Pat comes the reply to this question that the name Holi came from Holika.
Those of you who do not know who Holika was, here is the story. In ancient India, there was a king named Hiranyakashipu who had been granted a boon by Brahma, the creator of the universe, for undergoing a severe penance. The boon was that the king would never meet with death on earth or in the air, in the day or at night, by another human or an animal, by an animate object or an inanimate object, and finally, in his house or outside his house. He had a son named Prahlad who worshipped Lord Vishnu. This hurt Hiranyakashipu’s pride as he wanted Prahlad to be his devotee instead. When all attempts to convert his son’s faith failed, Hiranyakashipu was outraged at Prahlad’s defiance and tried to kill him. Prahlad was subjected to a series of murder attempts which included being stamped by elephants and being thrown off a cliff all off which failed thanks to his unshakeable faith in Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu had a sister named Holika, who incidentally had been granted a boon as well, which was, that she could not be harmed by fire. He had Prahlad sit on her lap in a bonfire hoping to finally kill him. Holika’s boon ended the moment she misused it to harm Prahlad and she was burnt to ashes while Prahlad came out of the fire unscathed. It is this triumph of good over evil that is celebrated as the festival Holi.
Angered by this series of events, Hiranyakashipu summoned Prahlad in his court and asked him if he believed Vishnu, the supreme lord of the universe, was omnipresent, then, was he present in the pillar before him (gesturing to a pillar in the hall)? When Prahlad nodded in agreement, Hiranyakashipu smashed open the pillar and out came Vishnu in the form of Narasimha (Nara is Man and Simha is Lion), neither man nor animal at twilight (neither day nor night), took him on his lap (neither earth nor air) at the footsteps of his court (neither in the house nor outside it) tore open his body with his nails (neither animate nor inanimate) and killed him.
The way Holi is typically celebrated today is that people in the neighborhood get together and light up a bonfire on the eve of the festival signifying the burning of Holika followed by the throwing of gulaal (colors) at each other on the day of the festival and finishing up with a feast in the afternoon. A major part of this celebration involves the act of throwing colors and colored water at each other.
But, how is the act of throwing colors related to the Holika-Prahlad incident?
Actually, it isn’t.
Holi, the bonfire celebration, indeed came about from the Holika-Prahlad incident. But, it was Lord Krisha who eventually added the color element to the celebration in Vrindaavan many years later in the form of Dhuleti.
Over a period of a few thousand years, today, a large number of people call the festival collectively as Holi while it initially started off as Holi (bonfire) plus Dhuleti (colors).
Rang Barse!
