Cars, bikes, ACs become items of choice for donations
PRAYAGRAJ: The ongoing 47-day annual religious congregation of Magh Mela-2022 has a rich and age-old tradition of pilgrims, saints and austerity-observing kalpwasis performing religious rituals on the banks of Sangam and making donations as a part of the ceremonies.
However, with time, the donations have undergone a major change, and in keeping up with these modern times, even they have caught up with the new age.
Instead of donating traditional items like hand fans, wristwatches, umbrellas, bicycles and khadau or traditional wooden slippers (yes, they are on sale on the banks of the holy confluence); now items like cars, bikes, smartphones, air conditioners, induction and gas stoves, LED TVs, refrigerators and laptops are being donated.
Donations keep happening all through the duration of the religious fair by people anxious to make their rebirth peaceful and comfortable. People believe that what they donate would come back to them in the afterlife, and as the month-long kalpwas nears its end on “Maghi Poornima” falling on February 16, donations gain pace as even the 25,000 kalpwasis, too, join in the tradition of making donations dubbed as “Shaiyya Daan”.
Around 50 kalpawasis are camping and observing austerity in the camp of Teerth Purohit Vinay Kumar Mishra, located behind Sector 2’s bridge number one of Magh Mela tent city. Here, a retired engineer of ONGC has donated a smartphone and a scooty, while Shesh Narayan Mishra of Singramau, Jaunpur, has donated a sofa set and a LED smart TV.
Priest Vinay Kumar Mishra shared that an old couple Ram Kripal Shukla and Vidya Shukla of Prayagraj would be making donations as part of “Shaiyya Daan” on February 13. Their son works in California, US, and he wants his parents to donate all the basic things they use at their home.
“With changing times, items offered as donations during the religious ceremonies are also changing fast. Earlier, elephants, horses and simple and traditional charpais were donated by people, but now scooty, motorcycles, cars, and fancy double beds have become the items of choice. Often people wanting to make donations ask the priests performing the rituals as to the things they need and make donations accordingly,” shared Chandra Nath Chakha aka Madhu, general secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Teerth Purohit Mahasabha, a nationallevel organisation of priests performing rituals at the sites of pilgrimage in the country.
Shambhu Nath Tripathi, former principal of Triveni Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Daraganj, informed that ancient Hindu religious texts define 84 kinds of donations.