In plain words
so in the villages they urge new bridegrooms to go to their in-laws’ homes. In these festival days the atmosphere is very pleasant and full of sweetness. By daybreak a cool breeze plays a soft melody and wakes the people. Unable to see this secret, some think, “Sankrānti comes with a cold wind; it will not let us go out.” That is a great mistake.
This Sankrānti softens hearts with its cool breezes and brings cheer to all. The farmers sing their songs with full throats in joy. The brāhmaṇas rise at brahma-muhūrta and recite the Vedas. In these festival days, children who have turned five are started on their letters and set to the study of the Veda. Of these, the Ṛgveda is the most important. The mantras of the Ṛgveda fill people’s minds with God’s form of divine Ānanda and nurture spiritual feelings in them. In these festival days everyone, from the poor to the rich, rises before dawn and worships his chosen deity. Devotees of Śiva offer special worship to Gaṇapati, Subrahmaṇyeśvara and Pārvatī and Parameśvara.
“With the digit of the moon gleaming on his crown, with the lovely cluster of his matted locks, with the shining river of heaven flowing in those locks, with the striking eye upon his brow, with his throat dark as the black rose-apple, with the elephant’s hide wound about his waist, with the ash smeared over all his body, with the bold vermilion mark drawn on his forehead, with lips reddened by betel, glorious in all six śāstras, putting the dark lilies to shame, outshining them, with his body of lustrous dusky hue....”