South Riding....

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Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India



January 7/8/9, 2016



“Somebody show me
A place I can go where love’s around ….
I just need to get far from town ”

Jessie Sykes: Troubles Soul



“Memory is not letting an object experienced be carried away ”

Patanjali: Kriya Yoga Sutra 11





After 5 weeks in Pushkar, Rajasthan, it was well time to get out and find some new adventures... but more so to just get out of the relative ease and lazy days of that place, and away from some of it's memories for me (pleasant yes, but painful to recall in the absence of their source), and to find some solace and inner centering. It was not easy to motivate myself for leaving, and new friends also made me consider just staying. But once on the road again with Gladys (Enfield motorbike) purring along, it felt good and right.

My first stop was to Chittorgarh (not for the first time nor will it be the last) for a very pleasant couple of days rediscovering the wonders of the fort and catching up with a few locals from previous visits. But I was excited to then visit Ujjain for my first time. It has a double billing attraction as a very special site for Hindus. It has a Jyoti Lingam temple and it is the site each 12 years for the Kumbh Mella.

Once upon a time demigods found themselves with diminished strength. Brahma came to their help and showed them how to churn a sacred nourishing nectar with the help of demons. They all agreed to divide the nectar alternately and when it was the demon's turn, the demigods tried to keep it all. The divine physician Dhanvantari escaped to heaven with the disputed nectar and a few drops of it fell from his steed Garuda at four places on earth (all in India of course): Haridwar, Nasik, Ujjain and Allahabad. As a result a huge mella is celebrated each 3 years in rotation at these places, with the biggest in Allahabad (last one there was 2013) where some 35 million people congregate (making it the only human event visible from space).

Ujjain is located on the banks of the Shipra River in western Madhya Pradesh. At the mella, ash-dubbed sadhus, priests, and devotees from all over India gather together and camp around the city for a month, participating in scheduled rituals together with elephants and camels and due fanfare. It is believed that those who take a bath in the river at this time wash away their sins from all previous lives and free themselves from the never ending birth cycle. The .next Kumbh Mella in Ujjain will be in April/May 2016.

Spread across India too (with one in Kathmandu Nepal) are 12 very special Shiva temples known as Jyoti Lingam temples. The Ujjain Jyoti Lingam temple is known as Mahakaleshwar. Shiva is believed to derive currents of power (shakti: creative beauty, power, and intelligence) from within this temple. Once Brahma and Vishnu argued about the supremacy of creation. Shiva tested them with an endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga, to see if they could locate the end of the light in any direction. Brahma pretended that he found it, while Vishnu conceded his defeat. Shiva appeared as a second pillar of light and put a curse on Brahma that he would have no place in ceremonies while Vishnu would be worshiped till the end of eternity.

As I rode into town I could see that the camp grounds were being prepared for the huge upcoming mella when up to 10 million people would come to Ujjain.. My road in took me to the Manakaleshwar Temple area, which I mistook then for the centre of town itself (well it is one centre for obvious reasons). I witnessed what looked like a huge industrial construction site. Just about everything you could see was either being reconstructed or newly constructed. There is a lake (well usually there is a lake fed by the Shipra river), but it was completely dry with huge machinery working away. There was a cloud of dust everywhere. It had, like many lakes in India, become completely putrid and polluted, so the idea was to make it a clean lake, with new surrounding infrastructure, in time for the Kumbh Mella.

Mahakaleshwar is a draw card for pilgrims even amidst the dust and noise. Outside the temple a huge video screen shows what is going on in the inner sanctum where the lingam itself resides. I had a premonition of 'instant replays', just like at major cricket games. Modern India. While foreigners generally prefer the old and traditional in India untainted by modernity, Indians go for colour and glitze and anything new to repackage and present the old. And why not? Hinduism is alive and ever emerging, whilst maintaining its ancient inheritance,

The surrounding market area was interesting and quaint in those streets wherever a new Hotel was not being hastily erected in anticipation of fast profits during the upcoming mella. I had many invitations to have chai from friendly locals, and great opportunity to then practice my Hindi. I did not see another westerner at all in Ujjain.

The dust and chaos quickly changed my plan to stay four or five days. I found a family guest house (with steep charges for a windowless small room and no access to sun or terrace) and made my little space as homely as possible, with a new plan to just stay two nights and then take off for the peace of the Narmada River further south.

But then... I discovered I had misunderstood about the ghats on the river., mistaking the lake for a river channel and the construction for a remaking of ghats.. I found the actual river and ghats 500 metres beyond the lake and they were just gorgeous... many old and beautiful little shrines, people just lazily doing their thing, and sadhus hanging around. I spent some hours walking up and down and into the surrounding streets and felt any disappointment about Ujjain lift as that shanti space engulfed me completely.

Ujjain is not only about Kumbh and Shiva... 40%!o(MISSING)f the city's population is Muslim. After the ghats I got on my bike and just slowly rode around... into what where predominantly Muslim markets and the real centre of the old city. Here there was no construction, just the usual chaos of India which makes me smile... colour and activity galore. However, while relatively few in number, private cars in narrow streets are a forebodance of impossible traffic jams looming large and imminently in these older cities. They are increasing exponentially across India and soon the streets of Ujjain will turn into a nightmare until some critical point forces action one way or another. One only hopes that does not mean the beautiful old streetscape is demolished to make way for wider roads. Meanwhile, locals there confirmed that the mella will benefits all business (Muslim too) in Ujjain (not surprising with the injection of up to 10 million extra consumers over that month on top of the usual population of just over half a million).

One can only hope that Ujjain City is not using the same contractors to get the work done for the Kumbh Mella as used for the preparations for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. At least in this case there is full Shiva power at play.

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Photos

Mahakaleshwar Temple
One of Hinduism's 12 special Shiva temples.... the Jyoti Lingam temples

Lake recontruction
Complete rebuild of the lake plus buildings around the area and many new hotels being constructed for the upper end of the Kumbh Mella 'market'

Did Gaudi come to India?
One of the more ornate street buildings in old Ujjain

Ram Ghat 1
On the Shipra River and the place of the dropping of the sacred nectar

Treehouse Baba Ram Ghat
Look closely to see the Sadhu bottom centre. His sleeping quarters are in the tree. Sadhus often wander around India from site to site but also can remain stationary for some time... or have a 'home' they return to

Cute lingams at Ram Ghat
Never ha I seen this 'design' before... the lingams were about 24 cm long

Shiva lingam on Shiva's steed Nandi
Another unusual representation in that usually the lingam is separate with Nandi pointing to it. Here Shiva is riding ... At Ram Ghat

Street Urinal
Toilets are still rare in Indian streets. At least here was a urinal. Transportable but a little sad and forlorn and as usual... too bad if you are a woman.

Training for the mella
Tourist elephant... but during the Kumbh Mella elephants and camels will abound in Ujjain amongst the fanfare.

Ujjain CBD
The centre of town was a prosperous and bustling old-style metropolis. Old is gold.. but the cars are coming fast.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Sacred Nectar
Nice Shot