Haridwar, Uttaranchal, India
Haridwar (or Hardwar) lies along the Ganges at the boundary between the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayan foothills and is the site of the headworks of the Ganges Canal system. Haridwar is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus and a major pilgrimage centre. It has had many names; originally it was called Kapila, for the sage who once lived there. Its present name means "door to Hari," one of the names of Vishnu, a principal deity of Hinduism. Haridwar's chief object of pilgrimage is Har-ki-Pauri, the bathing ghat, or steps, along the river. It has what believers consider to be a footprint of Vishnu impressed into a stone. Large numbers of pilgrims gather there annually at the beginning of the Hindu solar year in April; a Kumbh Mela is held every 12th year. The pictures below are from a relatively minor Hindu festival on 6th June, 2006 (06/06/06). [Adapted from Encyclopedia Britannica.]
Har-ki-Pauri  |
Festival day (06/06/06)  |
Bathers from far and wide  |
The bathing ghats  |
Open air bathing  |
Riverside rituals  |
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Family puja  |
Putting on dry clothes  |
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Protesting kid  |
Tribal woman  |
Singing old man  |
Stepping down to the river  |
Riverside fun  |
Frolicking in water (more)  |
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The gushing Ganges  |
Clock tower area (more)  |
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Three women  |
Riverside puja  |
Ritual offering  |
Dressing up  |
Fighting siblings  |
Amigos (more)  |
All dressed up  |
Lady in red  |
Big turnout  |
The ghats and beyond  |
Bathing pilgrims  |
View from a bridge  |
Ghat scene  |
Photographer (more)  |
Waiting for the aarti  |
Bead shop (more)  |
Drying off  |
Albino with open sores  |
Tribal woman (more)  |
Bent old woman  |
Ghat scene  |
Wrinkled woman  |
Ecstatic old woman with son  |
Reading the scriptures  |
Bathers (more)  |
Bathing sadhu  |
Pilgrim on the ghat  |
Ritual offering  |
Open air kitchens  |
Camps by the river (more)  |
Makeshift shrine  |
Naga sadhus  |
Worried?  |
Giant vat of milk  |
Pickles (more)  |
Heap of kum-kum (sindoor)  |
Praying sadhu  |
Ritual offering to the Ganga  |
Father and children  |
Father and son  |
Another ghat (more)  |
Loaded rickshaw  |
Outside Haridwar train station  |
Holiday rush hour  |
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