Talk:Maha Shivaratri
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The page covers Maha Shivaratri as the festival at which cannabis is offered to Shiva and consumed: the date and observance, the evidence of the 1890s, present practice in India, the festival at Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, and the law in Nepal and India. Cannabis in Hindu worship as a whole is covered on Cannabis in Hinduism and the god on Shiva.
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Discussion
Sources
- Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, vol. I, ch. IX (paras. 434–448), its Berar memorandum (vol. III, pp. 107–109) and J. M. Campbell's note (vol. III, p. 251) are the evidence of the 1890s.
- Underhill (1921) describes the festival year for a missionary series whose volumes set Hinduism beside Christianity; only her account of the calendar and the observance is used.
- Hasan (1975) and Fisher (1975) are village and temple ethnography from north India (1959–60) and Kathmandu (early 1970s).
- Acharya et al. (2014) surveyed 200 sadhus at Pashupatinath during Shivaratri in February 2014 from a public-health standpoint; the judgement on festival use quoted in the article is the authors'.
- The Pashupatinath section rests on reports in the Kathmandu Post, Republica, Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and Euronews of the announcements of the Pashupati Area Development Trust and the police, 2011 to 2026.
The date
- The festival falls on the same night everywhere, but its month is named Māgha in the amānta reckoning and Phālguna in the pūrṇimānta reckoning (Underhill 1921, pp. 22–23). Campbell and the Gujarat evidence give Magh; Hasan gives Phalgun.
- Hasan and Campbell put the festival on the 14th day of the dark half. Underhill gives the 13th day of the dark half as the monthly Sivaratri observed in Maharashtra and sets the hunter legend on the dark 13th of Māgha.
Pashupatinath: conflicting reports
- When the supply of cannabis to sadhus ended: the trust's executive director (Kathmandu Post, 2018) said the trust gave sadhus confiscated cannabis until 1995; Agence France-Presse (2011, 2012) wrote that "the government" once provided it.
- The year of the ban: the Kathmandu Post gives 1973 in 2018 and 2020 and 1976 in 2019. Fisher (1975) dates the revocation of licences to 16 July 1973; the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act dates from 1976.
- Arrests in 2018: Onlinekhabar reported 39 on the festival day, including two sadhus; the Kathmandu Post reported 52 the next day.
- The law: Agence France-Presse wrote in 2011 that sadhus may smoke under "an ancient legal loophole" and in 2013 that "under Nepalese law only holy men" may smoke at the festival. Section 4 of the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act prohibits the consumption of cannabis and contains no exception for religious use or festivals; the arrangements reported each year are announcements of the trust and the police.
Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain
- Dainik Jagran (31 January 2026) placed the bhang and sandalwood adornment of Mahakal on the opening day of the ten-day Shiv Navratri and described the worship on Maha Shivaratri night as formless; India TV (15 February 2026) reported the god adorned with bhang on the morning of Maha Shivaratri. Both are reported in the article.