A report on Haridwar, Ganges and Pilgrimage

Meandering main Ganga river, known here as Neel Dhara (left) and the Ganga canal (right), passing through Haridwar.
David Teniers the Younger: Flemish Pilgrim
Ganga Aarti at Haridwar
Bhagirathi River at Gangotri.
Ancient excavated Buddha-image at the Mahaparinirvana Temple, Kushinagar
Prince Bhagiratha in penance for the salvation of 60,000 of his ancestors.
Devprayag, confluence of Alaknanda (right) and Bhagirathi (left), and beginning of the Ganges proper.
Tibetans on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, doing full-body prostrations, often for the entire length of the journey
Gangadhara, Shiva bearing the Descent of the Ganges River as Parvati and Bhagiratha, and the bull Nandi look on. circa 1740
The Himalayan headwaters of the Ganges River in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel according to tradition is the site where Jesus was crucified and resurrected
Head of the Ganges Canal, Haridwar, ca 1894–1898.
The Gandhi Setu Bridge across the Ganges in Patna, Bihar
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is one of the largest pilgrimage sites (Marian shrine) in the world.
Haridwar from the opposite bank of the Ganges, 1866
A sailboat on the main distributory of the Ganges in Bangladesh, the Padma river.
Kumbh Mela
Haridwar as a part of the United Province, 1903
The Ganges delta in a 2020 satellite image.
Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the black cube of the Kaaba in the Al-Haram Mosque
Neeldhara Bird Sanctuary at the main Ganges Canal, before Bhimgoda Barrage, also showing signs of an ancient port.
A 1908 map showing the course of the Ganges and its tributaries.
Arba'een pilgrims in Mehran
Panoramic view of Har ki Pauri
The River Ganges at Kolkata, with Howrah Bridge in the background
Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem during the Ottoman period, 1867
Panorama of Haridwar city from Mansa Devi Temple
Lower Ganges in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh
Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) in Amritsar, India.
Main bathing Ghat, at Haridwar, in the 1880s.
Hardinge Bridge, Bangladesh, crosses the Ganges-Padma River. It is one of the key sites for measuring streamflow and discharge on the lower Ganges.
Baishatun Pilgrimage: Mazu and her palanquin
The Clock Tower on the Malviya Dwip at Har Ki Pauri.
Chromolithograph, Indian woman floating lamps on the Ganges, by William Simpson, 1867
The Yazd Atash Behram in Iran is an Atash Bahram, the highest grade of fire temple in Zoroastrianism
The Haridwar Kumbh Mela is held in every 12 years and the date is determined by Hindu astrology.
Descent of Ganga, painting by Raja Ravi Varma c. 1910
Das Mahavidya temple, Daksheswara Mahadev temple
Preparations for cremations on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi], 1903. The dead are being bathed, wrapped in cloth, and covered with wood. The photograph has a caption, "Who dies in the waters of the Ganges obtains heaven."]
Ropeway to Mansa Devi Temple, Haridwar.
Women and children at a bathing ghat on the Ganges in Banares (Varanasi), 1885.
Bholanath Sevashram temple by the Ganges, Haridwar
Shiva, as Gangadhara, bearing the Descent of the Ganges, as the goddess Parvati, the sage Bhagiratha, and the bull Nandi look on (circa 1740).
Haridwar from Chilla Range, Rajaji National Park
A procession of Akharas marching over a makeshift bridge over the Ganges River. Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, 2001.
Shiva statue by the Ganges, across Har-ki-Pauri, Haridwar
Head works of the Ganges canal in Haridwar (1860). Photograph by Samuel Bourne.
Shri Chintamani Parshwnath Jain Shwetambar Mandir
The Ganges Canal highlighted in red stretching between its headworks off the Ganges River in Haridwar and its confluences with the Jumna (Yamuna) River in Etawah and with the Ganges in Cawnpore (now Kanpur).
Pantanjali Yogpeeth
A girl selling plastic containers in Haridwar for carrying Ganges water.
Haridwar Railway station
Ganges from Space
Lesser florican (Sypheotides indicus)
The catla (Catla catla) is one of the Indian carp species that support major fisheries in the Ganges
The threatened gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a large fish-eating crocodilian that is harmless to humans
The Gangetic dolphin in a sketch by Whymper and P. Smit, 1894.
People bathing and washing clothes in the Ganges in Varanasi.
The Ganges at Sultanganj.

The city is situated on the right bank of the Ganges river, at the foothills of the Shivalik ranges.

- Haridwar

After flowing for 256.90 km through its narrow Himalayan valley, the Ganges emerges from the mountains at Rishikesh, then debouches onto the Gangetic Plain at the pilgrimage town of Haridwar.

- Ganges

Kumbh_Mela_2013_Sangam,_Allahabd.jpg during Prayag Kumbh Mela]]Kumbh Mela: Kumbh Mela is one of the largest gatherings of humans in the world where pilgrims gather to bathe in a sacred or holy river. The location is rotated among Allahabad, Haridwar, Nashik, and Ujjain.

- Pilgrimage

Kanwar Pilgrimage: The Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. As part of this phenomenon, millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga (usually in Haridwar, Gangotri, Gaumukh, or Sultanganj) and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Śiva shrines.

- Pilgrimage

For centuries when Hindu ancestors visited the holy town of Haridwar for any purpose which may have been for pilgrimage purposes or/and for cremation of their dead or for immersion of ashes and bones of their kin after cremation into the waters of the holy Ganges as required by Hindu religious custom, it has been a custom to go to the Pandit who is in charge of one's family register and update the family's family tree with details of marriages, births, and deaths from ones extended joint family.

- Haridwar

Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus gather at the Ganges River.

- Ganges
Meandering main Ganga river, known here as Neel Dhara (left) and the Ganga canal (right), passing through Haridwar.

2 related topics with Alpha

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Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint

Varanasi

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Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint
Banarasi sari
Tourists shopping for jewellery in Varanasi
Ganges view from Bhadaini water works, Varanasi
Ramnagar Fort was built in 1750 by Kashi Naresh Raja Balwant Singh.
Alamgiri Mosque
Memorial of Sant Ravidas at Sant Ravidas Ghat
Sarnath, the suburb of Varanasi
Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Wall paintings, Varanasi, 1973
Sant Goswami Tulsidas Awadhi Hindi poet and propagator of Bhakthi music in Varanasi
Krishna standing on serpent Kaliya during Nag Nathaiya festival in Varanasi
The Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi
Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi
The Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is the main airport that serves Varanasi.
Varanasi Junction, is the main railway station which serves Varanasi.
Banaras railway station at night
Ring Road Phase I
Road in Varanasi Cantonment
BLW manufactured locomotives hauling load across the nation.
A lithograph by James Prinsep (1832) of a Brahmin placing a garland on the holiest location in the city.
A painting by Edwin Lord Weeks (1883) of Varanasi, viewed from the Ganges.
An illustration (1890) of Bathing Ghat in Varanasi.
Maharaja of Benares, 1870s.
Map of the city, c. 1914.
An 1895 photograph of the Varanasi riverfront.
The lanes of Varanasi are bathed in a plethora of colours.
Dashashwamedh Ghat
Manikarnika Ghat
The Jain Ghat/Bachraj Ghat
Kedar Ghat during Kartika Purnima
The Kashi Vishwanath Temple, the most important temple in Varanasi.
Shri Vishwanath Mandir has the tallest temple tower in the world.<ref name="Brief description">{{cite news|title=Brief description|publisher=Benaras Hindu University website|access-date=7 March 2015|url=http://www.bhu.ac.in/VT/|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6zTH4V8Me?url=http://www.bhu.ac.in/VT/ |archive-date=17 May 2018}}</ref>
The 18th century Durga Kund Temple
Parshvanath Jain temple

Varanasi is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world, even as the traditions are transformed in the face of modernization, generational changes and emigration.

It is regarded as one of seven holy cities (Sapta Puri) which can provide Moksha; Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Kashi, Kanchi, Avanti, and Dvārakā are the seven cities known as the givers of liberation.

The city is mentioned by the Buddha as one of the four places of pilgrimage to which his devout followers should visit.

Haridwar Kumbh Mela in 2010

Kumbh Mela

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Haridwar Kumbh Mela in 2010
Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013
A 2019 stamp dedicated to Kumbh Mela
Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013
A pot (Kumbh) containing Amrita was one of the creative product of the Samudra manthan legend in ancient Hindu texts.
Large crowds at the Ganga (Ganges) on a major bathing day in the 2019 Kumbh Mela
The first page of Prayag Snana Vidhi manuscript (Sanskrit, Devanagari script). It describes methods to complete a bathing pilgrimage at Prayag. The manuscript (1674 CE) has a colophon, which states "Copied by Sarvottama, son of Vishvanatha Bhatta, Samvat 1752".
Hindu pilgrims heading to the Kumbh Mela site
The Ashoka pillar at Allahabad (photo c. 1900) contains many inscriptions since the 3rd-century BCE. Sometime about 1575 CE, Birbal of Akbar's era added an inscription that mentions the "Magh mela at Prayag Tirth Raj".
Haridwar Kumbh Mela by the English painter J. M. W. Turner. Steel engraving, c. 1850s.
A cultural program pandal at Prayag Kumbh Mela (2019)
Kumbh Mela – a dip in the waters is one of the key rituals.
Cooking at Kumbh Mela in 2019.
Triveni Sangam during Allahabad Kumbh Mela, c. 2013.
Kumbh Mela at Haridwar.
Nashik Pilgrims gather for the Shahi Snan (royal bath) in Ramkund in Dakshin Ganga River, c. 1991.
Naga sadhu at a Kumbh procession (1998).
Water dip at the Kumbh festival
A cultural event at a Kumbh Mela pandal
A sadhu at Maha Kumbh, 2013.

Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism.

It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati (Jupiter) completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna-Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra).

The difference in Prayag and Haridwar festivals is about 6 years, and both feature a Maha (major) and Ardha (half) Kumbh Melas.