Of Ganga Maiya, the river that washes away all sins (Letter from Haridwar)

HARIDWAR - The early morning mist covers the Ganga river as it flows past the temple town of Haridwar like a gossamer drape, untouched by the sun. At Har-ki-Pauri, the spiritual soul of Haridwar, the swirling current of the river that descends from the icy peaks of the Himalayas disappears into the dense bank of fog. Only the spires of the temples dotting the banks show up in shadowy silhouettes.

Haridwar, or the gateway to the abode of god, seems suspended in a web of time and misty space.

The arclights are on the river now that it is being celebrated as part of the world’s longest and most ancient river festival - the Mahakumbh Mela.

The holy bathing ghat at Har-ki-Pauri has a new attraction for the Kumbh - six new corrugated iron bridges built parallel to each other and painted bright orange.

Seen from atop these bridges, the fast-flowing river is a study in contrast of colours - a pastel grey here, — and there fired with sudden shafts of cobalt blue.

The river, as it rushes downstream through a network of seven streams, appears untrammelled even after at least 500,000 pilgrims had a holy dip Jan 15 in a ritual bathing believed to redeem them from their sins.

“Ganga Maiya (mother) washes away all the dirt - those of others and of herself. You will rarely find her looking worn and weathered despite thousands of pilgrims bathing in the river every day. Nearly 500,000 people participated in the holy dip on Friday. It is the lifeline of northern India, having supported thousands of years of civilisations on its banks,” Mukesh Kothari, priest of the local Lakshmi-Narayan temple, told IANS as he prepared for his morning prayers after bathing in the river.

The shoals of fish that ususally play around the shallow waters kissing the concrete steps at the ghat have been missing ever since the Mahakumbh began.

“Fish at Har-ki-Pauri are an abiding memory of our childhood. We used to feed them when we visited the shrines. Not having them around worries me,” former armyman-turned-amateur photographer Andy Singh, currently based in the US, told IANS while clicking shots for a magazine.

Local residents and temple priests say the wave of humanity pushing for a splash of salvation in the holy waters has probably scared the fish further upstream.

The banks, damp with moisture from the mist and water, are a mess - littered with discarded clothes, polythene carry bags, prayer kits, dry flowers, pools of slime and betel stains.

The mission to save the river in the upper reaches has found several takers.

Over 250,000 Naga sadhus - or the naked warrior ascetics from the Shaivite and Vaishnavite akhadas (sects) - are campaigning to save the river during the Mahakumbh Mela.

“It has become the single most important source of concern for people in India. We have been spreading the message of protecting the river and the Himalayan glacier from where it traces its origin in all our congregations,” Divyanand ji Maharaj of the Juna Akhada, one of the largest religious sects with five million sadhus in its fold, told IANS.

Baba Ramdev, the co-founder of the Patanjali Yog Peeth, headquartered near Rishikesh on the Haridwar-Rishikesh highway, has also launched a Bhagirathi-Ganga Bachao Abhiyan to save the river throughout its course from Gangotri to Ganga Sagar in West Bengal, where the river drains into the Bay of Bengal.

The 2,510-km river, which originates from the Gangotri glacier in the central Himalayas, at the confluence of the Bhagirathi, the Mandakini, the Dhauliganga and the Pindar at Devaprayag, emerges in the pilgrimage town of Haridwar after journeying 200 km through the Himalayas.

At Haridwar, a dam channels its waters into seven streams, which merges into the Ganga Canal downstream. The river travels nearly 800 km from Har-ki-Pauri through the city of Kanpur before it merges with the Yamuna river at Sangam in Allahabad.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)