Ganga Dhaaraa Teerath, an annual pilgrimage to Ganga Dhaaraa
in the Northern Range, will be held on June 6, 2004 from 4
am.
Special preparations are being put in place for the festival,
which features over 30 religious ceremonies. It attracts people
from across the country as well as abroad. Swami Aksharananda,
a scholar in Hindu Dharma, will travel to Trinidad for the
event.
Ganga Dhaaraa provides an interesting study in religious,
social and cultural anthropology. The event is driven by an
ancient memory of an event of spiritual value as well as social
and ecological relevance.
This memory has been transmitted down several millennia through
mantras, kathaas, songs, traditions, the deity Ganga and the
event of Ganga Dashara which celebrates the coming of Ganga
to earth.
Every morning the recreation of Ganga Avataran—”bringing
down Ganga”—is recreated by a Hindu ritual at sunrise,
charhaawaying jal. Ganga is invoked at every worship and ceremony
of life. After the marriage ceremony, newlyweds pay tribute
to Ganga at a river. Why, even at death, a drop of Ganga is
placed on the lips of the aspirant for transport to a higher
existence.
The Gangetic plains provided one of the main theatres of the
ancient Hindu civilisation. In return the civilisation empowers
Ganga with the intimate status of Mother and a halo of divinity.
Ganga can be invoked from any distance; the mantra is merely
the word, “Ganga.”
Ganga as a powerful symbol in Hindu Dharma can be read from
the text of popular practice as well as the Sanskritic or
Brahmanic traditions. Its entrenchment in the folk or little
traditions makes Ganga, as a divinity, quite accessible to
all, even without any formal training in rituals. The classical
tradition, on the other hand, blesses it with authority.
No wonder then, that Ganga, as an enduring and endearing deity,
has been transported across the world by Hindus. Little did
the colonial masters know that their slave boats were sailing,
not the seven seas, but the Ganga and they were transporting
to the West Indies, not mere chattel, but the Hindu currybean:
The SS Ganga carried jahaajees,
The jahaajee toted jaa’jee bundles
In the jaahajee bundles hid lotas
In the bottom of the lotas
Swam drops of Ganga
The drops of Ganga were seeds
In the seeds slept a civilisation
Born on the Ganga
Ganga had come down
From Swarga Loka
To Shiva’s jatta
To Paataal Loka
To revive ashes
As Sagar’s children
When they woke up
They were
Barefooted jahaajees
Standing on one leg
Bhagirathi at sunrise
Lifting lota to charway
Ganga on Patal
Lotas never dried
But flow daily
As Ganga Dhaaraa
In Blanchimalayas
The three peaks of La Trinity
Spread their aasana
On Shiva’s Trishool
And chant
The sacred Tri-ninaad
“Om Namah Shivaayaa”
The lota is still shining
Handed down by Bhagirathi
Over generations
Rise daily to the heavens
To pour Ganga Dhaaraa
On Shiva jatta.
Ganga Dhaaraa speaks to a people at several levels. It secures
a thread to an ancient origin far before May 30, 1845 and
establishes a connection with a history from the dawn of civilisation.
On the other hand it celebrates its destiny in the Caribbean.
It connects with aspiration through Bhagirathi who demonstrated
an unflagging willingness to the restoration of Sagar’s
children.
It establishes the value of water to survival of the planet.
