Sreeranj Sreedhar | Ashtami Rohini

Photo © Sreeranj Sreedhar- All Rights Reserved

I was under the totally ridiculous impression that I had photographed most of the important religious festivals in India until I recently saw photographs of Ashtami Rohini, an annual celebration of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu.

The festival is celebrated in August–September, and includes dramatic enactments of the life of Krishna, and is observed all over India, but especially observed in Mathura and Vrindavan; which Indiaphiles know as the epicenters for the famous Indian festival of Holi. 

On this day, women fast and keep vigil in Krishna's temple till night. When the pujas are over, they are allowed to share the edible offerings left by the devotees for Krishna. The temples are illuminated with countless of oil lamps, and worship goes on almost till the early hours of the morning.

Sreeranj Sreedhar photographed Ashtami Rohini in Kerala, and his photographs provide a wonderful insight into the festival, and the enactments of Krishna's life. The make-up sessions, the painting of the feet and palms, as well as the magnificent costumes are all documented in his gallery.

In his Photo Stories, Sreeranj also photographed the Holi festival in Nandgaon, and in Barsana. These photographs remind me of my own 2014 Holi photo expedition, especially those of the young Holi reverlers holding water pumps filled with color water to spray the passerby.

Sreeranj Sreedhar is a travel, documentary and culture photographer who's creently based in Dubai, but is from the Indian state of Kerala. He started his photography in 2011.