We have seen River Ganga yesterday. There is a famous event connected with this river. In a way, it is an event in which reverence, respect is displayed to the river. I have not come across such an event for a river on a daily basis in the evening just after sunset.
Can we draw a parallel between Colour (Flag) lowering ceremony by every Defence unit / Formation?
Can we connect the specific event which takes place at Wagah Border (Indo – Pak border), 22 km away from Amritsar?
Above events are one and the same with a minor difference being the flag in each case. In the former case, it would be the flag of the unit / formation and in the case of latter, it is Indian Tricolour. The similarity is in treatment of flag. With the tunes of last post in the background, the flag is lowered at a slow pace to match the composition of bugle music, then folded with great care and carried off with escorts in a most respectable way.
You will all agree to relate Ganga aarti to a Colour lowering ceremony after reading this blog.
“Ganga Aarti” started only in the mid 90s as a daily routine to pay respects to the river after sunset. People say Ganga Aarti is performed at Kasi & Haridwar daily in the evening after sun set.
Ganga aarti is performed at three ghats namely Dashaswamedha Ghat, Raja & Kedar. The number of pundits perform aarti in these ghats are 7, 3 & 3 respectively. Since the number of Pundits is more and the because of the bigger area of Dashaswamedha Ghat, huge crowd throng this particular ghat, though people gather in other two ghats as well. We watched this aarti from Dashaswamedha Ghat from a vantage point.
There are seven platforms erected, draped with Red Carpet for keeping all things related to Puja. All the pundits stand erect on the left side of Platform. There were some assistants positioned to help these pundits.
The aarti started with shank played by all 7 pundits facing the river, followed by Agarbathi, Sambirani, Adukku deepam, Karpooram and finally samaram. Entire sequence of activities were performed by all 7 pundits and the synchronization between these pundits was flawless, with a reverberating sound of udukkai,
Jaalra, drum beats and chanting of mantras in the back ground. During entire sequence, the pundit turned at right angles to do aarti in all four directions (for each activity such as agarbathi, sambirani etc), and the timing of turn was impeccable. People also watched the aarti from river by positioning themselves in Boats. Everyone offered flowers, ghee with a wick, milk to river at the end of aarti, which were bought before the start of aarti from vendors. Whole atmosphere was charged up and reached its crescendo with the chants of Ganga Maiya ki Jai & Har Har Mahadev at the end.
The moment the aarti was over, the whole Ganga was lit up with floating deepams, and when we watched all deepams together, it was appearing like candle march. It was a magnificent sight to watch. The interesting thing was that we could see the Ganga aarti performed at two other Ghats. Another significant thing was that they ended at same time.....
The whole process of aarti lasted for one hour and we were left with a feeling of watching a ceremonial parade with precision, flawless timing, outstretched hands showing aarti. Ganga Aarti started at 6 PM and ended at 7 PM for about one hour
The grandeur, the tantalizing atmosphere, the breathtaking scenes, reverberations of this event made us to attend once more on next day evening…..
Can we draw a parallel between Colour (Flag) lowering ceremony by every Defence unit / Formation?
Can we connect the specific event which takes place at Wagah Border (Indo – Pak border), 22 km away from Amritsar?
Above events are one and the same with a minor difference being the flag in each case. In the former case, it would be the flag of the unit / formation and in the case of latter, it is Indian Tricolour. The similarity is in treatment of flag. With the tunes of last post in the background, the flag is lowered at a slow pace to match the composition of bugle music, then folded with great care and carried off with escorts in a most respectable way.
You will all agree to relate Ganga aarti to a Colour lowering ceremony after reading this blog.
“Ganga Aarti” started only in the mid 90s as a daily routine to pay respects to the river after sunset. People say Ganga Aarti is performed at Kasi & Haridwar daily in the evening after sun set.
Ganga aarti is performed at three ghats namely Dashaswamedha Ghat, Raja & Kedar. The number of pundits perform aarti in these ghats are 7, 3 & 3 respectively. Since the number of Pundits is more and the because of the bigger area of Dashaswamedha Ghat, huge crowd throng this particular ghat, though people gather in other two ghats as well. We watched this aarti from Dashaswamedha Ghat from a vantage point.
There are seven platforms erected, draped with Red Carpet for keeping all things related to Puja. All the pundits stand erect on the left side of Platform. There were some assistants positioned to help these pundits.
The aarti started with shank played by all 7 pundits facing the river, followed by Agarbathi, Sambirani, Adukku deepam, Karpooram and finally samaram. Entire sequence of activities were performed by all 7 pundits and the synchronization between these pundits was flawless, with a reverberating sound of udukkai,
Jaalra, drum beats and chanting of mantras in the back ground. During entire sequence, the pundit turned at right angles to do aarti in all four directions (for each activity such as agarbathi, sambirani etc), and the timing of turn was impeccable. People also watched the aarti from river by positioning themselves in Boats. Everyone offered flowers, ghee with a wick, milk to river at the end of aarti, which were bought before the start of aarti from vendors. Whole atmosphere was charged up and reached its crescendo with the chants of Ganga Maiya ki Jai & Har Har Mahadev at the end.The moment the aarti was over, the whole Ganga was lit up with floating deepams, and when we watched all deepams together, it was appearing like candle march. It was a magnificent sight to watch. The interesting thing was that we could see the Ganga aarti performed at two other Ghats. Another significant thing was that they ended at same time.....
The whole process of aarti lasted for one hour and we were left with a feeling of watching a ceremonial parade with precision, flawless timing, outstretched hands showing aarti. Ganga Aarti started at 6 PM and ended at 7 PM for about one hour
The grandeur, the tantalizing atmosphere, the breathtaking scenes, reverberations of this event made us to attend once more on next day evening…..
2 comments:
Very interesting. Really i would like to watch the aarti
The way you have narrated the Ganga Aarti and the various temples makes me long to visit Kasi. Nice comparison with the Aarti and the flag lowering ceremony at Wagah.
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