Bhubaneswar, March 4 -- By Binit Kumar Bhoi

Before the colors fly and the drums thunder, a coastal state in eastern India observes a festival rooted in devotion, procession, and the worship of the divine.

Every year, as the full moon swells over the Bay of Bengal and mango trees break into cautious blossom, the state of Odisha does something the rest of India largely does not: it pauses, lights a lamp, and prays before it plays.

In most corners of the country, Holi is known primarily as the raucous festival of colors - a day of drenching strangers, smearing vermillion on friends, and surrendering oneself to a chromatic chaos that feels as ancient as spring itself. And it is all of those things. But in Odisha, a state of some 47 million...