=Savitrivrata Festival.=—On the 29th Baisakh there is a fast common to India peculiar to the women, who perform certain rites under the sacred fig-tree (the _vata_ or _pipal_), to preserve them from widowhood; and hence the name of the fast Savitri-vrata.[4.21.62] =Festivals in the month Jeth: May-June.=—On the 2nd of Jeth, when the sun is in the zenith, the Rajput ladies commemorate the birth of the sea-born goddess Rambha, the queen of the naiads or Apsaras,[4.21.63] whose birth, like that of Venus, was from the froth of the waters; and [579] hence the Rajput bards designate all the fair messengers of heaven by the name of Apsaras, who summon the ‘chosen’ from the field of battle, and convey him to the ‘mansion of the sun.’[4.21.64] =The Aranya-Shashthi Festival.=—On the 6th of Jeth the ladies have another festival called the Aranya Shashthi, because on this day those desirous of offspring walk in the woods (_aranya_) to gather and eat certain herbs. Sir W. Jones has remarked the analogy between this and the Druidic ceremony of gathering the mistletoe (also on the Shashthi, or 6th day of the moon), as a preservative against sterility. =Festivals in the month Āsārh: June-July.=—Asarh, the initiative month of the periodical rains, has no particular festivity at Udaipur, though in other parts of India the Rathayatra, or procession of the car of Vishnu or Jagannatha (lord of the universe) is well known: this is on the 2nd and the 11th, ‘the night of the gods,’ when Vishnu (the sun) reposes four months. =Festivals in the month Sāwan: July-August.=—Sawan, classically Sravana. There are two important festivals, with processions, in this month. =The Tij.=—The third, emphatically called ‘the Tij’ (third), is sacred to the mountain goddess Parvati, being the day on which, after long austerities, she was reunited to Siva: she accordingly declared it holy, and proclaimed that whoever invoked her on that day should possess whatever was desired. The Tij is accordingly reverenced by the women, and the husbandman of Rajasthan, who deems it a most favourable day to take possession of land, or to reinhabit a deserted dwelling. When on the expulsion of the predatory powers from the devoted lands of Mewar, proclamations were disseminated far and wide, recalling the expatriated inhabitants, they showed their love of country by obedience to the summons. Collecting their goods and chattels, they congregated from all parts, but assembled at a common rendezvous to make their entry to the _bapota_, ‘land of their sires,’ on the Tij of Sawan. On this fortunate occasion, a band of three hundred men, women, and children, with colours flying, drums beating, the females taking precedence with brass vessels of water on their heads, and chanting the _suhaila_ (song of joy), entered the town of Kapasan, to revisit their desolate dwellings [580], and return thanks on their long-abandoned altars to Parvati[4.21.65] for a happiness they had never contemplated.