Introduction

Once upon a time there was a boy called Shravan-kumar who travelled with a bamboo sling on his shoulders. On either side of this sling were two baskets. In one sat his old, blind, and frail father and in the other sat his old, blind, and frail mother. He carried them to each and every holy spot that he knew of— some located atop mountains, some on seashores, and some at the confluence of rivers. Shravan-kumar’s story is found in Hindu as well as Buddhist lore, where he is known as Buddhato-be Syama. He became the archetypal ideal son who ensures his parents become successful pilgrims before they die, for that would earn them enough merit to break free from the otherwise endless cycle of birth and death. It would also earn him merit to beget a son, who would one day do the same for him.

Shravan-kumar’s parents would have surely told him the story of an asura who performed tapasya and became the container of so much merit that all those who looked upon him became immortal. This upset the cosmic balance. Brahma, ancestor of all living creatures, approached the asura and told him that his body had become the holiest site in the world—and asked if he would offer his body as the site for conducting a yagna. The asura agreed to Brahma’s request. He lay down on the ground and Brahma lit the fire of yagna on his belly. The site where the asura reclined became the holiest of spaces. His bones became sacred earth, his blood became sacred water, and from his hair grew sacred trees. Thus, the first pilgrim site came into being. No one knows where this exact spot was and so pilgrims such as Shravan-kumar would go to all known pilgrim sites, hoping to encounter the asura’s merit somewhere. Over time, the story of the asura was forgotten, but the number of pilgrim spots grew exponentially, as did the number of paths that connected them. Pilgrims like Shravan-kumar wove together the pilgrim nation of Bharatvarsh.

Bharatvarsh is the traditional name given by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains to India. In ancient chronicles, Bharatvasha, or Bharatkhanda, was located in Jambudvipa, the continent named after jambu, the Indian blackberry (Syzygium cumini), which stains the tongue purple. This continent stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. It is the land nourished by seven rivers. Today, we call it the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, and it has been carved, in the last century, into various nation states with new political identities. Centuries ago, these boundaries and political divides did not matter to pilgrims, who went around this land seeking holy sites to nourish them spiritually.

Bharatvarsh, pronounced Bhāratvarsh, means ‘land of Bharat’. Bharat was one of the oldest rulers of Jambudvipa. As per Jain mythology, he was the son of Rishabha. After conquering the continent, he wanted to carve his name on the slopes of Mount Meru, located in the centre of the land, to declare his monumental feat. But when he reached the summit, he saw that the slopes were carved with the names of hundreds of kings, each one of whom believed that they were the first conquerors of Jambudvipa, until they reached the summit of Meru and saw the names of earlier conquerors. This story captures the timeless (sanatan) idea of the Indian ethos: we exist in a canvas of infinity. Nothing is unique, or new. Everything has happened before. Everything will happen again. We just forget until the sages bring back the memory.

As per historians, Aryans referred to this land as Sindhusthala or the land of rivers. It was where multiple river-valley cultures emerged, first in the Punjab along the tributaries of the Indus, and later in the basins of the Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri. In Vedic texts, each of these river basins is associated with sages such as Vyasa, Dirghatama, Bhrigu, Angira, Agastya, Atri, and many others, probably the mythical Sapta Rishi, or Seven Sages, who spread the Vedic way of life across the subcontinent. The sages were enablers of chieftains, or rajas, who went on to become kings, or chakravartis. The Bharat clan were the chieftains who enabled the organization of the Rig Veda, the oldest Hindu scripture, over 3,000 years ago, in the land we now know as Kurukshetra, north of Delhi. In the Mahabharata, Bharat is the name of a king raised in the forest, who played with the lions. In the Ramayana, Bharat is the name of a prince who refuses to accept a kingdom that his mother secures through cunning. In the Bhagavata Purana, Bharat is the name of a sage who understood the nature of reality, having lived his previous life as a deer, because in a life before that he had become too attached to a fawn.

Bharat is also the name of the sage who, inspired by Shiva’s dance, composed the Natya Shastra, comprising the Indian approach to the performing arts where the mind is expanded by stimulating the senses, churning the mind and stirring the emotions. Could it be that Bharatvarsh was named not just after Bharat, the king, but also after Bharat, the artist-sage? We can only speculate.

Crowning Bharatvarsh were snow-capped mountains, the Himalayas. Here sat Shiva, the supreme ascetic, in serene isolation, detached from the world, until Sati, daughter of the first householder, Daksha, taught him the value of love, engagement, and attachment. When Sati died, Shiva carried her corpse on his shoulder, consumed by heartbreak. To help Shiva regain his awareness, Vishnu hurled his discus and cut Sati’s body into fifty-one pieces, which fell at different parts of Bharatvarsh which came to be known as shakti-peethas.

Shiva disappeared but appeared time and again in twelve spots across Bharatvarsh—as fiery pillars with no beginning or end—whenever devotees called out to him. These were known as the jyotirlingas. Vishnu, guardian of earth, also appeared on Bharatvarsh in various mortal forms (avatars) to establish dharma, a way of life where the mighty take care of the meek. He was born as Parashurama of the Bhargava clan who lived on the western coast, and Ram of the Raghu clan who travelled from the Gangetic plains in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and Krishna of the Yadu clan who migrated from Mathura in the east to Dwarka in the west.

The Jain traders believed that across Bharatvarsh are mountaintops where tirthankaras rediscovered, from time to time, the limitless and eternal knowledge of the cosmos. This knowledge helps one conquer hunger and break free from the wheel of rebirth. All these places became Jain pilgrim spots.

Buddhist chronicles state that when the Buddha died and was cremated, the kings of the earth fought over his bones. So these bones were divided equally and given to each king who established stupas, or burial mounds, over the procured relics. Later, King Ashoka found these relics, divided them into 84,000 h portions, and established 84,000 stupas across Bharatvarsh. All these sites became pilgrim spots. Many relics later travelled to distant lands where Buddhism spread, which is why very few are now left in Bharatvarsh. In China, where Buddhism transformed dramatically, India became known as Sukhavati, the land of joy, the pure land paradise located in the west from where great wisdom could be sourced.

Across India, there are ponds, lakes, waterfalls, river bends, river confluences, where sages meditated, gods appeared, goddesses killed demons, and humans had their problems solved. These water bodies, too, became pilgrim spots. Holy men, who never stayed in one place for long, travelled from one pilgrim spot to another, and created a network that transformed Jambudvipa into a cultural entity called Bharatvarsh anchored in the holy spaces (tirtha-sthala), which in turn were anchored by stories, symbols and rituals, expressing timeless ideas.

In this book we will come to appreciate the long and complex history of India by paying attention to thirty-two sacred pilgrim spots that are increasingly becoming secular tourist spots. Much of the thoughts here are my personal views anchored in some facts because: Within infinite myths lies the eternal truth Who sees it all? Varuna has but a thousand eyes, Indra has a hundred, You and I, only two.

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