The akhadas at the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela
The sadhus who come to a Kumbh come in their akhadas, and at this Kumbh there are thirteen of them. Seven are Shaiva, three are Vaishnav and three are Udasin, and they bathe in two towns — the Vaishnav akhadas at Ramkund in Nashik, the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar. This page is what an akhada is, why there are three families, the thirteen by name, where they camp and what has been built for them, and which page has each family.
Thirteen akhadas
Three at Ramkund, ten at Kushavarta
Sannyasi, vairagi, udasin
The Shaiva, Vaishnav and Udasin akhadas
The three Vaishnav akhadas
Nirmohi, Nirvani and Digambar, at Ramkund
The ten Shaiva and Udasin akhadas
At Kushavarta, in the middle of the town
Section I
What is an akhada?
An अखाड़ा akhada is an order of sadhus with its own head, its own rule, its own property and its own place in the bathing order at a Kumbh. The word originally meant a wrestling ground. An akhada was set up for two things at once, to learn the old texts and to train to fight, and the sadhus who belong to one still carry the second in their processions: the nagas of the Shaiva akhadas, the sadhus who go without clothes and cover themselves in ash, walk with their spears and swords, and the Digambar akhada at Nashik walks to the river with its weapons, now for the display of them on the road.
Most of the year an akhada is out of sight, in its maths in the pilgrimage towns. Such a monastery is called a मठ math, the seat of a religious order. The Kumbh is where the akhadas appear as themselves. They come into the mela town in procession, camp on ground set aside for them, raise their flags over it, and on the main bathing days go down to the river with their heads and their flags and bathe before anyone else. Each has a head of its own. A महंत mahant is the head of an akhada or of a math.
Section II
Why are there three kinds?
Because there are three families of renouncers, and the akhadas follow them: sannyasis, vairagis and udasins.
A संन्यासी sannyasi is a sadhu who has given up the world, and the Shaiva akhadas, whose sadhus are devotees of Shiva, are orders of sannyasis. A वैरागी vairagi is a sadhu who has given up attachment, and the Vaishnav akhadas, whose sadhus are devotees of Vishnu, and of Ram above all, are orders of vairagis. An उदासीन udasin is one who stands apart, and the Udasin akhadas are the third family, counted with neither of the other two. Seven akhadas are Shaiva, three are Vaishnav and three are Udasin, and that is the thirteen.
Each family has a page of its own. The Shaiva akhadas has the seven, the Vaishnav akhadas has the three at Nashik, and the Udasin akhadas has the two Udasin akhadas and the Nirmal akhada that is counted with them.
Section III
Which akhadas come, and where do they bathe?
Thirteen come, and at this Kumbh they bathe in two towns. The Vaishnav akhadas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik, and the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas bathe at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar, and why the Kumbh is at two places has that arrangement in full. Three akhadas bathe at Ramkund and ten at Kushavarta. These are the thirteen, with the full names they are listed under and the short names everyone uses.
At Ramkund in Nashik, the three Vaishnav akhadas:
- Shri Panch Nirmohi Ani Akhada — the Nirmohi akhada
- Shri Panch Nirvani Ani Akhada — the Nirvani akhada
- Shri Panch Digambar Ani Akhada — the Digambar akhada
At Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar, the seven Shaiva akhadas:
- Shri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhada — the Juna akhada
- Shri Panch Dashnam Avahan Akhada — the Avahan akhada
- Shri Panch Agni Akhada — the Agni akhada
- Shri Panchayati Atal Akhada — the Atal akhada
- Shri Taponidhi Anand Akhada Panchayati — the Anand akhada
- Shri Niranjani Akhada Panchayati — the Niranjani akhada
- Shri Panchayati Akhada Mahanirvani — the Mahanirvani akhada
And at Kushavarta with them, the three Udasin akhadas:
- Shri Panchayati Akhada Bada Udasin — the Bada Udasin akhada
- Shri Panchayati Akhada Naya Udasin — the Naya Udasin akhada
- Shri Panchayati Akhada Nirmal — the Nirmal akhada
Each akhada also has a home of its own somewhere else in the country, a seat it comes to the Kumbh from, and the page for each family says where.
Section IV
Who speaks for the akhadas together?
The akhadas have a council at the top, the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad. The Kumbh authority works with the akhadas in planning the mela, along with the city councils and the government departments, and the shahi snan is the akhadas’ bath on the main bathing days.
Section V
Where do the akhadas stay, and what is built for them?
At Nashik the akhadas camp at Tapovan, the forest on the river a little below Panchavati, on plots allotted to them in the Sadhugram laid out there, and at Trimbakeshwar in a camp of their own, and Sadhugram has both. Tapovan is the forest itself.
For this Kumbh the authority has approved works on each akhada’s own ground, within a limit of five crore rupees for each of the main akhadas. At Trimbakeshwar that is roads, toilets and bathrooms, a flagpole, a compound wall and a kitchen for the ten. At Nashik it is lodging for the sadhus and pilgrims who come to the Digambar akhada. Each akhada raises its own flag over its own ground once the Kumbh period has opened, and the flag hoisting has the flags.
Section VI
What was it like a hundred and fifty years ago?
The orders came then too, but they were counted differently. At the twelve-yearly fair at Trimbak in the eighteen-eighties the wandering sadhus who came from all over India were the Niranjanis, the Udasis old and new, the Kanphatas and the Nirmalas, and each had a math of its own. All of them were worshippers of Shiva except the Nirmalas, who were Sikhs. And on the plain between Trimbak and Anjaneri there was a math beside a pond called the Prayag tirth, where the Nirbani gosavis lived, and it was from there that the procession of naked sadhus set out and walked to Kushavarta three abreast, with banners flying and gold and silver trumpets blowing, while the crowds looked on. The peshwai has the procession as it goes today.
The Niranjani akhada, the two Udasin akhadas and the Nirmal akhada are still among the ten at Kushavarta. The Kanphatas are not among the thirteen. And at Nashik in the same years there was a monastery of the Bairagis by the Vithoba temple near Ramkund, with rest-houses beside it that were always full of Bairagis, and the Vaishnav akhadas’ page has that.
Section VII
Which page should you read first?
If you want to know who you will see at Trimbakeshwar, start with the Shaiva akhadas, which has the seven orders of sannyasis, what their names say, where each has its seat and where each camped in the town, and then the naga sadhus, who belong to those orders and lead them into the water. The Udasin akhadas has the other three at Kushavarta, and the one of them, the Nirmal akhada, that has told its own history.
If you want to know who you will see at Nashik, start with the Vaishnav akhadas, which has the three anis — an ani is what the Vaishnav orders call an akhada — and how an ani is made up of sub-akhadas and khalsas, and the Digambar akhada’s two seats in the town. Then the peshwai for the road they take from Tapovan to Ramkund, and the shahi snan for the days they take it.
For where the two-town arrangement came from, why the Kumbh is at two places. For what the akhadas’ Kumbh was like last time, the past Simhasthas at Nashik.
The three families
One page for each family of akhadas — the seven Shaiva orders of sannyasis at Kushavarta, the three Vaishnav orders of vairagis at Ramkund, and the three Udasin orders that bathe at Kushavarta with the Shaiva. Each page names its own family's akhadas, says where each has its seat and where it camps, and tells what each has published about itself.
The Shaiva akhadas
Seven of the thirteen akhadas at the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela are Shaiva — orders of sannyasis, devotees of Shiva — and they bathe at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar. The seven by name, what the names say, what the akhadas tell of where they began, where each has its seat and where each camped at Trimbakeshwar, the works approved for their grounds, and the nagas who lead them into the water.
The Vaishnav akhadas
Three of the thirteen akhadas at the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela are Vaishnav — the Nirmohi, the Nirvani and the Digambar anis, orders of vairagis, devotees of Ram with Hanuman on their flags — and they bathe at Ramkund in Nashik. What an ani is and how it is made up of sub-akhadas and khalsas, the Digambar akhada in full with its two seats in the town, the Nirvani akhada through its Khaki akhada at Nag Chowk, the Nirmohi akhada, and the Bairagis' old math by Ramkund.
The Udasin akhadas
Three of the thirteen akhadas at the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela are Udasin — the Bada Udasin, the Naya Udasin and the Nirmal akhada — and they bathe at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar with the Shaiva akhadas. What udasin means, the three by name with their seats and where each camped in the town, the Nirmal akhada's own account of itself from Guru Nanak's teaching to its seat at Kankhal, and the works approved for their grounds.