Kanwar Yatra

The Kānvar (or Kānwar/ Kāvaḍ) Yātrā is an annual pilgrimage of devotees of Shiva, known as Kānvarias (कावड़िया) or "Bhole" (भोले), to Hindu pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Ajgaibinath, Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, Bihar to fetch holy waters of Ganges River. Millions of pilgrims fetch sacred water from river Ganga and carry on their shoulders for hundreds of miles to offer it in their local Śiva shrines, or specific temples such as Pura Mahadeva temple in Baghpat district and Augharnath temple in Meerut, Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Baidyanath temple in Deoghar etc. In 2023, the Kanwar Yatra was held from 04-15 July.

At its base, Kanwar refers to a genre of religious performances where participants ritually carry water from a holy source in containers suspended on either side of a pole. The pilgrimage derives its name from a sacred water carrying apparatus, called kanwar, and while the source of the water is often the Ganga, it can also be its local equivalents. The offering is dedicated to Shiva, often addressed as Bhola (innocent) or Bhole Baba (innocent saint). The pilgrim, accordingly, is a bhola, and in the vocative, bhole! Although there is little mention of the Kanwar as an organized festival in canonical texts, the phenomenon surely existed in the early nineteenth century when English travelers report seeing Kanwar pilgrims at many points during their journeys in the north Indian plains.^[1]

The Yatra used to be a small affair undertaken by a few saints and older devotees until the late 1980s, when it started gaining popularity.^[2] Today, the Kanwar pilgrimage to Haridwar in particular has grown to be India's largest annual religious gathering, with an estimated 12 million participants in the 2010 and 2011 events. The devotees come from the surrounding states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Bihar and some from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Heavy security measures are undertaken by the government and the traffic on Delhi-Haridwar national highway (NH-58) is diverted for the period.^[3]^[4]

Outside of India, the tradition has led to the annual Maha Shivaratri pilgrimage where around half a million Hindus in Mauritius go on a pilgrimage to Ganga Talao, many walking bare feet from their homes carrying Kanvars

^ Singh, Vikash (2017). Uprising of the fools : pilgrimage as moral protest in contemporary India. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1503601673. OCLC 953363490.
^ Cite error: The named reference hi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference ib was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Security stepped up at Delhi-Haridwar rail, road routes". The Hindu. 26 July 2007.

[:0-1] Singh, Vikash (2017). Uprising of the fools : pilgrimage as moral protest in contemporary India. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1503601673. OCLC 953363490.

[hi-2] Cite error: The named reference hi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[ib-3] Cite error: The named reference ib was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[4] "Security stepped up at Delhi-Haridwar rail, road routes". The Hindu. 26 July 2007.

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