The Kanwar Yatra
- July 15, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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The Kanwar Yatra
Subject: Arts and Culture
Context: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suomotu cognizance of a report published in The Indian Express on the decision by the Uttar Pradesh government to allow Kanwar Yatra this year with certain restrictions, even as the Uttarakhand government had suspended the yatra amid fears of a possible Covid-19 outbreak.
Concept:
- The Kanwar Yatra is a pilgrimage organised in the Hindu calendar month of Shravana (Saavan). Saffron-clad Shiva devotees generally walk barefoot with pitchers of holy water from the Ganga or other holy rivers.
- In the Gangetic plains, the water is taken from pilgrimage sites such as Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand, Sultanganj in Bihar, and Prayagraj, Ayodhya or Varanasi from Uttar Pradesh.
- Devotees carry the pitchers of holy water on their shoulders, balanced on decorated slings known as Kanwars. The water is used by the pilgrims to worship Shiva lingas at shrines of importance, include the 12 Jyotirlingas, or at certain specific temples such as the PuraMahadeva and Augharnath Temple in Meerut, Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, BaidyanathDham in Deoghar, Jharkhand, or even in the devotee’s own village or town.
- This form of Shiva worship has special significance in the areas around the Ganga. An important festival with similarities to the Kanwar yatra in North India, called the Kavadi festival, is celebrated in Tamil Nadu, in which Lord Muruga is worshipped.
- The legend of the ritual goes back to the ‘samudramanthan’, one of the best-known episodes in Hindu mythology, which is narrated in the BhagavataPurana, in the Vishnu Purana, and explains the origin of ‘amrita’.
- The painstaking journey on foot with the Kanwar can potentially extend to over a 100 kilometres. Pilgrims, including old and young people, women and men, children, and even the differently-abled, can be spotted at holy sites by Ganga such as Gangotri, Gaumukh, and Haridwar, at the confluence of holy rivers.
- While those in Western UP and states like Punjab, Haryana and Delhi generally travel to Uttarakhand,