Author:
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: July 8, 2006
Introduction: From this week for another three,
it's 'my way, the highway' for swarms of kanwariyas converging on Hardwar
Not the best time for road rage, starting
this week for a month in the hot and dusty plains of Hindoostan: whole swarms
of men in orange (and women, too) from the BIMARU states have seized the National
Highways to march relentlessly on Hardwar. They carry poles across their shoulders
from which hang water-pots in little cane baskets, called kavar. Their mission?
To fetch Gangajal from Hardwar for their village or neighbourhood shivala,
which will be used to ritually 'Iustrate' (sprinkle) the temple shivling on
holy dates until next year's pilgrim's polewalk renews the supply.
The practice is said to be as old as the hills
and rejoices in its own version in South India, where the contraption is called
kavadi. There's even a genre of very old, charmingly rhythmic folk songs called
kavadi chindu out there. In the North, the ritual greeting goes "Bam
Bhole!" hailing Shiva, mysterious Lord without beginning and end and
therefore a master symbol of Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Way, which is Hinduism's
actual name).
There's a very plausible theory that the custom
was a social ruse to divert the energy of all the restless young bucks in
the village who had no harvesting work to do in the chaturmasya or rain months
of rest. Instead of letting them hang around idling and getting into fights,
ancient wisdom came up with the deviously practical double whammy of sending
them out adventuring - to fetch Gangajal for worship at home.
The practice apparently fell into disuse in
recent centuries due to all the warfare and political turbulence that made
it unsafe for yatra.
Then, goes another theory, a hugely popular
Bengali mytho-movie called Baba Tarak Nath impacted on the Bihari populace
of Kolkata in the 1970s. Groups of Bihari men revived the custom and steadily,
over the last three decades, it's become a big thing across North India.
One lone ranger from Dhausa in Rajasthan even
fetched up outside the HT building in New Delhi yesterday, wanting chai-pani
ka paisa since he was accidentally separated from his group.
It's the done thing now for Hindu trader associations
in every Delhi market to offer wayside hospitality to gangs of marching kanwariyas:
tea, water, lunch and laddoos.
Their big gathering place is the old Gaurishankar
Mandir near Old Delhi railway station and in places like Buddha Jayanti Park
where the Delhi administration sets up tents and water tankers during July-August.
Clues to handling a kanwariya mob if your car is suddenly trapped in its midst:
don't even think of picking a fight.
It's best to say "Bam Bhole Nath ki!"
cordially and wait for them to jog past. They're an irresistible force, exercising
their old cultural right of way. And like anyone in the world, we nice, they
nice.
