Sadhus of Kashi play Holi with funeral ash

Smeared in ash from head to toe, several Naga and Aghori sadhus and their followers played Holi alongside burning pyres in a manner unique only to Kashi, at Harishchandra Ghat.

With some locals joining the celebration even as the sight left foreigners dazed and confused, the city of Baba Kashi Vishwanath got off to a Holi start on Monday. At Manikarnika Ghat, Masan Holi will be played on Tuesday.

Under the aegis of Kashi Mokshadayini Seva Samiti—a social organisation—a procession of Baba Masan Nath was taken out from Baba Keenaram Ashram in Ravindrapuri to Harishchandra Ghat via IP Vijaya, Bhelupur and Sonarpura.

An office-bearer of the Samiti, Pawan Chaudhary said hundreds of saints and devotees participated in this year’s procession in which Baba’s tableau, ‘damru-dal’ and ‘band-baja’ were also a part. As soon as the procession reached the ghat, a grand aarti of Baba Masan Nath was performed.

Thereafter, Chaudhary said, Naga and Aghori sadhus played Holi with ashes from pyres and performed Shiva Tandava. Five quintals of pyre ashes were arranged for the event, from which the sanyasis who reached the ghat applied ash and gulal to each other.

No modern musical instrument was used in the procession. Instead, Naga sadhus and sanyasis performed ‘tandava’ to the tunes of traditional Banarasi drums at Kashi’s Mahasmshan Harishchandra Ghat.

Chaudhary said this event was organized every year at Harishchandra and Manikarnika Ghats, where hundreds of Naga sadhus, renounced saints and devotees participate in the Holi of pyre ashes.

‘​Against celebration by common people’

The celebration of Masan Holi caused a row as Kashi Vidwat Parishad, a body of intellectuals and Vedic scholars, had opposed it. The organisation maintained its stand and said it was against the celebration of Masan Holi by common people and at households since it was against the tradition of Kashi, but not by Naga sadhus, tantriks and Aghoris. Its general secretary Prof Ramanarayan Dwivedi said general people should not participate in it since such a celebration was nowhere mentioned in the scriptures.

At Harishchandra Ghat, former MLC Brijesh Singh, Keshav Jalan, Nidhidev Agarwal, Santosh Pal, Muni Patel, Taman Rai, Vedvati, Madhuri, Shravan Bhardwaj, Deepchandra Vishwakarma, Shivnandan Sarvdhar, Santosh Singh, Sailu Baba, Pradeep Sahni, Narendra Seth, Pradeep Singh, Raju Singh, Pawan Choubey, Vinod ji, Anshuman Jaiswal, Anoop Vishwakarma, Bablu Shukla, Vishal Singh and hundreds of devotees were also present.

Pics: ‘Abir’ and ‘gulal’ were also used by people there. PICS by Rajesh Kumar