SUJI: A life that was MNR

The City of Allahabad

Allahabad is one of India’s oldest cities and therefore one of the dirtiest and unplanned. It is situated at the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

So far, as mythology goes, according to the Skand Puran, Brahma, the creator of the universe performed Prakrista Yagna here at the dawn of creation and the name Prayag on ‘the place of sacrifice’ was given to this sacred piece of land. Legend also has it that Lord India, in a hurry to take away the precious jar of nectar that the Devas (Gods) and Asuras (demons) had churned out from the ocean, split a few drops of the divine amrit of the spot, making it Teertharaj or the ‘monarch among pilgrim centres’

Allahabad has a long and colorful history. According to the Ramayana, Lord Rama is believed to have passed through Prayag during his exile from Ayodhya; the earliest Aryan settlement were established here; it was the capital of the Guptas, and acquired the name Allahabad under Akbar in 1584. The story goes that, in 1575, Akbar sailed down the river, intending to visit Prayag. Smitten with it’s beauty, he stayed on to lay the foundations of a new city that was to be called ‘Illahabad’. This name gradually evolved into Illahabad before Akbar’s city finally came to be known as Allahabad.

The city was later captured by the Marathas, sacked by the Pathans, before being finally ceded to the British by the Nawab of Avadh in 1801. It was Allahabad, following the sepoy’s revolt of 1857, that the East India Company officially handed over the control of India in 1858 to the British Government. From the dawn of the twentieth century, Allahabad became the stronghold of India’s freedom movement. A bastion of the Indian National Congress, Allahabad became the legal and administrative center of Uttar Pradesh with a vibrant political life of its own.

Yet a keen political awareness and an ancient literary tradition have in a way detracted from the deep, religious sentiments of the people in a city where religion is a way of life. The mythical chants of the holy comptures blends with the chime of the temple bells as another day begins and devotees go to cleanse themselves in the holy waters, seeking release from the endless cycle of birth and death.

The places to visit in Allahabad include Anand Bhavan, the ancestral home of the Nehrus, the ‘Abode of Joy’; It is to today preserved as a memorial museum to the family. The beautiful garden that surrounds the house is filled with fragrant roses, a favorite of Jawaharlal Nehru. The Nehru Planetorium unfolds the wonders of the outer space to all its visitors.

Adjacent to Anand Bhavan is the erstwhile residence of Motilal Nehru. Donated to the nation in 1930 by Motilal himself , it was named Swaraj Bhavan, or the House of Freedom.

A small walk from Anand Bhavan takes one to Bharadwaj Ashram. Named after the great sage Bharadwaj who lived here, the Ashram finds mention in the Ramayana as the place where Rama sought the sage’s blessings during his exile from Ayodhaya.It is said during his lifetime, the sage had a school with nearly 10,000 pupils. Today, the tradition of education continues in the immediate neighbourhood at Allahabad University. Established as an examining body in 1887, it later become a teaching university and in 1921, it became a unitary residential and teaching university.

The Triveni Sangam, the meeting point of the three rivers is the scene of the colorful Magh mela festival every January. Thousands of pilgrims attend the festival and the area around the Sangam becomes a medley of tents and temporary shelters. The festival, or fair, lasts for almost a month.

Once every twelve years, the Magh mela celebrated a Kumbh mela – a festival held once every four years during the 12 year span by Nashik, Haridwar, ujjain and Allahabad, in turn – when the thousands turn to hundreds of thousands.

At Sangam, there is a unique statue of the kind in a reclining position distinguishes this temple from others erected in honor of Hanuman. The image of the diety is a few feet below the ground and when the Ganga floods this temple every year, devotees believe it to be the river’s Goddess’s way of paying homage to Hanuman.