In Nashik, floods hit the dead too

NASHIK: The heavy rains that pounded down on Nashik for eight days and the resultant floods that inundated many villages, apart from throwing normal life out of gear, also disturbed ‘afterlife’. Families that came to this temple town to perform rituals for the dead had to be satisfied with merely immersing the remains in the Godavari.

The floods have also affected the number of pilgrims frequenting this temple city. The city’s economy, of which earnings from pilgrims is a mainstay, is also suffering.

People come to Ramkund on the banks of river Godavari to perform the last rites of the deceased. But as the river was in spate, the ghats, dome and halls where these rituals are conducted are all under water. “These rites are to be done on a specific days after the person dies and immersing the ashes in the Asti Vilay Kund at Ramkund is important as it is only in this kund that the bones get dissolved. But as the Asti Vilay Kund is inaccessible, people who have come from faraway places also could not perform the rites,” said Satish Shukla of the Purohit Sangh in Ramkund.

Alok Gaidhani, a young purohit, said, “We took people to dharmashalas or wherever we could sit and told them what were the alternative ways and they followed. The main point was to perform these rituals by the river Godavari and immerse the ashes in its water, which was done.”

“We can understand that there was no way out but to conduct the important rituals where we found space but I will always lament that my aunt’s ashes were not immersed in the Asti Vilay Kund. May be that was god’s wish,” says Rajesh Nasikkar, who performed the tenth day rites of his deceased aunt during the floods.

Heavy rains affected the inflow of tourists coming to the banks and to the temples in Panchavati. While most of the temples were under water, pilgrims coming from West Bengal, southern states and the north were able to visit the Kalaram Mandir. Heavy rains also affected religious tourism at the pilgrim centres like Trimbakeshwar, Satptashringi Devi at Vani and Shirdi.

This being the Shravan month, Trimbakeshwar attracts lakhs of pilgrims for the darshan of Lord Trimbakeshwar which is one of the 12 jytorlingas and also to perform the famous rituals of narayan naagbali and kal sarpa which are conducted only in this place. But the number of pilgrims this time has considerably reduced.

“Most of the pilgrims come from Mumbai and Gujarat but as it was raining at these places as well, people did not come this year. The pilgrim traffic has come down by about 90 per cent. Where you usually have about 1000 persons in a queue for darshan on Monday of the Shravan month, this year we were surprised to see hardly 25 people,” stated Sunil Dherge, a purohit from Trimbak.

Shirdi was also hit by the rains. There were floods in Kopargaon, Newasa and Rahuri near Shirdi. Nagar Manmad road was also blocked for traffic for a day. Nearly 50 per cent less crowd came to Shirdi.