Death in a math: Tension, confusion linger on the Ganga’s banks
PRAYAGRAJ: In the heart of Prayagraj city lies the sprawling 10-acre campus of the Baghambadi Gaddi math. On the banks of the Ganga and just 3km from the Sangam – the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, one of Hinduism’s holiest sites – the campus’s high walls fence off around 100 ascetics and students of Hindu theology from the rest of the noisy city.
Mango, guava, lemon and neem trees abound on the leafy campus, which also houses a temple and a Sanksrit college. Days begin at 5am with prayers and chanting of hymns, and end around 8.30pm with communal meals at the dining hall that can seat 500 people.
Despite the unassuming appearance, the math is one of the most powerful seats of Hinduism and controls property and assets upwards of ₹1,000 crore – including plots, maths, temples and educational institutions in Prayagraj, Mirzapur, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Bhopal. Its chief priest controls several influential shrines, including the Bade Hanuman Temple, the most popular pilgrim spot in Prayagraj.
Nowadays, however, the mood at the math is subdued. Many ascetics in residence have left, and classes suspended. Armed policemen stand guard outside and math workers, called sevadars, don’t greet outsiders anymore.
The death of the powerful chief priest, Mahant Narendra Giri, on September 20 by alleged suicide, the controversies surrounding his former number 2, Anand Giri, the whispers of tussle over property and power, and the arrest of three people for allegedly pushing him to the brink of collapse, have left seers stunned and the atmosphere vitiated.
A new chief priest, Balbir Giri, was appointed on October 5 but speculation over the veracity of Giri’s last will, suicide note, and the circumstances before his death, continue to swirl. The tension has even prevented the Akhada Parishad—the apex body of Hinduism’s 13 monastic orders – from naming its next chief.
“There is palpable tension with workers, seers and saints being repeatedly questioned by CBI and every past and present dealings under the scanner,” said a sewadar, a worker at the math, who has been living on campus for eight years.
The fateful day
On September 20, Giri woke up as usual at 5am and spent an hour in meditation and yoga, according to his disciples. At 6.30am, he led all saints, disciples, servitors and staff of the math in offering prayers at the Lord Baghambeshwar Mahadev
temple to Shiva located within the math. These prayers, held daily, were attended by around 250 students in the premises.
But then he broke the routine and didn’t head to the Bade Hanuman temple at 8.30am. “He seemed normal and engrossed in his work as usual on the his last day and no one had any inclination of what was to come,” said a second sewadar who has worked at the math for nine years.
After lunch, he retired to his room around 1pm, and asked to not be woken him for tea, usually served at 4pm in his room.
By 5pm, his disciples were growing uneasy. Evening prayers were upon them but there was no sign of Giri. Sumit Kumar, a sewadar, walked up to Giri’s room on the ground floor and knocked. There was no response.
“When even loud knocking failed to evoke the response, the door which was bolted from inside was broken and we found him hanging from the hook of the ceiling fan by a rope,” said Sumit Kumar.
He, along with other sevadars Sarvesh Dwivedi and Dhananjay
cut the rope and laid him on the ground. “Despite our efforts, Maharaj remained unresponsive and we then informed the police,” he said. It was 5.25pm.
Around 6pm, inspector general of Prayagraj range, KP Singh, reached the math and found a suicide note in the room. Almost immediately, the controversy began.
Deeper conspiracy?
On September 22, a post-mortem examination by a five-member panel of doctors concluded death by asphyxiation with no marks of external injuries. The same day, top seers dismissed the suicide note, hinting towards a deeper conspiracy.
The eight-page note blamed three people: Giri’s once-protégé Anand Giri, the Bade Hanuman temple priest Aadya Tiwari and his son Sandeep. Giri wrote that Anand Giri fabricated some compromising photos and videos of the head priest with a woman, and planned to release them to mar his reputation.
This set off suspicion. “This is not a letter written by the Maharaj (Mahant Narendra Giri) as he never used to pen anything so long,” said Niranjani Akhada chief Kailashanand Giri. Another top seer Ravindra Puri said Giri had a head injury and couldn’t have penned this note.
Three weeks on, the doubts persist.
Some seers say that the appointment of Balbir Giri – Giri named him as his successor in the note and in a video clip found on his mobile phone – indicated that people in the ashram were coming to terms that the top priest died by suicide.
But others are not sure. Ravindra Puri said the seers reached a consensus to treat the note and Giri’s will as his last wish but felt the need to form a supervisory committee to decide on all future financial deals – from where the math draws its might.
“It is still difficult to believe that a strong and outspoken person like Mahant Narendra Giri who had access to rich and powerful people got so upset and stressed by actions of his disciples that he took his own life. All eyes are now on CBI which hopefully would unravel the mystery once and for all,” said a senior saint of Niranjani Akhada on condition of anonymity.
Officially, Giri’s cause of death is under probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. A second investigation by the Akhada Parishad, too, remains inconclusive. Handwriting reports and forensic analysis of the note have not been made public.
Questions remain
Giri left his home in Chautauna village of Prayagraj district when he was 22 and joined the math. He quickly rose through the ranks, courtesy his strong ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his math’s decisive influence during the Kumbh Mela, one of Hinduism’s holiest events. In 2019, when Prime Miniser Narendra Modi took a dip at the Sangam, Giri led the rituals.
Giri burnished his credentials by advocating key political causes – the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a national population control bill, and cracking down on fake godmen.
Giri’s advocate Rishi Shankar Dwivedi said the head priest made the first will on January 7, 2010 where he named Balbir Giri as his successor. But he made a revised will on August 29, 2011 and replaced Balbir with Anand. A third will was made on June 4, 2020 where Balbir was again named as the successor.
“The will dated June 4, 2020 was signed by Narendra Giri in my presence and that is his last will, which is registered,” said Man Singh, one of the two witnesses to Giri’s last will.
Still, many seers are waiting for CBI to make a final pronouncement on the death, and verify the note as genuine, before going back to usual chores at the math.
Many say they are shaken by the death of the powerful godman, and admit that the scandal associated with Anand— he was expelled from the math in May by Giri for indiscipline, financial anomalies and breaking the rules of the monastic order — has hurt the math’s standing. “The recent developments have taken the focus away from the service being performed by it,” said Kailashanand Giri.
The 35-year-old Balbir Giri faces a tough task in restoring calm.
“I was pained by the sudden demise of my guru but I want to say that with the country’s top investigating agency probing the death, the truth behind it would come out, sooner or later,” he said. “I will put my decisions in front of my senior seers in the Akhara, and if they don’t agree, I will seek their guidance. If I am right, they would bless my decisions.”