Naga sadhus: the ash-covered sannyasis of the Shaiva akhadas

Both are signs of having left the world. Clothing marks a person as belonging to a place, a caste, a trade and a family. A naga sadhu has renounced all four and wears the absence of clothing as the proof. Ash is what remains when something has been burned, and a sadhu who covers himself in it is saying that his old life has been burned away. Shiva himself is smeared with ash, and the sadhu who copies him is making himself over in the image of the god he follows. The ash comes from the धूनी dhuni, the sacred fire a sadhu keeps and tends.

The matted hair follows the same logic. जटा jata is hair that is never cut and never combed, hair that has been left to nature. A त्रिशूल trishul is a trident, Shiva’s own weapon, and a naga carries it as his sign. रुद्राक्ष rudraksha are dried seeds strung and worn as beads. The beads and the marks of ash on the forehead complete the dress.

The Shaiva akhadas. A संन्यासी sannyasi is a sadhu who has given up the world, and the Shaiva akhadas are orders of sannyasis, led into the water on the bathing days by their nagas. The Shaiva akhadas has the seven of them at this Kumbh, where each comes from and where each camps. The Juna akhada is known for its nagas. The nagas of these orders were trained, in the past, to fight, to protect pilgrims and the holy places, and in the processions they still carry their spears and swords.

The Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela is held in two places, and the split between them runs along this line. 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. A कुण्ड kund is a tank or pool with stone sides and steps, fed by the river or a spring, and each of the two bathing places is one. The two towns are a short drive apart, and a visitor who wants to see the naga sadhus at this Kumbh goes to Trimbakeshwar, not to Nashik.

Three things, and the first is the one everyone comes to see. शाही स्नान shahi snan means the royal bath, and it is the akhadas’ bath on the main bathing days. On those days the akhadas go to the river in a fixed order, with the nagas at the head of their akhada’s procession, and they enter the water before the general bathing begins. The order in which the akhadas go is settled beforehand. The shahi snan has the three baths and the days.

The second is the procession itself. The पेशवाई peshwai is each akhada’s ceremonial entry into the mela town before the bathing days, with its head carried in state and the nagas marching ahead. The peshwai has the routes into Kushavarta turn by turn.

The third is the one a visitor does not see. The Kumbh is when the akhadas admit new members and settle their own affairs.

By renouncing everything, inside an akhada, with the final vows taken at a Kumbh. The path begins with a period as a novice under a guru within the order, during which the candidate serves, learns and is watched. Only after the guru is satisfied does the candidate go on.

The final initiation is performed at the mela. From then on the new sadhu is treated as a person with no family, no caste and no former name. The clothing goes. The ash is applied. The new sadhu takes his place as the newest in the akhada and rises through it, if he rises at all, over the rest of his life. It is not undertaken lightly, and a naga sadhu seen at Trimbakeshwar has been through it.

Mostly out of sight. Each akhada has monasteries in the pilgrimage towns and elsewhere, and many nagas live in them. Such a monastery is called a मठ math, the seat of a religious order. Others live in the hills, and many of the Juna akhada’s sadhus are in the Himalayan foothills. A number wander, moving between sacred places on foot and staying nowhere long.

What they do not do, as a rule, is live among householders.

With the same respect you would show any monk, and a little more distance. The nagas at a Kumbh are at their own religious gathering, not on display, and the camps are their homes for as long as the mela lasts. A visitor may walk through, may watch, and may make a small offering. A visitor should not photograph a sadhu who has not agreed to it, should not touch him, and should not take his time without being invited to.

One last thing. The naga sadhus are not the priests who perform rites for pilgrims. They are renouncers with no household duties. An ancestral rite at the river is performed by a tirtha purohit. A तीर्थ पुरोहित tirtha purohit is one of the priests who belong to a place of pilgrimage and perform rites there for the families who come. A तीर्थ tirtha is a place of pilgrimage, and in the oldest sense a crossing place on a river. A घाट ghat is the flight of stone steps leading down into a river, and the bank they stand on, and the tirtha purohits are the priests of that ghat. They are not sadhus. A family looking for a priest at this Kumbh is looking for someone else entirely.