(This is with reference to the recent controversy raised in the media with regard to the celebration of Tiyan by the Ladies in Toronto and Suburb)

Tiyan has been as much a part of the Punjabi Culture as Lohri, Basant, Besakhi, Diwali etcetera. Although, over the centuries, religious significance has been attached to most of them, primarily, they are season and weather orientated festivals. Most of the religious and mythological books on Indian culture were conceived in the North of India, particularly Punjab, and the existence of almost all of the festivals can be traced back to the olden days.

Tiyan is the festival of Sawan Sudhi 3 - third day of the first-half-of-moon-fortnight of the month of Sawan.) Mainly the ladies participate in the gala and celebrations. They gather around outside the village and oscillate on the swings. As the festival is held on Sudhi 3 and continues for three days, it is called Tiyan. In the medieval Granths of Sanskrit it is known as `Gori Trityia'.

After Alexander the Great left India in 2,300BC, one of his Generals, Sleokum ruled over a part of Northern India for a number of years. In the accounts of his reign, reference is available to a festival of the ladies during the rainy season.

A caller in a radio-phone in mentioned that Tiyan were established by the Muslim Rulers to collect the pretty (non-Muslim) girls with the intention of abduction. Tiyan were already there when the Muslims invaded India. The Muslim rulers took advantage of the situation and pounced upon the gatherings to take away the innocent souls. As a consequent of this the practice of singing and dancing (gidha) was abandoned during their reign, and it was rejuvenated just before the dawn of the independence.

I feel sorry for the ignorance of the people who condemned Tiyan as the source of pornographic phraseology propounded by the ladies. The pornographic expression is the invention of male chauvinism. Some of the Bolyan enunciated in the male dominated Bhangras are simply obscene. (.... lokan bhaney chan charriya, or .... bocho bocho wey mundeyo). It cannot be denied that the emancipation of womanhood from the domination of man, particularly on arrival in the west, has brought excessive openness but ultimate responsibility lies with the men. Before they criticise their woman folks they should, themselves, divest from sitting arrogantly in the male company only and spitting out dirty jokes.

At the end, lamentably, I would like to suggest (to the person who is the product of Punjabi Culture, professes to promote soul of Punjabi Culture in Canada), that it sounds absurd when that person says, `I have not heard of Tiyan in Punjab .... Perhaps they are conducted in some small area of Malva.' Coming this out of the mouth of an intelligent radio promoter, is inappropriate.