The Akhara, which is the oldest and largest among 13 akharas in the country, will also enroll about 551 Dalits, including 221 Dalit women, as Sanyasis and Sanyasins during the Kumbh 2019.
Amid controversies surrounding Dalits being denied entry into temples, the Juna Akhara will confer the highest honour of 'mahamandaleshwar' (seers) to five Dalit women and appoint them as the Head Priestess at its temples across the country during Kumbh 2019.
The Akhara, which is the oldest and largest among 13 akharas in the country, will also enroll about 551 Dalits, including 221 Dalit women, as Sanyasis and Sanyasins during the Kumbh 2019.
Its chief patron Mahant Mahendra Giri said the exercise is aimed at removing the superstition, caste inequalities and social stigma attached to lower castes that they cannot perform religious ceremonies. He also blamed politicians for using them as vote-bank and dividing the society on caste lines for political gains.
"It is not the birth, but deeds of a person decide the castes. The move is aimed at redefining the prevalent caste system by bringing Dalits to the mainstream of the society," he said.
The Juna Akhara has a long tradition of involving Dalits into religious work. It has over 1,500 Dalit sanyasis, including 500 Dalit women sanyasins, as members across country. The Akahara has already conferred the highest honour of mahamandelshwar on eight Dalit seers, including three women.
Mahant Giri said that a coronation ceremony would be organized during Kumb 2019 in which these Dalit seers, sanyasis and sanyasins will be given 'diksha' and will be enrolled as Sanyasis and Sanyasis into the Juna Akahara fold.
As per the Akhara traditions, they will be tonsured and perform their own 'pind daan' amid chanting of Vedic mantras for their purification and new birth. They will be cut off from the materialistic world to enter into the spiritual world. They will be given a 'dand' (a holy stick) and would survive on alms and give their entire life to the devotion of God.
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