{"id":12843,"date":"2025-07-15T12:26:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T06:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12843"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:20:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T10:50:39","slug":"kanwar-yatra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kanwar-yatra\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanwar Yatra"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Kanwar Yathra Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi Chief Minister recently said no nuisance will be tolerated during Kanwar Yatra, days after glass shards were found scattered along a stretch of the yatra route in Shahdara.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Kanwar Yathra<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s an <\/span><b>annual pilgrimage, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">held in the <\/span><b>Hindu month of Shravan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (typically <\/span><b>July\u2013August)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where <\/span><b>Shiva devotees<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (known as <\/span><b>Kanwariyas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), <\/span><b>primarily in North India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>fetch holy water from the Gange<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s River and <\/span><b>carry it back to their local Shiva temples<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (often barefoot and walking distances of hundreds of kilometers).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They visit the temples to <\/span><b>offer holy water <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to Lord Shiva, especially<\/span><b> on the auspicious day of Shivratri<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the <\/span><b>month of Shravan.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What happens at Kanwar Yatra?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u201c<\/span><b>Kanwar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d refers to a <\/span><b>special carrying apparatus,<\/b> <b>typically a bamboo pole, with two equal loads <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(usually pots filled with Ganga water) suspended from either end.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This pole is <\/span><b>balanced on the pilgrim\u2019s shoulde<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">r. \u201cYatra\u201d simply means a journey or procession.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, the Kanwar Yatra literally means the \u201c<\/span><b>journey with the Kanwar.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The core ritual of this pilgrimage is to <\/span><b>collect sacred water,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> known as \u201cGangajal,\u201d from River Ganga, particularly f<\/span><b>rom places like Haridwar, Gaumukh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (the source of the Ganges glacier),<\/span><b> Gangotri in Uttarakhand, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>Ajgaibinath Temple in Sultanganj, Bhagalpur (Bihar).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The devotees then <\/span><b>return by carrying Ganga water in kanwars <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to seek the blessings of Shiva.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water is<\/span><b> offered to Shiva temples<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the 12 Jyotirlingas across India and other shrines like the Pura Mahadev Mandir and Augharnath in Uttar Pradesh, the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple, and the Baba Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand. The ritual is known as Jal Abhishek.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Devotees often carry the holy water to offer at temples in their towns and villages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many <\/span><b>pilgrims believe <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>once the pot is filled with holy water, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it <\/span><b>should not touch the ground.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While carrying the water, devotees<\/span><b> walk barefoot<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; some complete the pilgrimage by lying flat on the ground. <\/span><b>Modern times<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have seen some adaptations, with some <\/span><b>using cycles, motorbikes, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or even<\/span><b> vehicle convoys <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for parts of the journey, though the purists still prefer walking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kanwariyas <\/span><b>typically dress in saffron-colored robes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a color associated with renunciation and spirituality in Hinduism.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Many observe fasts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during the pilgrimage, and the consumption of food, water, and salt is restricted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theprint.in\/india\/no-nuisance-will-be-tolerated-during-kanwar-yatra-delhi-cm-rekha-gupta\/2689620\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PRINT<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kanwar Yathra is an annual pilgrimage, held in the Hindu month of Shravan, where Shiva devotees fetch holy water from the Ganges River and carry it back to their local Shiva temples. Read more about Kanwar Yatra, Month, Date, Objective, Latest News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":55000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1552,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-12843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-kanwar-yathra","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}