An array of delicious traditional Assamese delicacies and pithas like the delectable xutuli pithas, the creamy gakhir (milk) pithas, the mouth-watering bhaat (rice) pithas and the crunchy barfis

What is it about Bihu that stirs the soul and tugs at the heartstrings? While the gourmets would swear by the wide array of larus and pithas (pancakes) on offer during the season, for most, the response would most likely be the Bihu songs accompanied by the rousing notes of the pepa and the throb of the drumbeats.

And yet the two are not mutually exclusive — and even in present times —both equally arouse one to an ecstatic plane.

What is lost are traditions. One such racy Bihu hit of yesteryears which gives ample evidence of this mentions the dheki, an equipment which was instrumental in producing rice powder, the base ingredient which went into making of the delicious pithas.

To jog the memory of those who had heard the number, the song went: Dheki de, dheki de mure lahori, (earlier: Dheki de, majoni) Dhekire sabote, kopai thom suburi). Translated: Pound the dheki, pound the dheki. my darling (earlier: Pound the dheki, my girl).

The neighbourhood will shake, with the sound of the dheki.

The pounding of dheki was once so inextricably linked to the feasting and merriment of Bihu that it inspired many Bihu numbers.

But like the songs, the tradition of the grinding rice grains to a fine powder with the wooden beam, is fast waning from the collective memory of the people.

(From top) Bamboo sungas used to make pithas, hesa pitha and til pitha

So what has replaced this beam of wood with a round wooden pestle attached to one end and worked on the other by legs like a seesaw?

Mixers, grinders and hand-held iron mortar and pestles to grind the different varieties of rice, which go into the making of the different pithas.

Mrinmoyee Devi, a 69-year-old grandmother of five, reminisces of the times when she, her two sisters and three aunts who all lived together used to get together to pound in turn the glutinous variety of rice, which went into making the much savoured white til pithas.

“There was a lot of excitement behind the whole exercise as the bora saul (rice) had to be soaked, strained, slightly dried, pounded, the powder strained twice and packed tightly so as not to lose the moisture and a stick stuck in the middle when stored. The making of the pitha too was thrilling as there was a competition among us to try turn out the thinnest of the tea-plate sized round crusts before filling it with a jaggery, til mixture prepared beforehand or sometimes a sugar and coconut mixture,” she said.

Today, her daughters-in-law buy everything off the shelves and her grandchildren have never tasted the homemade stuff “which somehow tasted much better”.

Sometimes, her daughter-in-law makes batches of ghila pitha made out of a readymade mixture of rice powder, jaggery, a pinch of baking soda and peeled and ground orange peels, she says. But she no longer remembers how the pheni pitha is made.

“When young, I made the traditional coconut ladoos and sesame seed ladoos, the former after raking out the core and then mixing with sugar or jaggery over a slow fire till it became a bit sticky and then making the balls when still quite hot otherwise it would not bind together,” she recalls.

Santana Das, however, does not want tradition to die out.

She makes it a point to learn as many of the wide variety of pithas that her elders dished up during the season and feed her two daughters.

“Except for the til pithas, which use the sticky rice and cannot be ground in an electric mixer, I make the pheni pitha, hutuli pitha, ghila pitha, tekeli pitha, coconut-filled gila pitha, kol pitha, narikol pitha and one of my own creations besides the larus, khurmas, nimkis and soonga saul (glutinous rice cooked with water in a hollow bamboo corked with banana leaves at one end and the whole thing roasted on charcoal or firewood) during the Bihu festivities,” Santana says.

The kol pitha she makes with balls of mashed ripe banana mixed with rice powder and jaggery, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted over a slow fire on a thick bottomed pan or tawa, the tekeli pitha is made of rice powder of joha variety mixed with little bit of water, sugar, coconut flakes and pinch of baking powder and then strained and placed over a thin cloth and steamed over the mouth of a kettle.

The narikol or coconut pitha uses suji instead of rice powder sugar, water and milk and is fried in ghee and then placed in a sugar syrup.

For the pheni pitha she uses a mix of bora saul and rice powder of any other variety, adds water, salt and baking soda to make a thick batter and then fries them before coating them in a thickened sticky jaggery syrup.

The hutulipitha is made with ingredients of a gila pitha, a hole scooped out of the ball and filled with a jaggery til mixture and then wrapped in the shape of a half moon then fried like a ghila pitha.