Historical Prayagraj and the Reclining Wind God

14. Historical Prayagraj and the Reclining Wind God Allahabad is a prominent city in the most populous state of India that is Uttar Pradesh. There are as many as 80 Lok Sabha seats from this gargantuan state. There is a significant saying, that the party which is the sovereign and suzerain of Uttar Pradesh (the Hindi Heartland) conquers India. The road to Delhi traverses through Uttar Pradesh. Quintessentially, the state has sent Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Chandrashekar, Atal Bihari Vajapayee, and Narendra Damodar Das Modi to the Parliament of India, who all were catapulted to scale the summit and become the Prime Ministers of the largest democracy of the world. Even Gulzari Lal Nanda who was to twice hold the prized and coveted position of the Prime Minister of India albeit as a caretaker hailed from Uttar Pradesh. Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical and invisible Saraswati rivers, is considered to be pre-eminently holy by Hindus. The Sangam is in close proximity to the 16th century Allahabad Fort, built by Mughal Emperor Akbar. In the fort are several architectural marvels such as the ancient sandstone Ashoka Pillar, the underground Patalpuri Temple and a sacred banyan tree. The estimable Allahabad University where eminent Hindi poets like Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Firaq Gorakhpuri (Raghupat Sahay) imparted English was once known to be a factory churning out dozens of civil servants. With the passage of time, this ‘Oxford of East’ has lost the prima donna spot. The bustling city which is the cradle of ‘Kumbh Mela’ organised once in twelve years is teeming with a large population and is quintessentially catholic and pluralistic in nature. The landscape is dotted with mosques where the muezzin reads passages of the Holy Quran and several churches and Christian landmarks and edifices dot the city, apart from Hindu temples. The Nehrus had handed over the sprawling Anand Bhawan and Swaraj Bhawan to the Congress Party and Gandhiji to launch the struggle against foreign yoke. This is also the place where the revolutionaries were to wage a war against the diabolical and tyrannical British rule. Chandrashekar Azad fired the imagination of the youth to pull the trigger to combat the British. The history of the idol of Shri Bade Hanumanji, situated at the Sangam Kshetra of Prayag is very unique. The internal story connected with the history of the idol goes like this. In the city of Kannauj an opulent but issueless trader resided. He was blessed with large sums of money and material and all the enjoyments of life; but tragically did not have a child who could carry on the legacy. In sheer desperation the trader traversed to the foothills of Vindhyachal to construct a temple for Hanuman ji in order to fulfil his wish of being blessed with a son. In the chain of hills of Vindhyachal the merchant had constructed a huge statue of Hanuman ji out of stone. He decided to bathe the statue of Hanuman ji at several places of pilgrimage. While bathing this statue of Hanuman ji at different pilgrim spots he eventually arrived at Sangam Kshetra of Prayag. While he was taking rest as the shadows fell and the sun sank in the womb of the Prayag, he dreamt that if he would leave the statue at this holy place all wishes would be fulfilled and the hankerings would drop. At crack of dawn the following day he decided to work on the lines of the previous night’s dream. Thus he left the statue at Prayag Kshetra and the luxuriant purveyor left for his city, Kannauj. After a passage of time, a son was born to his wife by the munificence of Shri Bade Hanuman ji. After some time the huge statue of Shri Bade Hanuman ji remained submerged in the waters and got embroiled under the sands. Meanwhile a mendicant Mahatma who was performing penance with Vyaghracharma arrived at Sangam Kshetra in the holy month of Magha to take a dip at Triveni. The pious and perspicacious sage was known by the name Balgiri. Fortunately on one day when the Mahatma was piercing his trishul in the sand to form his dhooine, he got an inkling of a gargantuan statute through his clairvoyant powers. The sagacious Mahatma Balgiri began to sift the sand from the spot. He soon spotted the Shri Vighrah (statue) of Shri Bade Hanuman ji. After purifying the Shri Vighrah, he meditated on the valorous qualities of Lord Hanuman. Populace in the neighbourhood were subsumed with the effulgence and radiance of Lord Hanuman and the devotion and miraculous qualities of sage Balgiri. The aura and fame of Shri Bade Hanuman ji expanded rapidly. There is another twist to the tale of the Shri Vigrah. It is believed that Mahatma Shri Balgiri ji Maharaj was bestowed with the mammoth statue of Lord Hanuman. He made valiant efforts to make the statue stand erect but he failed. Subsequently the statue was tried to be laid in the fort. After numerous abortive efforts, devotees were unable to remove the idol from its place. Thus it was conjectured and concurred that Shri Bade Hanuman ji did not wish to be removed from that particular place. All efforts were terminated and consequently the statue was left at the place where it was first established by saint Balgiri. To this day thousands pay their obeisance to Lord Hanuman on the banks of the Ganges.