्ठी चूड़ा साथ"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Sattu, poha with gur in Sudama's memory, and the first ripe jamun or khirni if the trees are early.
Many Malinagar marriages have been fixed on Akshaya Tritiya and held in Aghan on Vivah Panchami: the two bookends of the village wedding calendar.