Kanwar Yatra

The Kanwar (or Kānvar/ Kāvaḍ) Yātrā is an annual pilgrimage of devotees of Shiva, known as Kānvarias (Hindustani: [कावड़िया]) or "Bhole" (Hindustani: [भोले]), to Hindu pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri (Uttarakhand) and Ajgaibinath Temple in Sultanganj, Bhagalpur (Bihar) in order 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 2024, the Kanwar Yatra was held from 22 July to 2 August. Kanwar refers to a genre of religious performances where devotees 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).^[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 30 million devotees in the 2023 and 2024 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]

^ 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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