James G. Lochtefeld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195386141
- eISBN:
- 9780199866380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386141.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different ...
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Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different reasons, such as the desire to bathe in the Ganges and gain religious merit (punya); the desire to perform life-cycle rites (samskaras) for birth (mundan), marriage (suhag-pithari), or death (asthivisarjana); the desire to come in contact with resident powers (both human and divine); or the desire to find peace in Hardwar’s beautiful natural environment. The chapter’s latter part does case studies on two particular pilgrimages: the Kanvar Mela, in which pilgrims take Ganges water from Hardwar to their homes as an offering to Shiva, and a twelve-day package tour to the four most important Himalayan pilgrimage sites (char dham): Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.Less
Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different reasons, such as the desire to bathe in the Ganges and gain religious merit (punya); the desire to perform life-cycle rites (samskaras) for birth (mundan), marriage (suhag-pithari), or death (asthivisarjana); the desire to come in contact with resident powers (both human and divine); or the desire to find peace in Hardwar’s beautiful natural environment. The chapter’s latter part does case studies on two particular pilgrimages: the Kanvar Mela, in which pilgrims take Ganges water from Hardwar to their homes as an offering to Shiva, and a twelve-day package tour to the four most important Himalayan pilgrimage sites (char dham): Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.
