Dasme / Dasve

[Wicked Warrior]

Fateh Ji.

Posted this on SS but didn't get a reply.

I heard about Dasve which is the tenth day after a new moon. This day holds some kind of significance to do with Shaheed Singhs but I don't know what.

Does anyone else have any more information?

Fateh.

[Dhan-Waheguru]

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Yes, I don’t really know the significance of Dasme other than its do with shaheed Singhs. I know my uncle bring a Giani around who does Chaupai sahib and then eats a parsaada. But no one really has a detailed explanation.

[tonyhp32]

Daswin or as it is referred to in Malwa, Dussmee is to do with ancestor worship or Jathera where special food is made which includes kheer and then a small part of which is left in the open in a high place such as a wall so that birds can eat it. In India it is usually placed in a Marhi which is called a Mutti in Malwa which is a specially constructed small (about 1 sq foot) square structure. A prayer is usually said by whoever places the food there. Then one of the members of the family who is specially nominated and who will eat the food at each daswin eats the food before anyone else and then the whole family eats. Usually the part which is left for the birds is symbolically for a dead ancestor. The reason why it can be associated with Shaheed Singhs might be that at some stage the Shaheed Singhs were the ancestors who were being symbolically fed by their descendents.

Edited December 1, 2009 by tonyhp32

[Guest]

Thanks tony bro for shedding some light on to this. This explains the rituals my tayi was performing when we were there back home. They couldn't explain the significance of it.. instead they told me it is been followed parampara within my family.

Now i have a question - is this ritual related to jatt culture or pretty much punjabi culture thing?

[shaheediyan]

Predominantly Jatt tribal Culture (hence Jatts) - Sythian roots, rural people in some parts of Eastern Europe still practice forms of Jatera worship to this day.

[tonyhp32]

In Punjab it is mostly a Jat thing. Ancestor worship was probably the wrong expression as it is probably more ancestor veneration than ancestor worship. It is more to do with showing loyality to the family, accepting and followingh the traditions of the family or clan.

Orginally the first Jatheras of the Jats was the person from whom the clan considered itself descended from. There's a Dhillon Jathera Each Jat clan has a Jathera located in a particular village. After the clan expanded and formed new villages then upon the founding of each new village, the first person of the clan who died in that village was given the status of Jathera of that village and a small shrine built in his honour. Collective veneration was done at the Jathera on a particular day each month. Whenever a marriage took place the bride, who in Jat culture was invariably from another Jat clan would then be taken to the shrine to take part in a ceremony at the Jathera. Because the new villages required 'laagis' or other castes who would undertake tasks such as carpentry, washing clothes, ironwork etc then these laagis would also take part in the ceremonies associated with Jathera. So what was originally a part of Jat culture spread into the general Punjabi culture.