Kanwar Yatra

In the cyclic Hindu calendar Kanwar Yatra governed by rainfall occurs twice in the modern year. The first and more widely known is when the monsoon season sets in and second one is scheduled when the summer season begins. In terms of participation of people, the first season gathers more followers.

I thought that gradually kanwar yatra would decline and fade away but opposite is the experience. Kanwar yatra is not an useful, productive activity. It cannot be grasped and understood in functional terms. Rise of instrumental reasoning and materially rewarding activity would diminish its appeal fueled the expectation of its decline?

Unlike most hunches and vague expectations kanwar yatra warrants attention and seeks more exploration. What could be so meaningful and expressive for participants in the kanwar yarta that over the years it is attracting more and more people--especially the youth? How is routine, ceremonial, symbolic and significant related and articulated in Hindu social order and with and around kanwar yatra.

In terms of north-south India, Shaivism is associated more with the south, however, Kanwar Yatra as tribute to Shiva is largely a north Indian phenomena. The forms of devotion, worship and beliefs is undergoing a major change. Quiet devotion in private to public expression of faith and belief among Hindus in India. Reflection, meditation, retreat away from the family and public life to large, loud, public exhibition and participation in religious activity?

Ancient religions typically do not entertain distinction between mythology and history, explanations and speculations. Old religions merge and fuse ordinary, everyday with supernatural, spectacular and grand. If one wants to think about kawar yatra, then one has to start with the myth and legends; they demand repetition and rehearsal. Following the modern forms of thinking in the form of writing, this exploration of Kanwar Yatra would rely more on links, suggestions and connections.

Instead of suspending and preparing the reader and listener to a divine revelation when a story is told and retold this exploration would foreground what it intends to propose, examine and explore. Kanwar yatra re-enacts story of human efforts required for settlement and is tied to social formation and its expression. Mimetic. What people actually do while participating in kanwar yatra reveals significant aspects of its relation to human settlement and historical process and identifies the social groups who helped in this realisation. The modern modes and forms of participation also provide glimpses of its fault lines and fissures.

The part of region(north India) where we see large scale participation in Kanwar yatra receives significant rainfall. Kanwar yatra begins with the monsoon- the season of rainfall. The other kanwar yatra is when water would slowly dry out from the earth. The legend is that Shiva’s hair acted as a hold for the divine river to descend from the heavens. Modern science attests that hair of living beings regulates water, so Shiva’s hair is an apt metaphor in more than one sense.

Kanwar yatra for the uninitiated begins at the home and ends at a Shiva temple and is to pay obeisance to him. Nature provides water and wells, ponds, rivers and seas can hold and contain them in large quantity. A kanwar yatri would contain the water in a vessel, lift and carry it over a distance to a fixed destination. Animals, birds and human beings need water for survival and draw water from nature but can hold and contain only as much as the organism needs. Unlike animals and birds, human beings know and have learnt to hold and contain water in vessels. Peasant societies, water cycle, festivals and rituals are inter-connected.

The artisans make vessels. Agriculture and fixed human settlement depends on ability to hold, contain, direct, lift, carry and profit from water. Nature would hold and contain water in natural bodies and human settlement can be away from such bodies only if they can hold, contain, lift and carry water over distance. Kanwar Yatri reenacts these historical achievements Historically or in past those who have performed these tasks in the society continue to participate in greater number in Kunwar yatra. The conversion and re conversion of routine to ritual is not a uni-linear and unidirectional process. Everyday, ordinary and supernatural are differing paces of a single process?

Sadhus, renouncers and brahmins participate less in kunwar yatra and the proverbial grahasths partake in it. Kanwar yatri is  bound to be a grihasta but could as well be a sanyasi, a renouncer and participation expresses this in between stage.  Within the hindu order and its caste structure a Brahmin would receive water brought by kanwar yatri in the precincts of temple. An untouchable is expected to bring water to the temple and keep the surroundings of temple clean, but water brought by them will not be received by the brahmin and these arrangements express the order that was/is followed.

Women are restricted and prohibited from kanwar yatra, however, they fast on mondays of the Shravan, the day Kanwar yatris are expected to reach their destination. Within the familial and domestic set up it is usually the women who bring water or work with water. Quite a few cases are known where women fetch water for agricultural needs as well but their role in the family and domestic with respect to water is pronounced. What women do all the year around man would only do ritually, symbolically and ceremonially? Relaxations of norms and expectations in everyday life is the dominant form of male privilege. Social differentiation with respect to roles related to water is no exception. Routine to ritual and ritual to routine conversion in Hindu religion is regulated by restriction and prohibition through a caste system. Restriction, prohibition and displacement of roles in Hindu social order, connects as well cuts of the link between everyday, routine, ceremonial, symbolic and supernatural and ideal.

Coming back to kanwar yatra, men would carry water in two small vessels/containers tied to a wood plank that is swung along the shoulder. A 'balance' thus achieved requires that man moves in the middle of things and cover a fixed distance. In doing so, in these forms kanwar yatra re-enacts the story of human settlement and they express historical social formations with their fault lines and fissures. Shiva epitomises independence and isolation and dwells in mountains and his celestial frozen appearance melts in water and kanwar yatra and imagery of Shiva is closely connected. To start with a vessel full and intend to reach a destination in similar condition may be impossible but can be a worthy goal to set in life.

Lord Shiva is imagined and presented as beyond the good and evil. Shiva is innocence and knowledge, supreme creation and ultimate destruction, at ease with social norms and deviance. His being facilitates the ordinary, extraordinary and impossible. These ideas, imaginations and beliefs inform participation in kanwar yatra.

Expansion of human settlement require that humans venture out from family and already settled places on their own, mostly in groups towards a journey. In kunwar yatra this is what young males do. It imbibes and trains them for journey and exploration, if only through a ritual in modern period. Unlike west, India does not have a culture of boot camp fire and expedition or a culture of economic independence in growing up years. Kanwar yatra through a routine and ritual takes up these tasks as well albeit symbolically? Kanwar yatris usually carry little and venture out away from family for few days. In the contemporary period it works as a life hack where young males learn life skills and enjoy temporary independence from domestic and family life.

Kanwar yatra is performed for fixed number of years as a promise if a wish is granted and as a pledge if the wish is fulfilled. The wishes( Sankalp/manokamna) of kanwariya are usually goals tied to grahastya ashram. Whether one takes a break and pauses or covers the distance in one run while taking up kanwar yatra distinguishes the bol bum from dak bum. As these name suggests Kanwar yatra receives and is amenable to local adaptation. With pause or like a marathon, one has to be 'barefoot' while covering the stipulated distance. Decorating the kanwar are details of kanwar yatra and they are worth mentioning. Kanwar Yatra like most yatra's present the ethereal combination of effort with wish and forever attract adherents and followers.

In rapidly changing urban and modern environment, the expectations from the young are increasing day by day. They are expected to rely on themselves and carry the tradition with them. However, opportunities are few to live that life in ways that are acceptable to society. An experience of kanwar yatra fits the bill and attracts participants in large number not as a modern necessity and requirement but as participation in a tradition. To fulfill and take up assigned social roles is paramount in Hindu religion and kanwar yatra upholds that tradition. An element of enterprise and venturing out informs kanwar yatra and they are quite handy as experience in urban and modern setting. The social identity of participants is largely drawn from artisanal and agriculture related historical classes and social roles. One can readily see how the caste dynamics plays out with respect to kanwar yatra?

Jharkhand and similar places receive fair degree of rainfall however due to its terrain to maintain a steady supply of water is a tall and arduous order. One of the most visible marker that one is approaching a ‘modern’ city in these parts is to see thick water pipe lines and water tanks. In the hinterland and elsewhere water is still carried on the shoulders of Adivasi. Slung along the neck quite like Kanwar yatri, water vessels sustain domestic and family life in these parts. In the dry and desert region women carry water over their head or in vessels slung along their waist. Their remarkable pace while carrying water is one part, the fact they are performing no ritual or are not paying obeisance to any god is another.