After the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad Mahant Ravindra Puri said that shahi snan, the ritual bath during Kumbh Mela should renamed 'rajasi snan' because the former phrase is of Mughal origin, Urdu speakers have criticised the statement, affirming that Urdu too is an Indian language.
Puri said the Urdu phrase for 'royal bath' should be replaced with words of Sanatan or Hindu origin. Puri's office said the statement was made in Haridwar on Tuesday evening. "We will have a meeting of all the akharas on the issue and we will take a decision (on the name)," said Purshottam Sharma, spokesperson for Puri who is also the head of an Akhara in Haridwar.
Akharas are Hindu monastic orders, with 13 major ones based in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. The Akharas hold debates on religious philosophy and have been part of the Kumbh Mela organisation since the 1950s when the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad was formed. The Akharas are politically powerful, with some associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
In Mumbai, Urdu Markaz, a group promoting Urdu language and culture condemned Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad's statement to drop the old term for the ritual bath. "They think Mughals coined the words. Urdu is born in India from Khadi Boli - the dialect is spoken around Delhi and symbolises the Ganga-Jamuna culture of the idea of India. It's the lingua franca of the majority masses and had Raghupati Sahay ' Firaq Gorakhpuri ', Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar, Pandit Brij Narayan Chakbast, along with Iqbal, Ghalib, and Faiz as it's ball bearers," said advocate Zubair Azmi.
Director Urdu Markaz Mumbai Azmi said that Urdu and Hindi are the two eyes of a beautiful bride - the manifestation of Hindustani zabaan, another name for Hindi-Urdu. "This syncretic culture is embodied in the soul of India and the Indian people will answer to those who try to divide people by demonising Urdu which stands for unity, communal harmony, and solidarity with our great nation," added Azmi.
The Kumbh Mela, a large religious gathering to commemorate the mythical churning of the oceans to extract the elixir of immortality, is held in a cycle of 12 years at Prayagraj, Ujjain, Nashik, and Haridwar on the banks of rivers. There are smaller gatherings between the big events.
The next mass gathering, a Maha Kumbh, is scheduled at Prayagraj between January and March 2025. It is one of the largest human gatherings in the world, with 30 to 50 million devotees, sadhus, and tourists gathering at the sites. The first ritual bath at the 2025 gathering will happen on January 13, followed by another on January 29.
The tradition of the Kumbh Mela is believed to have originated at the time of Adi Shankaracharya who lived in the 8th century. The Mughals came in much later. When asked about the name of the ritual before the coming of the Mughals, Sharma said, "We do not know what it was called but the current name is of Mughal origin."
