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 " The yatra is a good 100 km and more, which passes through rivulets and hilly terrains. And the pilgrims sleep without pillows and mattresses yet their spirits remain unshaken"

 The Shravani Mela at Deoghar in Bihar is one of the biggest and the longest religious festivals in the country that calls for great endurance.

Come the month of ‘shravan’(July/August)-- also referred to as 'sawan' in the local parlance-- and two sleepy towns 140 km apart in the north western part of Bihar are suddenly teeming with millions of devotees. Sultanganj, 28 km west of Bhagalpur, comes alive with droves of people bathing in the holy Ganga and departing for Deoghar (the home of God), or Baidyanath Dham, to offer prayer to Lord Shiva. The water of Ganga at Sultanganj is considered especially sacred because of its unusual direction-- this is the one of the two stretches of Ganga that, contrary to the usual, flow northwards, the other being in the holy of the holiest of the cities at Varanasi.

As with most of the Indian religious pilgrimages have legendary connotations, the origins of this one too figure in various mythological narrations. According to the most popular legend, Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva wanted to learn the importance of Baidyanath Dham and requested the Lord to tell her about it in detail. The essence of Shiva's explanation is as follows.

The mother of the demon king Ravana of Lanka and the villain of the epic Ramanaya was a Shaivite and worshipped a Shiva lingam made of clay with great fervor and devotion. After her daily prayer, the holy water poured over the Shiva lingam used to dissolve it and everyday a new Shiva lingam had to be made from the clay. If Lord Shiva could be persuaded to came and reside in Lanka, thought Ravana, then his mother would be able to worship Shiva himself, instead of a symbolic image which used to get destroyed so easily.

In his quest that the Lord dwell in Lanka eternally, he took a journey towards Himalayas. He purified himself of sin in the holy Ganges at Hardwar and then set out for Kailash Parvat, the mythical abode of Lord Shiva and prayed to the Lord. Pleased with Ravana's intense penance, Lord Shiva offered him one of the 12 jyotiralingams to take back to Lanka instead of He himself going and residing there. There was however a condition attached to it, Ravana could take away the jyotiralingam provided that he did not break his journey until he reach his kingdom and did not put the lingam on the ground else it would remain forever, immovable.

The other gods led by Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Hindu trinity of Gods, were averse to the jyotiralingam being established in Ravana's kingdom fearing that it would render the king's might invincible and the universe would become chaotic. Clearly a godly intervention, to circumvent Ravana's objective, was called for by Lord Vishnu. A masterly plan was put into action with the help of Varuna, the god of water.

Entering Ravana's body Varuna soon filled him with uncontrollable urge to empty his bladder. Perforce the demon king had to descend to earth where he met Vishnu who was disguised as a brahmin, a benevolent mendicant. Ravana requested him to hold the jyotiralingam and explained that it was not to be set down at any cost. Ravana took a long while to return after letting loose flood of waters, which the wily Vishnu had magically caused to enter him and the mendicant, shouted, "I cannot hold this heavy piece any longer. I am going." Placing jyotiralingam on the ground, the disguised brahmin fled away.

When Ravana returned he received a rude shock, the brahmin was nowhere to be seen and the sacred lingam was lying on the ground some distance away. By this time Ravana was in a great rage and, growing desperate, he tried to raise the jyotiralingam off the ground. But his mighty strength was of no use, the lingam refused to move as Lord Shiva's words came true and all that Ravana managed was to break off the tip. Realizing how foolishly he behaved, Ravana prostrated and begged Lord Shiva's forgiveness.

Later on, as a penance for the sacrilege he had committed, he came to worship the lingam every day and offered water brought from the source of the Ganga in the Himalayas. Afterwards a sacred well called the chandrakoop was dug where water from all the sacred pools of the earth was stored. The well lies in front of a temple known as Ravaneshwar Mahadeva which houses the jyotrilingam.

The lingam lay neglected after Ravana died, till a hunter by the name Baiju found it and started to worship, calling it nath (lord). Baiju was awarded with a boon for his devotion. He wished that his name be linked with that of his Lord, so that he became eternal. And, thus the shrine continues to be called Baijnath which is also pronounced as Baidyanath at times by the devotees.

However, the Santhals, a tribal community tells a different tale. According to it, a shepherd chanced upon the lingam lying neglected, vowed to beat it daily with his club before consuming any food. Shiva, pleased with his devotion even in the face of extreme hunger and misery, blessed him and the spot came to be called Baijnath eponymously.

There is yet another fable behind the origin of this auspicious temple. Aeons ago when mountains could speak, Sati fell in love with Shiva and married him which her father, the powerful Himalayan king, the Prajaputra Daksha did not approve. This difference between the king Daksha and the Lord Shiva took a dramatic turn when once in the parliament of Gods in the heaven, Lord Shiva did not pay the obeisance to the king Daksha as due to the father-in-law.

In order to take revenge from Shiva, Daksha organized a royal yagna and threw a banquet of Himalayan proportion to which he did not invite Shiva. Out of fatherly love and emotions, Sati requested her husband Shiva to allow her to attend the yagna. Shiva knew that they had not been invited deliberately and, therefore, did not think it proper to attend the yagna either by himself or by his wife.

Angered Sati came in a veil of a minister of King Daksha and cast such a spell on Shiva that he had to give permission to Sati. No sooner had Sati reached the place of yagna than king Daksha started castigating Shiva. Sati became so much infuriated and pain-stricken with her father's non-stop diatribe against her husband, Shiva that she immolated herself by jumping into the yagna religious fire.

Learning this sad turn of event, Lord Shiva immediately rushed to the yagna site. Seeing the dead body of his wife, he lost his temper and ordered his devotees for a war. King Daksha was slain. In a grieved frenzy, Lord Shiva started tandava nritya (cosmic dance) and began wandering all over the universe with Sati's corpse on his shoulder. The whole earth froze in its tracks. Foreseeing the impending dangers, inhabitants of the earth went to Lord Vishnu to salvage the situation.

For the welfare of the mankind at large, Lord Vishnu cut Sati's corpse with the help of Sudarshan Chakra into numerous pieces (51 to be precise), which fell all over India giving rise to sacred places wherever the piece fell. One such piece, namely, the heart fell in Deoghar, sanctifying the spot where the tribal Baiju constructed a Shiva temple.

There are, however, no ancient remains that testify to the temple's antiquity beyond 16th century A.D. One of the inscriptions dates its construction to 1596 A.D. Raja Purana Malla, a chief of the Giddaur estate, is believed to have built it. The main temple of Baidyanath is situated within a walled enclosure of an irregular quadrilateral shape and is surrounded by a number of subsidiary shrines. Chief among them are-- the temple of Parvati, which face with the main temple, the temple of Baidyanath, the temple of Kali, the temple of Tara, the temple of Hanuman, the temple of Saraswati and the temple of Anna Data. Inside the Baidyanath temple enclosure, there is a chandrakoop (religious well), which supplies water to the devotees, who offer it to the deities at the shrine.

In the month of shravan, when the scorching heat of June has given way to the first monsoon with myriad showers, the great yatra begins. Studded with myriad shops, seemingly mushroom overnight, Sultanganj gears itself to meet the inflow of more than two million visitors-- they come from all parts of the country and from abroad (the largest coming from Nepal and Bhutan), a few NRIs too-- men, women and children, the old and the infirm, the rich and the poor-- to consecrate the Shiva lingam of Baidyanath temple.

Though most devotees prefer to start the yatra at the crack of dawn, one can begin whenever one likes to. A holy dip is taken at the Ganga and mantra chanted to please Lord Shiva waft along the breeze, as thousands upon thousands of faithful change into scarlet and saffron robes. Pots are filled with holy water from the Ganga, and boats get busy ferrying pilgrims to and fro between Sultanganj and the temple of Ajgaibinath where precisely the Ganga flows northwards.

The construction of the temple at Ajgaibinath is associated with Baba Harinath, a fervent devotee of Lord Shiva and a regular visitor of Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar. One day, on his way to Deoghar, Harinath saw an old man lying on the road, dying for want of water. The Baba gave the old man all the water, which he was carrying to consecrate at Shiva lingam at Deoghar. The poor man was so thirsty that he drank all the water and Harinath was left with no water to offer to Lord Shiva at Deoghar.
 

Discalimer: All thoughts expressed  are of the individual concerned. The group may/may not subscribe to the individual's  views  partially and/or wholly.

Tired and crest-fallen he began to make his  way back to Sultanganj to fetch more water, when suddenly he heard a voice coming from sky that Shiva was pleased with his devotion and that he need not undertake the arduous journey to Deoghar now, but could finish the worship at Sultanganj itself. And, lo and behold! On an island in the Ganga off the city of Sultanganj, Harinath found an image of Lord Shiva. Since this was a strange turn of event, the idol came to be referred to as the Ajgaibinath or the strang Lord.

After offering prayers and holy water to the Shiva lingam, devotees are ferried back to Sultanganj where they bathe once again and refill their pots with holy water of Ganga. These pots are then sealed with clay from the riverbank so that the water contained in them does not spill out. These pots are tied with the help of a rope to one end of a stick and balanced with another pot similarly tied to the other end, making it easier to carry on the shoulder so that it never touches the ground. This is called kanwar in the local parlance and the devotees who carry them are known as kanwarias.

Worship is performed again this time at the uttara Mukhi Ganga (northward Ganga, the usual flow of the river), and then with resounding chanting of 'Bol Bum’ (Lord Shiva is the most easily appeased god in Hindu pantheon and hence called 'Bholenath' or 'Bam Bhole', the simple hearted god), the kanwars are lifted and the devotees are on their way and walk the entire distance barefoot. Their only comfort during the journey is the rains, since the pilgrim season comes to an end in the middle of the monsoon.

Chants of 'Bol Bom' n unison rent the air throughout the journey at frequent intervals to heighten their spirit and reaffirm their faith in Baidyanath. Every train that stops at Sultanganj leaves more than half-empty-- such is the rush of the people. Locals say that it a matter of luck if one's turn to take a dip in the Ganga comes only after an hour's wait in the long queues at the ghat.

The yatra is a good 100 km and more, which passes through rivulets and hilly terrains. And the pilgrims sleep without pillows and mattresses yet their spirits remain unshaken. There is a lore that they derive strength from the saffron dresses-- the symbol of renunciation of which Lord Shiva is the epitome.

The walkers carry different kinds of kanwars-- from the lavishly decorated ones with symbol of Lord Shiva to plain, unembellished ones; with containers of holy water of Ganga made of copper, brass, tin or even silver, weighing at times more than 20 kg.

Though the entire month of shravan is considered auspicious for the worship of Lord Shiva, Monday is still more special. Therefore, most devotees choose Wednesday or Thursday to begin the yatra and complete on or before Monday. Some start on Monday and finish on the following Monday. When devotees rest, they keep their kanwars on specially made cane and bamboo stands, so in keeping with the ancient story, the pots of holy water do not touch the ground.

In terms of unsurpassed devotion, among the numerous saffron-clad walkers are the dak kanwarias who are in a tearing hurry, as they have to complete the entire journey non-stop in precisely 24 hours. Naturally the dak bhams get precedence over the other pilgrims who may have to wait more than three hours at times before they can offer Ganga water at the jyotralingam. A lot of pilgrims take part in this unique marathon.

Most of the marathon devotees collapse before they reach the temple and nearby medical camp takes every care to revive them. Sometime back, a teenage Nepali girl broke the record by completing the journey in less than 10 hours-- but died after entering the temple premises. Few years back, perhaps, for the first time, a stampede claimed seven young lives at the entrance of the temple. But that did not deter the flow, fervor and faith of pilgrims. As a priest echoed the sentiments, "Death at the feet of the Lord Shiva is salvation, a ready passport of heaven."

There are yet another kind of devotees known as bhoomi parees who make the yatra by traversing the distance by prostrating. They lie flat on the ground, stretch their hands above their heads and make a mark. Then, they stand up on the mark, say a few prayers, and again prostrate themselves making the next mark. There are only handfuls few who take this time consuming arduous way of covering the distance.

The camp at the end of the journey is soon occupied. Devotees arriving in the evening or later, rest at night and next early morning bathe in the Shiva Ganga Tank, just outside the temple complex, and then queue up for a chance to offer holy water at the jyotiralingam. Several other temples housing other gods and goddesses, built over a period of time by different devotees, surround the main temple. The actual lingam is not found traditionally raised, for it is believed that over the years it has been pushed down by constant touch; it is now convex shaped, barely visible above the ground.

Men and women enter the temple through separate entrances and 20 pilgrims are allowed at one time. It is estimated that every year 2 million devotees, one fourth being women, make the arduous pilgrimage, many of them making an annual ritual. When the multitudes throng the holy pernicts, Deoghar is no longer just a town of temples, but acquires a stature no less than those of the holy cities of Hardwar, Varanasi or Trupathi. What starts off as something out of ordinary ends up in divine.

According to the guidebook, this event finds a mention in the Skandhapurana as being on par with the Ashvamedha Yagna for its spiritual effects. In the villages of North Bihar, at least one member of each family participates in this annual event.

For the faithfuls, the yatra lasts just a month but stragglers continue to walk the way even a week later. Some enterprising devotees are known to make the pilgrimage on all the four Mondays of shravan-- no mean achievement by any standards.

On Shivaratri day (the 14th day of waxing moon in the month of February) also, troops of devotees swarm the temple complex. They fast for 24 hours, chant mantras, and make offerings of flowers, leaves and other gifts to the deities. At night shrigar is performed by pandas with milk, curd, ghee, flowers and belpatras. The shrine is scented with dhup and incense-sticks. The day's prayers are over. But with fragrance of the incense wafts the enduring promise: tomorrow the temple will come to life again.

With the small temple town receiving a floating population of roughly two lakh people everyday and on Mondays swelling upto four lakhs from all parts of India and its neighboring countries, the district administration gears itself to cope with the logistics of this onslaught months ahead of time. Providing hygiene facilities and keeping track of anti-social elements are the two main concerns. They have also started taking special interest by setting up police posts, rest houses and first-aid posts at the regular intervals along the way.

Coordination of the officials of four districts-- Bhagalpur, Monghyr, Banka and Deoghar-- is usually called for to ensure mobility of the police forces, efficient intelligence and better communication. Besides, they also have to work with the local pandas who have been the traditional guardians of the pilgrim center.

The local sub-jail makes its contribution to the festivities too. The shringar of the lingam requires floral mukut or crown which is made by the prisoners every day. Two or three jail wardens are in charge of collecting flowers from nearby Jasidih, Madhupur, Chanan, Trikuti and Katoria. Nobody seems to remember when this practice has begun but it is obviously a salutary form of rehabilitation, for the prisoners of Dumka district jail too make a mukut every Monday for the Basukinath temples, 50 km from Deoghar.

Almost every pilgrimage center perhaps inspires such voluntary effort from the people who live in its vicinity, besides donations, of course. The income from the temple, managed by a trust headed by the deputy commissioner, runs into lakhs of rupees. But, it is the temple that generates business in the town. Its 55 shops selling pedas mushroom to nearly 300 during the yatra, apart from the stalls selling sindur, bangles, images of toys, cassettes and iron utensils.

Commerce may have come hand in hand with the yatra but despite inconveniences, the residents eagerly await for the month of shravan since it gives their town an identity, generates employment and of course, uninterrupted electricity and water supply. Small businessmen make more money during the 30 days of yatra than they do in a year. Roughly, incense and joss sticks worth one crore of rupees are burnt and the various stalls set up to sell everything that meets the eye. They do a collective business of around Rs. 6 crore during the month.

In a caste dominated society and where relics of feudalism are still predominant, it is heartening sight to find top level politicians, bureaucrats and the rich rubbing shoulders with peons, downtrodden and the poor, the brahmins sharing shelter with low caste untouchables. Once the pilgrimage begins people forget their caste and class and all strive to reach at the feet of Shiva.

Unknowingly a community spirit binds them together and people unhesitantly help each other. For each such help rendered, is perceived, adds to the quota of good deeds and an easy passage to heaven. The wayside villagers provide round-the-clock milk and water to the non-stop walkers without any return on the belief that Baidyanath would reward them with good harvest.

The essence of the thousand-year-old Indian culture-- patience, perseverance and harmony with existence surfaces through the veneer of religion every year. And whatever may be the motive, the arduous journey is great levelers for all.

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Text & Picture by Bhuwan Mohan. To send your comments you may shoot an email to the author.

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