Ganga-Sagar Mela

Kapil Muni Temple at Sagardwip

Today is Makar Sankranti; a day when the sun makes a transition northwards to Capricorn from Sagittarius (Read more in This is Utkarsh Speaking: Makara Sankranti )

Besides maker sankranti, this day is also known for the famous Ganga-Sagar mela, a fair which is second only to the famous Kumbh Mela (For more on Kumbha Mela, This is Utkarsh Speaking: Kumbh Mela). Ganga-sagar mela, or the fair of the river Ganga and the sea, is however an annual event, unlike the Kumbh Mela. Ganga-sagar mela is held at Sagardwipa, the confluence of the river Ganga and the Bay of Bengal and on this day millions of devotees take a dip at the holy confluence to seek salvation from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth.

Not far from the confluence is a temple dedicated to Kapil Muni and the pilgrims make it a point to visit the temple after taking a holy dip at the confluence. Let us know Kapil muni a little better.

According to a myth, King Sagar of Ikshvaku dynasty of Ayodhya had organized ninety-nine Ashwamedha yagnas. During the hundredth one, the sacrificial horse was let loose, as was the practice. The horse was followed by sixty thousand sons of King Sagar, who fought the opponents valiantly and had made King Sagar the head of a huge empire. Seeing King Sagar presiding over a massive empire, Indra felt intimidated and he hid the horse inside Kapil Muni’s ashram, who was meditating at that moment. When the sons saw the horse at the ashram, they assumed that the muni had stopped their horse. They were

Kapilmuni idol at the temple

angry, but since they could not kill a sage, they started to disturb him. This angered Kapil muni and cursed them to be burnt to ashes and within no time, the sons were a heap of ashes.

Anshuman, the grandson of King Sagar learnt about the death of his father and uncles and approached Kapil muni to seek a way for their salvation. Kapil Muni suggested that the only way to the salvation of their souls, was by getting the river Ganga to flow on earth, however that would need to propitiate the holy trinity and other deities too. Later, Bhagirath, the only great-grandson of King Sagar decided to perform the final rites of the sons of King Sagar.

Bhagirath undertook severe penance to appease all the gods and finally Ganga agreed to descend on earth. However, her torrential force needed to be held; else all on earth would blow away in her forceful descent. Lord Shiva’s entangled hair was the only way, to arrest the force of the river, and by the time it managed to find its way out of his locks, the river would have lost its force significantly. Lord Shiva is thus referred to as Gangadhar, in this form, where he accepts Ganga in his locks.

Gangadhar

Before heading towards the sea, the river Ganga washed over the heap of ashes of King Sagar’s sons, leading to their salvation. It is said, that Kapil Muni had his ashram not far from the confluence. The local lore says that earlier the temple of Kapil muni was far away from the present day spot of the fair and the waters would recede on the Makar sankranti day enabling pilgrims to get a view of the temple. From the very next day of the sankranti, the waters would start moving in and the temple would be submerged for a year till the next sankranti. (There aren’t too many people alive to vouch for the veracity of this, though). Today, a permanent temple of Kapil Muni stands on firm ground. Ganga came to earth due to the efforts of Bhagirath and thus sometimes the river is also referred to as Bhagirathi.

An interesting aspect of this myth is that it was said that King Sagar had an ambition of become a Charavarti, one who is the ruler of a large empire, but had a tough time and failed in his final attempt. He had to bear the sad news of the death of his sixty thousand sons. His sixty thousand sons too had the same aggression of his. The grandsons of King Sagar, Anshuman and Dilip, undertook penances to get Ganga to flow on earth, but they too did not achieve their objective. Bhagirath, renounced everything and performed severe penance at the Himalayas and attained his objective as he was devoid of ego and greed. Many say that the later rulers of the Ikshvaku dynasty bore resemblance to Bhagirath, one of them being Ram of Ramayan.

Ganga-Sagar mela in West Bengal is considered to be one of the major festivals and pilgrims come from far and near. A popular adage says, ‘saare tirth baar-baar, ganga-sagar ek baar’, meaning all pilgrimages can be undertaken more than once, but ganga-sagar can be undertaken only once. While I am not sure if this has any religious reason to it, one thing for sure is that the infrastructure to reach and return from the pilgrim spot is extremely poor. The place has received no attention from the tourism perspective and everything is in a state of wanting. The religious significance and that too for only one day, with no decent and adequate accommodation facilities, the fair turns a nightmare at times.

But what are a few irritants on the way to achieve salvation? If Bhagirath could endure penances for his ancestors in the Himalayas, and get the heavenly Ganga to flow on earth, cant the modern day devotees undertake a few hardships to achieve their own salvation??

Kumbh Mela

From today starts the famous and one of the largest religious congregations of the world, the Kumbh Mela (the fair of the pot). This event attracts millions of people from across the world and this year it could be much more as it is also the Maha Kumbh, the Great Kumbh, which takes place once in twelve years.

This event, as we all know has its origins in the famous mythical episode of the Amrita-manthan or samudra-manthan (churning of the ocean). But what many might not know is the reason for the churning. According to a legend, once Lord Indra came across Sage Durvasa (better known for his infamous temper). On seeing Indra, Sage Durvasa took out a garland from his neck and gifted it to Indra. Indra in his arrogance put the garland on his elephant, who obviously unaware of its importance trampled it under its feet. Seeing this, Sage Durvasa was angry and cursed Indra that he and his ilk, i.e. the other gods would lose all their strength and the position, due to this act of arrogance.

Soon, the gods were devoid of any energy and strength and seeing this, the asuras, attacked them and got the better of the gods. The gods assembled and sought help from Lord Brahma, who suggested the churning of the ocean, from which, would emerge the celestial physician, Dhanwantri who could save them with his divine potion or nectar, better known as amrita, the elixir of immortality. However, for this they would need the help of the asuras who were very strong. A discussion was held between the gods and asuras and it was decided that all would get a share of the amrita.

On churning, many riches emerged and so did Dhanvantri with the pot of amrita. On seeing this, the asuras tried to gain control of the pot, but Vishnu took the form of Mohini, the enchantress and ran away with the pot. While Mohini was trying to save the pot from the asuras, the pot spilt some drops of the amrita on Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, which have become the famous places of the Kumbh fair. It is said that the gods and the asuras fought for twelve days, which was equivalent to the twelve years on earth to gain control of the pot.

In the war between the gods and the asuras, three gods, Sun, Moon and Jupiter played a very important role in protecting the pot from the asuras. Since then, the Kumbha Mela is held to commemorate this event, and the dates are calculated on the basis of the planetary positions of Sun, Moon and Jupiter. The four places where drops of nectar had been spilt, are supposed to acquire divine powers on these days and bathing in the rivers on these days, washes away all the sins and one can achieve salvation. The fair is held every four years in the above regions and every twelve year is the Maha-Kumbh, like the one which is being held in Allahabad this year.

I don’t know if the sins are washed away on this day or not, but the massive congregation of believers on this day has something to do with faith. Braving the chilling winter and dipping in the cold waters can only be an act of faith and hope for salvation. How many achieve salvation is a statistics for god to maintain, but the Kumbh is definitely a visual treat even for the non-believer. It must be something, which made Mark Twain, in 1895 to comment –

“It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvellous to our kind of people, the cold whites.”

Some of the main dates for this year for bathing are as follows –

14 January – Makar Sankranti

27 January – Paush Purnima

6 February – Ekadashi Snan

10 February – Mauni Amavasya Snan (Main Bathing Day)

15 February – Basant Panchami Snan

17 February – Rath Saptami Snan

21 February – Bhisma Ekadashi Snan

25 February – Maghi Purnima Snan

For more on Makara Sankranti, read Makara Sankranti

Kites

NB: Apologies for the title of the article. This is the one that soars heights not the one which dives down at the Box Office!

On the day of Makara Sankranti, Gujarat also celebrated the largest Kite flying festival, better known as Uttarayan. This is a day which sees people on roof-tops flying kites throughout the day and at times even in the evening. The day after the Uttarayan is known as Basi-Uttarayan (or stale-uttarayan) and the fun and frolic continues.

What is it about flying kites? What is its importance and what kind of joys does it bring to us mortals?

Flying kites has been a tradition across the world. Nobody knows the exact place of origin, but many feel that the origins of flying kites can be traced to China. In the initial days, they prepared kites of thin bamboo sticks and silk. This was a practice till paper was invented and then kites were made of paper. It was during this stage that flying kites moved beyond China to different parts of the world.

We do not find too many references of Kites in mythology, but the Maori’s of New Zealand used to believe that Kites were the connectors between the heavens and the earth. There are numerous references of folk-heroes travelling on a kite to the heavens or chasing someone over distances on a kite, etc. Flying Kites in ancient New Zealand was a great religious occasion and nowadays the same has been renewed as a cultural aspect.

Many cultures have seen kites as messengers and a means to communicate with the gods who resided in the heavens and thus the act was a religious act, and not just that of fun and frolic. According to a Japanese myth, a mythological bandit flew on a massive sized kite stealing the gold leaf from the dolphins for decorating the towers of a palace. However, he could not go further as he was soon executed!

Flying kites have had its moments of scientific excellence too. We all know how Benjamin Franklin had used a kite to prove that lightning was a phenomenon of electricity. The Second World War had seen the usage of kites for spying activities. Finally one can’t help but acknowledge the contributions of the kites in the development of the early flying machines. Today it is a world-wide sport.

Kites give vent to man’s quest to soar heights in the sky and rise thru the clouds to heavens and knock at the celestial doors! Unfortunately, in the process it cuts thru the birds and injuring both our aerial friends and at times themselves too. If only we leave flying kites to an environment friendly method and refrain from using materials like glass, etc. the sky would be one beautiful and a colourful canvas on this day!

Makara Sankranti

Sankaranti means movement or changing of directions and Makara corresponds to the zodiac sign of Capricorn. Makara Sankranti is celebrated when the Sun moves northwards after the Winter Solstice. Astrologically, it refers to the transition of Sun from the zodiac sign of Sagittarius to Capricorn. In all there are twelve Sankranti’s, but this one is considered to be an auspicious one.

Makara Sankranti is called by different names in different parts of India, like Khichri Sankranti, Uttarayan, Ganga Sagar, Pongal, Bihu, etc. Though different places have differing significance, the day remains a very important day at the beginning of the year. This day onwards the climate changes a bit and the importance of Sun is acknowledged. It also marks the end of winter and the days start getting longer and the nights shorter.

Makara Sankranti has a special significance in the Eastern parts of the country which celebrates the day as Ganga-Sagar Mela. It is said that Bhagirath had performed great penance to get the river Ganga on earth to redeem the sixty thousand sons of Sagar, who were burned to ashes my Kapil Muni. It was on this day that Bhagirath performed the last rites of his ancestors with the waters of the holy Ganga on earth thereby liberating his ancestors from the curse of Kapil Muni. After visiting the Patal-loka, Ganga merges with the Bay of Bengal at the site where the Ganga-Sagar mela is held annually.

Mahabharat mentions that after the war of Kurukshetra, it was on the day of Makara Sankranti that Bhishma Pitamah, the grand-patriarch of the two families decided to end his life and proceed for the heavens.

This day is also considered auspicious for the father-son relationship. Surya devta never got along with his son, Shani-dev (who is the Lord of the zodiac sign of Capricorn), but on this day, Surya visits his son and stays with him for a month. This day thus symbolises the importance of the relationship between a father and a son.

Similarly in many parts of the country, this is a harvest festival, as in Punjab and some states of Southern India. Besides, it also marks the last day of the famous forty-day Sabiramala festival in Kerala.

Needless to say, like all Hindu festival this day has its own recipes to be made and had. Preparations of jaggery and til (sesame seeds) are consumed across the country. Also, preparations of the newly harvested foods are the norm.

So on this day, leave the negative thoughts and move on with the Sun. Just as the Sun goes northwards, we mortals should try to ascend in our thoughts and deeds and actions. If we can’t match the movements of the Sun literally, let us match them symbolically at least.

Happy Makara Sankranti!