1. Family Tradition
The "victims" of these pranks are always willing participants in the proceedings, and they relinquish their superiority in a spirit of good nature. A system of reciprocation is thus set up where the superior and the inferior readily exchange places and aid each other in assuming their opposite roles with good humor and in a spirit of warmth and friendship.
On observing these interactions, Marriott interprets this reversal of roles as leading to greater love and understanding of the other. He also stresses that because there exists a feeling of love towards the other that there is a willingness to reverse roles, thus resulting in a mutual reinforcement of reversal and reciprocation.
How do these practices observed during Holi relate to the mythology of Krishna? Marriott notes that the association of Krishna with the Holi festival might have been a relatively recent development. The description of the festival as the celebration of Krishna's killing of the demoness Putana provides an obvious link between the deity and the festival, but the myths we have read do not contain in them precedents of Holi nor any reference as to how it is celebrated. However, some of the Krishna myths provide a basis for the attitudes of the villagers during the celebrations.
Krishna's words in "Conversation with the Cowherds" are particularly revealing in this aspect. On being asked who he is by the awestruck cowherds after they witness his feat of lifting Mount Govardhana, he replies "If you love me, and if I merit your respect, then you must regard me as your kinsman. I am neither god nor Gandharva, neither Yaksa nor Danava. I have been born in your family; this is the only way to look at it." This statement of Krishna's readiness to deny his divine status and project himself as an ordinary mortal, playing an inferior role to his true identity, can be seen as a lesson to the villagers, particularly those of higher castes, to assume the roles of inferiors while celebrating Holi.
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