Arc of the Kanwar Yatra: From Samudra Manthan to churning forces in society today

Indian Express

4 days ago

For about a fortnight in July, a common sight in North India is groups of men dressed in saffron clothes, atop trucks or on foot, chanting religious slogans like 'Har Har Mahadev' or 'Bol Bam', and carrying decorated slings.
These slings, called kanwars, hold containers full of water from the Ganga, which the pilgrims are taking to various Shiva temples. The pilgrims are called kanwariyas and the annual pilgrimage is called the Kanwar Yatra.
In recent years, the numbers of kanwariyas have swelled as the government has made better arrangements for their journey. However, this has also created an image of kanwariyas blasting music from their vehicles and getting into scuffles with other passersby.
While the idea of pilgrimage in the Hindu religion is ancient, the Kanwar Yatra as seen today is a relatively new phenomenon. What are the religious beliefs behind the Kanwar Yatra, and what socio-economic-cultural forces shaped its present form? We explain.
Kanwar Yatra is undertaken in the Hindu month of Shravan, or Saavan. Like many Indian festivals, Kanwar Yatra is also linked to the Samudra Manthan, the cosmic churning of the ocean.
When the Devas (gods) and the Asuras (loosely translated as demons) churned the ocean, among the many things to emerge from it was halahal, or poison. The poison was so potent that if allowed to spread, it would have ended all life. Lord Shiva then swallowed the poison, which turned his throat blue and earned him the epithet of Neelkantha (the blue-throated one). To cool his burning throat, Goddess Parvati and others gave him water from the Ganga.
Since the Samudra Manthan took place in the month of Shravan, devotees carry pitchers of Ganga water to Shiva temples as an offering in this month. The kanwar should not be put down on the ground at any time during the journey, and so people often travel in groups, carrying the kanwar for each other when needed. Water has to be taken from the Ganga and offered to in the month of Saavan, so the dates for the Kanwar Yatra this year are July 11 to (beginning of Saavan) to July 23 (Saavan Shivratri).
Popular sites to collect the Ganga water are Sultanganj in Bihar, Prayagraj, Ayodhya or Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand. The Shiva temples considered of special importance are the 12 Jyotirlingas, the Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand's Deoghar, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, Pura Mahadev temple in Baghpat, and the Augharnath Temple in Meerut.
'Some temples are more popular than others, but it is not necessary for a devotee to go to one of these. Ganga water can be offered to Lord Shiva in the local town or village temple. Traditionally, the journey was undertaken on foot. Lord Shiva is an ascetic, so during the Kanwar Yatra, his devotees are supposed to practise the ascetic values of abstention and discipline while undertaking the journey,' Dr Ramesh Kumar Upadhyay, president of the Bhartiya Jyotish Aadhyatm Parishad in Jamshedpur, said.
Upadhyay added that along with the Samudra Manthan legend, there is also an astrological reason to worship Shiva in the month of Shravan. 'Saavan, or Shravan, takes its name from the Shravana nakshatra (alignment of stars). Worshipping Lord Shiva in this nakshatra is considered specially auspicious,' he said.
Mentions of the Kanwar Yatra as we know it are scant in religious texts and history books, though there are legends of various mythological figures offering Ganga water to Lord Shiva, from the sage Parshuram to Lord Rama to Lanka's king Ravana. Then there is the legend of Shravan Kumar in the Ramayana, who took his parents to pilgrimage in what we understand as a kanwar, but he is not recorded as carrying Ganga water to Shiva.
Prof DP Dubey, retired professor of ancient history at the University of Allahabad and General Secretary of the Society of Pilgrimage Studies, said, 'In history books, descriptions of a kanwar yatra as such are difficult to find. Even the British, who were good at documenting, have not described a Kanwar Yatra. A Maharashtrian brahmin, Vishnubhat Godse, wrote a memoir of his travels in central and North India during and after the Revolt of 1857 (Maza Pravas, published much later in 1907). He talks of carrying Ganga water back to his village in Maharashtra to bathe his parents with, and this description, of walking barefoot carrying the Ganga water in a sling, is the closest to Kanwar Yatra as seen today. From my analysis of various local texts and accounts, the Kanwar Yatra appears to have originated in Bihar's Sultanganj in the 1700s. From there, it spread.'
However, this spread was slow and steady, and the major uptick seems to have come in the 1980s. Various scholars have written about it, and factors, while difficult to pinpoint, include better connectivity and infrastructure, rise of Hindu identity assertion, popularity and increased accessibility of devotional music in the form of cassettes, and increasing average income in North India.
Vikash Singh, Associate Professor of Sociology at New Jersey's Montclair State University, in his book Uprising of the Fools: Pilgrimage as Moral Protest in Contemporary India (2017) about the Kanwar Yatra, has written that many of the kanwariyas are young, not-very-affluent men. 'At the margins of the economy, the religious phenomenon provided an open and freely accessible, yet challenging, stage—a definite and alternative field—for participants to practice and prove their talents, resolve, and moral sincerity…The religious event is also a means to contest the symbolic violence and social inequities of a hierarchical society now dominated by a neoliberal social ethic, as imposing as it is exclusive.'
Prof Dubey pointed out that as with most things in India, in the popularity of certain types of religious activities too, caste plays a role.
'An important thing to note about pilgrimages, be it to the Kumbh Mela or the Kanwar Yatra, is that they are a way to break the rigid boundaries of caste. Historically, pilgrims trailed the caravans of traders or even soldiers for security. Pilgrimages create bonds of community that are more inclusive than the generally air-tight pockets of caste. State support also plays a role. With the UP government now literally showering kanwariyas with flowers, the draw is naturally greater,' Dubey said.
Yashee is an Assistant Editor with the indianexpress.com, where she is a member of the Explained team. She is a journalist with over 10 years of experience, starting her career with the Mumbai edition of Hindustan Times. She has also worked with India Today, where she wrote opinion and analysis pieces for DailyO. Her articles break down complex issues for readers with context and insight.
Yashee has a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Presidency College, Kolkata, and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, one of the premier media institutes in the countr
... Read More