An Ever Present History in The Land of T

An Ever-Present History in the Land of the Gods:
Modern Måhåtmya Writing on Uttarakhand
Andrea Marion Pinkney
The saints and heroes of Hindu scripture are brought to life in contempo-
rary Hindi måhåtmya literature, as it connects pilgrim’s ephemera such
as current bus fares and the going rate for porters with citations of classical
Sanskrit scriptures explained in everyday Hindi exegesis. In this paper I
consider inexpensive printed pilgrim’s guidebooks, or måhåtmyas, as an
important interpretive medium of modern and contemporary pilgrimage
in North India and as useful sources of historical and regional perspective
on how Indian pilgrimages have changed over time. My discussion is
informed by reading a selection of Hindi-language måhåtmyas that spans
five decades (1955–2006). Praised in these texts are four august Hindu
pilgrimage centers in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, namely,
Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. As I discuss, these sites
have coalesced into a collective pilgrimage over the last fifty years and
are now known as the famous 4-Dhåm, or “Four Abodes” pilgrimage.1
First, I briefly introduce the 4-Dhåm pilgrimage, and then I turn to a
detailed reading of seven representative Uttarakhand måhåtmyas. In
replaying elements of Sanskrit antiquity so that they resonate with evolv-
ing contemporary concerns, what else can these texts tell us about the
changing realities of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand in the last half-century?
The 4-Dhåm Pilgrimage
The 4-Dhåm pilgrimage circuit is located near India’s border with China
International Journal of Hindu Studies 17, 3 (2013): 231–262

© 2014 Springer
DOI
232 / Andrea Marion Pinkney
in the extreme northwest of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state that was

briefly known as Uttaranchal (2000–2007) after separating from the state
of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. In recent times, the 4-Dhåm pilgrimage has
come to dominate Uttarakhand, particularly the western half of the state,
or the Garhwal Himålaya, popularly known as Devbh¨mi, or the “Land
of the Gods.”2 Despite some competing claims to the Devbh¨mi title, the
4-Dhåm circuit transcends its regional boundaries into a larger network
of Hindu sacred space in at least four major ways. First, the entire region
enjoys rich associations with Hindu scriptures as the Himålayan retreat
of the gods; numerous mythological episodes featured in the Mahåbhårata
and the Purå~as are said to be geographically instantiated in Garhwal.3
Second, Garhwal is revered as the source of sacred rivers: the Yamunå
river (associated with K®‚~a) originates at Yamunotri; the river Ga gå
(itself understood as a goddess of all-Indian importance) originates at
Gangotri. Third, Kedarnath, a Çaiva site, is of pan-Indian significance as
one of twelve sacred sites of a jyotirli ga (a naturally occurring index of
Çiva); and fourth, Badrinath is a Vai‚~ava site that is important not just
within the Himålayan 4-Dhåm, but as the northern anchor of the “All-
India” 4-Dhåm pilgrimage, said to have been established in the eighth
century by Ça karåcårya.
The “All-India” 4-Dhåm is, spatially, the largest Hindu pilgrimage cir-
cuit. It is described by Diana L. Eck (2012: 29) as an important way of
“systematizing” sacred Hindu space as it unites the Indian subcontinent
through linking points in the four cardinal directions. Traditionally com-
mencing in Puri, the eastern state of Orissa is visited first, then Råmeç-
varam in the extreme south of Tamil Nadu, followed by Dvarka, on a
western spur of Gujarat’s coast. The pilgrimage then concludes at Badri-
nath, located just south of one of the ancient Himålayan passes to Tibet
and remote from any population centers. While Puri, Ramesvaram, and
Dvarka are coastal and relatively easy to access, Badrinath was by far the
least visited of the four sites until defense-related road works began to
open up Uttarakhand after Independence and the Sino-Indian War of
1962.
Yet in the last fifty years—corresponding to the range covered by the
Uttarakhand måhåtmyas here—this has radically changed. Badrinath’s
double association as an anchor of both pilgrimages makes it the most
religiously significant place in Uttarakhand and it receives the highest
Modern Måhåtmya Writing on Uttarakhand / 233
annual number of visitors as the frequently visited of all the state’s pil-
grimage centers. Now well over a million visitors make the arduous jour-
ney from the plains during the short summer pilgrimage season. Seasonally,
the temples at Badrinath and the other three Himålayan dhåms receive
visitors between May–October and are snowbound throughout the rest of
the year. In 2012, Badrinath alone broke the million-visitor mark for the
first time, reporting 1,060,000 visitors; since 2007, the site’s visitorship
figure has exceeded 900,000 annually.4 Grave infrastructural problems
have accompanied this unplanned explosion in pilgrim traffic so that
dangers of visiting the sites now include motorway hazards, caused by
landslides and bus plunges.
Tragically, in the summer season of 2013, Uttarakhand experienced
catastrophic flash floods resulting in immediate and unprecedented loss
of life and property in the region, as well as inflicting longlasting hardship
on the region. The town of Kedarnath was largely destroyed and it is
uncertain at the time of writing when pilgrimage will resume to the region.
Presciently, the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee’s website enticed pilgrims
to visit while sternly warning of perils for the unprepared earlier in 2013:
The sacred place boasts of beautiful scenic beauty apart from being one
of the most sought-after pilgrim centre. The tourists fall for the excep-
tional beauty and the beautiful temples while the pilgrims feel like being
in heaven after being so close to the historically sacred God’s place.
Acclimatizing becomes torturing for an unplanned and naive visitor. It
needs advance planning and preparation on visitor’s part to enjoy the
stay. The links under Places-to-see provides information to help people
chalk out the itinerary smoothly.5
It is worth highlighting the emphasis placed on “planning and prepara-

tion” on the temple committee’s website as it is also one of the most
characteristic concerns of the Uttarakhand måhåtmyas. I will revisit this
theme—of rationalizing the visitor experience by making the distances,
altitudes and other on-site realities as clear as possible—in the final
section of this paper. I turn now to a close reading of seven Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas, structured from the oldest to the newest texts.6 In doing so, I
try to highlight the unique features of each while revealing their engage-
ment with the changing realities of religious travel to the region.
Uttarakhand Måhåtmyas
Whether classical or contemporary, måhåtmyas extol the virtues of a

sacred site and, by extension, its resident deity or deities; they also cata-
logue the benefits enjoyed by pilgrims who venerate and visit the eulo-
gized site. As a genre, måhåtmya is a canonical variety of Sanskrit enco-
mium.7 The måhåtmyas of Uttarakhand considered here appropriate the
name of måhåtmya and exploit the conventions of the classical Sanskrit
genre in distinctively modern ways.
Taking the form of inexpensive, mass-produced pilgrims’ pamphlets,
“modern” måhåtmyas began to appear approximately from the last quar-
ter of the nineteenth century in India and were linked to the emergence of
the printing press and the colonial expansion of road and railway infra-
structure.8 Anand A. Yang (1998: 135) identified the connection between
changing patterns of pilgrimage and the British development of road and
railway infrastructure which meant that by the 1860s, travel conditions
for pilgrims had dramatically improved. Jörg Gengnagel (2006: 145)
further affirms an early connection between the railways, pilgrimage, and
måhåtmyas in his discussion of the earliest currently known lithographed
map of Varanasi. He notes that this map, published in 1873, proclaimed
that pilgrims’ brochures were available at the house of the station master.9
Publication of måhåtmya texts continued to expand into the early twenti-
eth century. As Yang states: “Pilgrimage centers also advertised their
merit in other ways. Many tirthas [pilgrimage sites] capitalized on print
technology. Almost every significant sacred center turned to marketing a
revised form of the ancient Sanskrit genre of…mahatmya” (1998: 137).
For example, James G. Lochtefeld discusses a series of early måhåtmyas
on Haridwar from 1904, 1907, and 1908. Lochtefeld characterizes these
texts as blending site “promotion and interpretation” and also relates their
emergence to “…the printing press and…changing travel patterns caused
by the railroad…” (Lochtefeld 2010: 224). Likewise, Yang identifies
måhåtmyas from the early twentieth century, including a måhåtmya dedi-
cated to Barabar, the rock-cut caves north of Gayå, Bihar (approximately
1915) and a Sonepur (Bihar) måhåtmya, published in 1924 (1998: 137).
Published Uttarakhand måhåtmyas did not appear until the twentieth
century. Prior to that time, the lack of information about Garhwal made
pilgrimage to region so perilous that it was undertaken only by the most
determined pilgrims. For example, Sister Nivedita (born Margaret Eliza-

beth Noble, 1867–1911), a disciple of Svåm⁄ Vivekånanda, wrote an
account of her pilgrimage to Kedarnath and Badrinath that was published
posthumously in 1928.10 In the text’s preface, written in 1898, she objects
that:
It is very characteristic, that while Hinduism lays great emphasis on the

sacredness of the northern pilgrimage, it is yet difficult to obtain any
authentic information about its details, before one starts. For this reason
it seems almost obligatory upon those who perform it, that they should,
if possible, publish their experiences, for the guidance of others, who
are eager to undertake it. At present, there is very little that the intending
traveller can make sure of, either as regards time, distances, or the
accommodation available. And few things are more necessary than the
frank publication of the actual diary of some pilgrim, to which all the
would-be adventurous may obtain easy access. The setting-forth need
not afterwards be that plunge in the dark which it is at present. A man
may then calculate freely the time and means at his disposal, and make
such provision as is possible to him, for the difficulties and perhaps the
dangers of his undertaking (Nivedita 1928: 2–3).
In this description, Nivedita conveys the sense that, at the end of the
nineteenth century, journeying to Garhwal was to voyage into the complete
unknown. The earliest måhåtmya publishing in Uttarakhand is associated
with the Vishal Karyalaya, a local press that began operations in 1921. The
mission of this particular press was explicitly described by its founder,
Vishalmani Sharma, as driven by a desire to perform sevå, or religious
service, through the promotion of knowledge about Uttarakhand to the
outside world. The output of this press should therefore be understood as
part of the same discourse of religious praise and visitor publicity.
In the case of Sanskrit sectarian måhåtmyas, Travis L. Smith (2007)
has recently helped to re-evaluate måhåtmya as sources of valuable per-
spectives on Varanasi as a sacred Çaiva place. Here, I suggest that Uttara-
khand Hindi måhåtmyas, when appreciated as a new regional language
genre, also have the potential to yield useful historical insight. In reading
måhåtmyas in this spirit, I try to appreciate the highly subjective view-
point of the genre as a point of access into the discursive world of its
authors, rather than viewing it as a limitation of the texts’ interest and

utility. With this approach, I hope to show how these måhåtmya texts can
disclose evolving perceptions and representations of the 4-Dhåm and
Devbh¨mi region over time, particularly since the post-Independence wave
of infrastructure development in Uttarakhand.
The 1950s: The “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya

Anne Feldhaus (1995: 24) discusses the power of måhåtmyas to present
real locales as other-worldly arenas where this-worldly benefits are obtained
by the faithful; måhåtmyas map Purå~ic narratives to local geographies
by recounting stock tales or variants of them in relation to the eulogized
site. In the case of Uttarakhand, with so many direct scriptural links, the
texts present mythological narratives as local site history, linking the
places at the end of the road head to legendary figures from the mytho-
logical past, epic acts of sacrifice, the giving and receiving of boons, and
so on.
The oldest text in my sample, Çr⁄ Kedåreçvara Måhåtmya (The Great-
ness of the Lord of Kedår) is produced by Vishalmani Sharma (Viçålma~i
Çarmå Upådhyåya, 1896–1976) and its publication is conclusively dated
to 1955 (Saμvat 2012). To my knowledge, Sharma was the first pub-
lisher in the Kedår Valley and the most influential personality in Garhwal
regional publishing. Bhishma C. Kukreti (2009), an amateur historian of
Garhwal, described Sharma as “…a religious Garhwali playwright and
publisher…born in a remote Himalayan village Ghagora…in 1896….He
published forty-one books related to Garhwal.”11
In this example, the back cover of the text (Figure 1, right side) depicts
the På~ ava brothers, heroes of the Mahåbhårata, paying homage to
Kedarnath’s jyotirli ga. In contrast, the front cover on the left mingles
photorealism with a fantastic, hyper-real interpretation of an embellished
photo of Kedarnath’s jyotirli ga in the main shrine room, with a hand-
drawn priest conducting rituals before it.
Historically, this 1955 text provides a critical perspective. It is post-
Independence (1947) and reflects a nascent sense of connection to n⁄ce,
or “below,” a word frequently used by Garhwalis to describe the world
beyond, all of which is lower than Uttarakhand. It also predates the Sino-
Indian border war of 1962 and the collateral repercussions of it in Uttara-
khand. In the 1960s, the intensification of conflict with China led the
Indian government to target Uttarakhand for intensive infrastructure devel-

opment, in order to create a defensible buffer zone between the Chinese
border and India’s plains. This policy brought about enormous physical
and social changes in this formerly isolated region, all of which are pre-
dated by this måhåtmya text. In interpreting the geo-political reality of
the “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya, a configuration of early pilgrimage in
Uttarakhand is revealed that is wholly different from the contemporary
one. For at the time of writing, what we now call “the 4-Dhåm pilgrimage”
was not known as such: it had to be qualified as the Cho†å 4-Dhåm, or
“Little” 4-Dhåm pilgrimage to differentiate it from the much more famous
“All-India” 4-Dhåm of Ça karåcårya (introduced in section 1), of which
Badrinath is the remote northern anchor. In short, this earliest example
from 1955 provides evidence that the link between Badrinath and the
other three Uttarakhand dhåms was obscure enough to require qualifica-
tion as the “little” pilgrimage and that the sites had not yet coalesced into
popular imagination as the dominant regional pilgrimage. In contrast, the
imagination of Uttarakhand reflected here promotes a multi-sited under-
standing of the region as Devbh¨mi, with Badrinath as its pre-eminent
pilgrimage site and as a religious significant but remote symbol of connec-
tion to the rest of India.
Figure 1: The “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya (1955)

The 1960s: The “"abrål” Måhåtmya

The second example, the “"abrål” Måhåtmya, is dated to 1961 and was
also produced locally in the Kedår Valley by Vishal Karyalaya and printed
in Mathura, as Uttaråkha~ Yåtrå Darçan, by Shivprasad Dabral (Åcårya
Çivaprasåd "abarål “Cåra~,” 1913–1999). R. S. Tolia, the former Chief
Information Commissioner of Uttarakhand, notes that Dabral was remem-
bered on his birth centenary in 2013 as one of the greatest scholars of
Uttarakhand, with particular recognition accorded to his monumental
twenty-five volume regional history, Uttaråkha~ kå Itihås.12 The “"abrål”
Måhåtmya is an encyclopedic text of 656 pages; it sets a seemingly unsur-
passable standard of totality in its coverage of the pilgrimage and the
region. The “"abrål” Måhåtmya deserves far more attention than I can
devote here; its scope in covering the pilgrimage in Uttarakhand alone is
noteworthy and would never again be achieved to the same degree. Here,
I suggest below a few points to illustrate how the region was represented
in this era, as exemplified in Dabral’s portrayal.
Dabral mingles chapters on mythical and practical elements that display
his expertise in both Sanskrit scripture and the embedding of it within
regionally specific knowledge. For example, he catalogues Sanskrit textual
references to Uttarakhand from the ¸gveda to the Mahåbhårata, alongside
a comprehensive listing of the “Pa~ as [priests] and Råval of Uttarakhand”
(Dabral 1961: 381–402). The Råval in this case refers to the Keralan
Namb¨diri Brahmin leadership of Badrinath; Dabral (1961: 426) records
the complete 1926 text of the Råval’s “Letter of Oath” (pratijñå patra) to
the king of Tehri. In addition to such topics, Dabral also provides critical
up-to-date information on road conditions and routes between way stations,
as detailed in chapters such as “The Road Returning from Badrinath”
(Dabral 1961: 274–308). At the time of writing, the expansion of the
motorways had begun, so that with every kilometer of road extended, a
greater percentage of the pilgrimage could be covered in motor vehicles
thereby greatly reducing the walking time required for pilgrims to reach
their destinations. By the 1980s, major road extensions had eroded the
walk times so that just short hikes of 5–15 kilometers remained from
the road head at Yamunotri, Gangotri, and Kedarnath. Badrinath, lying
approximately 24 km south of the Chinese border, has been the exception
with direct road access since 1962, following the Sino-Indian border
war.13 Stylistically, Dabral’s prose freely displays a colloquial mix of
Sanskritic and Perso-Arabic vocabulary that in subsequent decades gives

way to highly formal, Sanskritic Hindi. For example, he discusses the
“religious duty” of the priests of Deoprayag using the Perso-Arabic expres-
sion mazhab⁄ farÕ (Dabral 1961: 384). In later Uttarakhand måhåtmyas,
this would almost certainly be rendered using equivalent Sanskritic syno-
nyms, such as dhårmik kartavya, to reflect contemporary preferences
for a “pure” Hindu register over than the naturally composite Hindustani
vocabulary used by Dabral.
Most significantly, in reflecting on Dabral’s framing of the region, the
4-Dhåm sites have still not coalesced into a fixed identity as a network.
Instead, Dabral links Yamunotri and Gangotri and Kedarnath and Badrinath
as two pairs of dhåms. In her scholarship on Sanskrit and Marathi måhåt-
mya literature on rivers and regions in Maharashtra, Feldhaus offers highly
engaging and useful frameworks to understand the characteristics of this
literature and its role in promoting a regional consciousness. She describes
how Maharashtrian river måhåtmyas link pilgrimage sites as body parts, a
device which powerfully imparts a corporeal integrity to the various points
spread along the riverbank through connection into a whole (Feldhaus
2003: 19–20). Similarly, the “"abrål” Måhåtmya reflects an encyclopedic
regional consciousness for Uttarakhand that is at its apex in this early era.
His coverage spans the totality of pilgrimage (yåtrå), sites (t⁄rtha), and
abodes (dhåm) in Uttarakhand as Devbh¨mi, in scriptural and quotidian
terms. The integrity of the region is preserved, and its religious authority
is augmented through taxonomic detail of its parts. Yet Dabral’s expansive
and comprehensive view is eclipsed in texts from subsequent decades.
The purview of this text’s locally informed presentation becomes nar-
rowed to focus on the 4-Dhåm as a network that dominates the entire
region. This transition marks what is perhaps the most significant change
in how space is imagined in Uttarakhand måhåtmyas over time.
The 1970s: The “Çarmå” Måhåtmya

Like the “"abrål” Måhåtmya, the Cåroμdhåm-Yåtrå Måhåtmya (The
Greatness of the 4-Dhåm Pilgrimage) or the “Çarmå” Måhåtmya is a
locally produced Kedår Valley måhåtmya, published by Vishal Karyalaya
and printed in Mathura. Edited by Vishalmani Sharma as sampådak, or
editor, the text appears to be a composite of at least two sources, with
excerpts from at least two more sources. The first half of the book (1–
104) was published by Vishal Karyalaya and printed by Ajanta Fine Art
Printers, Mathura. This section is newer and can be dated to 1971 with
some confidence.14 Even within this section, two different font and header
styles suggest that at least two other older sources are intermingled that
appear to predate 1962 as they use imperial measurements for distance
and altitude.
Figure 2: The “Çarmå” Måhåtmya (1971)
Typical måhåtmya language identifies the praised site as primus inter

pares and outclassing all others: “Who does not know of the greatness of
the sacred pilgrimage center of the Hindus, Kedarnath? It is the foremost
of the twelve li gas of light” (Sharma 1971: 53).
In addition to praising the place itself, the resident deity, and promising
blessings and benefits to those who make the journey, this locally produced
måhåtmya includes detailed travel information such as the types of path-
ways and motor roads to the points of interest and gives exact distances
between points alongside locally specific commentary. For example, in a
section on Agastmuni, a village thirteen kilometers from Rudraprayag,
the author recalls that in March–April of 1936 there was a reading of the
eighteen Mahåpurå~as (Sharma 1971: 41). Other intimate, first-hand and
first-person elements include the recollection of a fire that broke out in

the Gangotri bazår and its aftermath. One of the many points of interest
of this text is the highly individual and even avuncular tone that marks
its regional commentary, as in the following example: “Yamunotri and
Gangotri are in Uttarakasi district, and Kedarnath and Badrinath are in
Chamoli district. Everywhere there are lovely provisions, so there is noth-
ing to be afraid of for any reason” (Sharma 1971: 75).
According to the colorful end matter of this text, Sharma began pub-
lishing texts on Garhwal through his Vishal Karyalaya publishing house,
located in Narayankoti, Chamoli district, in 1921 (Sharma 1971: End
matter). Sharma also provides an impassioned history of his local pub-
lishing house and its acts of sevå (service) in advancing knowledge about
Garhwal and includes an exhortation to readers to visit Narayankoti,
Sharma’s native place.
Finally, as depicted in Figure 2, the “Çarmå” Måhåtmya names the 4-
Dhåm circuit as the prime attraction, for the first time dropping any quali-
fying adjectives and thereby reflecting and promoting a new identity for
the sites as a network. There is a nod to India’s other principal pilgrimage
centers in the subheading, but this text puts the (Himålayan) 4-Dhåm at
the center for the first time, reflecting the publisher’s distinctive and
staunchly Garhwali perspective, alongside a new understanding of the 4-
Dhåm as a linked network. In other words, from the 1970s, we can per-
ceive a new shift towards defining Uttarakhand through the 4-Dhåm as
network of four pilgrimage sites.
The 1980s: The “English” Måhåtmya

This example is a locally published English-language måhåtmya, Shri
Kedar Mahtamya. This 1986 translation by J. M. Tara was based on an
original Hindi text, Çr⁄ Kedårnåth Dhåm kå Måhåtmya aur Aitihåsik
Var~an (The Greatness of Kedår Dhåm with Historical Description) by
Gobind Ram Shastri, dated to 1981 (Figure 3). The publisher of the text
is Pa~ it Gangadhar Vajpayee, a central figure in the Kedår community.
Vajpayee ran a bookstall, photography studio, and publishing business
for decades at Kedarnath, and was a photographer, bookseller, publisher
and artist himself. Of all of the texts considered here, this one is most
heavily based on scriptural quotations and is the closest in tone to Sanskrit
måhåtmyas. This reflects Vajpayee’s personal editorial preference: during
an interview in Kedarnath in 2004, he criticized the commercial Uttara-

khand måhåtmyas as detracting from the properly religious nature of
pilgrimage to the 4-Dhåm sites.15
Figure 3: The “English” Måhåtmya (1986) and

the Hindi Source Text (1981)
One of the important services of måhåtmya literature is the listing of

sites and features of the natural environment that situate the sacred site
within a sacred network. I interpret this predilection for taxonomy as
operating within the çåstric mode of “totality” (Doniger and Kakar 2002:
xxi). This text contrastingly provides less numerical data on the pilgrim-
age than the other examples reviewed here. However, it does include two
lists, a “distance table for tours” and “heights of some important places”
(Shastri 1981: 91–92).
In the “English” Måhåtmya, the author situates Kedarnath firmly at the
center of the Garhwal Himålayas:
The shrines set up in the Himalayas are undoubtedly Houses of Salva-

tion, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Uttarkashi, Badrinath, Panch Kedar, Gupta
Kashi, Sidhpeeth Kalishila, Kalimath, Panch Prayag, Ukhimath, Joshi-
math, Hem Kund, Rupkund and Gopeshwar all rest in the lap of the
great Himalayas…[and the rivers]…Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini,

Dhouli Ganga, Nandakini, Pinder (Shastri 1981: ii–iii).
This listing is then trumped in classical måhåtmya style, as the text asserts
that above all of these sites, there is Kedår: “There can be no greater shrine
than this where self-originating ‘Shiva Linga’ the symbol of Lord Shiva
Himself is located” (Shastri 1981: iii). Most of these places would be
unfamiliar to visitors from outside of the Himålayas, but are well-known
in the local context. For instance, the tiny hamlet of Ukhima†h is region-
ally famed as the ancestral village of the Kedarnath priestly clan, where
the Kedår icon is housed during the winter season. Such enumerations of
places should be considered as a core feature of Uttarakhand måhåtmyas
and are consistently found in every sample. Another type of enumeration
is the listing of the salutary effects of visiting the sites, as in the following
excerpt: “Darshan and worshipping here grants humble intelligence and
inspires spiritual ideas….‘Hans Kund’ leads to the emancipation of the
ancestors….[Nearby] is ‘Kedar Kund’ with its water that cures all dis-
eases” (Shastri 1981: 55).
Here formulaic claims of ritual efficacy are spatially actualized when
performed by the pious at particular locations. Likewise, in its descrip-
tion of the Kedarnath temple, the peerless beauty of the site is extoled
alongside specific features of the environment surrounding Kedarnath:
“ ‘Kedar’ is a miraculously strange temple. All around there are detect-
able environments, geographical scenic beauty, snow-covered white lofty
cliffs, sweet rippling rivers [so that]…the human mind automatically bows
to the feet of the Lord” (Shastri 1981: 53).
Like the previous locally produced examples, the authorial tone is per-
sonal and intimate. In the work’s preface, Shastri describes his motivation
in pursuing a translation of the work:
Devotees from various provinces wanted this book in English. In this

context, I had a talk with Sri J. M. Tara, Lecturer, Sr Secondary School,
Paonta Sahib. He gladly offered to translate it into English. I am grate-
ful to him for his selfless, devoted service. I pray to the Lord Kedarnath
to keep him fit, healthy and happy (Shastri 1981: v).
In turn, J. M. Tara describes his response to the book and his motivation
in undertaking the translation:
I studied [the text] with deep devotion. The book cast such a spell on
me that I could not resist the temptation to read it title to title. Shastriji
told me that many devotees [Indians and foreigners] who can not read
and understand Hindi go without enjoying the full ecstasy of the pil-
grimage for want of knowledge of the places and their significance….
May the Lord Shiva shower His choicest blessings on all those who
read it with consistent devotion and interest (Shastri 1981: iii).
Finally, the text’s main purpose is perhaps self-evident, in that it is an

English translation of an original Hindi text. In the 1970s, both local and
non-local publishers began to move into producing non-Hindi texts in
other modern South Asian languages. Vishal Karyalaya published an
undated Nepali-language måhåtmya on Uttarakhand that I estimate to be
from the early 1970s; since the 1980s, limited runs of non-Hindi South
Asian language måhåtmyas were published in languages including English,
Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Tamil, and Telugu. The
4-Dhåm sites are located in a region where the predominantly spoken
language is Garhwali rather than Hindi. However, Uttarakhand måhåtmyas
are almost never been written in Garhwali as they are intended for broad
dissemination to North Indian visitors, among whom the most commonly
used language is Hindi in Devanagari script.16 In short, this English text
and other non-Hindi måhåtmyas attest to the diversity and size of the new
Uttarakhand visitor demographic, in a dramatic shift that clearly reflects
the changing realities of pilgrimage to the region.
The 1990s: The “Ra~dh⁄r” Måhåtmya

By the 1990s, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath had amal-
gamated into the (unqualified) “4-Dhåm” pilgrimage network and became
established as the pre-eminent Himålayan Hindu pilgrimage circuit. Repre-
sentative of this era of måhåtmya publishing is the undated “Ra~dh⁄r”
Måhåtmya, titled Cåroμ Dhåm Yåtrå Måhåtmya (The Greatness of the
4-Dhåm Pilgrimage), was purchased new in the market at Badrinath in
1996. It is not locally produced and departs from the texts considered
previously in many interesting ways. Published by Randhir Prakashan, a
family-run publisher of Keçdhår⁄ Sikhs in Haridwar, it is a highly com-
posite text dedicated to the four sites that, visually, is a pastiche of font
sizes and styles.
Figure 4: The “Ra~dh⁄r” Måhåtmya (n.d.)
This phase of development in the genre of Uttarakhand måhåtmyas is

reflective of a modernizing and expanding worldview that contrasts
greatly with the world of the 1955 “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya. In the
latter, the publisher had no phone, no postal code, and used imperial
measurements and the saμvat-system to reckon years. Now, the front-
pages of the “Ra~dh⁄r” Måhåtmya indicate that the publisher has a phone
number and an address with a postal code, while the use of metric measure-
ments and Christian calendar years have been the norm for some three
decades. It provides the most detailed information on current affairs in
the region yet, including bus fares to points within the region and wage
guidelines for paying seasonal porters to facilitate final ascents with horses
and palanquin service. It is framed heavily on the (Himålayan) 4-Dhåm
sites, as depicted in Figure 4, but it also includes lengthy Hindi prose
sections on the all-Indian 4-Dhåm sites. It provides minimal information
on the other traditionally sacred centers in Uttarakhand.
By the 1990s, the pilgrim economy had grown sufficiently to provide
economic incentive for måhåtmya texts to be developed by publishers
in Haridwar, such as Randhir Prakashan and Arjun Singh Book Sellers

Publishers, and the supply of these texts proliferated in response to increas-
ing visitor flow. According to Luke Whitmore, in his remarks about the
historical publishing of Kedarnath måhåtmyas: “One sees both in the
production of print and visual culture in the Kedarnath valley in the last
one hundred years the ebb and flow of local agency” (2011: 380–81).
The 1990s era thus signals a major shift in the history of Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas, namely, in the increased competition for local publications
as inexpensive mass-produced texts produced by plains-based publishers
in Haridwar, Kankhal, and Mathura entered the region. In summary, the
first-person insider tone of the earliest måhåtmyas has, by now, given
way to bland impersonal reviews of the sites in highly Sanskritized Hindi.
This is partially because these kinds of texts are less frequently the crea-
tion of a single local author. Instead, the 1990s måhåtmyas are often
cobbled together from various unattributed sources. For example, one
text from this period, Çr⁄ Ga gå Mahåtm aur Ga gotr⁄ Mahåtm (The
Greatness of the Ga gå and Ga gotr⁄), is so generic that it features an
unattributed photograph of a Ga gå temple icon on the cover that is not
from Gangotri and is vaguely credited to “a famous priest of Gangotri”
(n.d.: 1). While from my per-spective, this is evidence of a regrettable
loss of local character, I also understand this change as an outcome of the
genre’s maturation. In sum-mary, the appeal of and market for the 4-
Dhåm måhåtmyas had expanded sufficiently by the 1990s to attract
interest from non-local commercial publishers.
The 2000s: The “Institutional” Måhåtmya

From the turn of the millennium onwards, a new organization entered the
enlarging måhåtmya market, with interesting implications for the reasser-
tion of local agency of regional publishing. The Badri-Kedar Temple Com-
mittee (“Badr⁄-Kedår Mandir Samiti”) offered its own official måhåtmya
of Badrinath and Kedarnath, Çr⁄ Badr⁄-Kedår Mahåtmya (The Greatness
of Badr⁄ and Kedår), published for the first time in 2000.
While the Råval is acknowledged as the spiritual head of Badrinath
(mentioned by Dabral), institutional and financial control of the site is in
the hands of the temple committee. Established in 1939, the Badri-Kedar
Temple Committee is a private organization that actively manages Badri-
nath and Kedarnath. Its responsibilities extend from building mainte-
nance and town planning to the publishing of ritual (p¨jå) schedules,

informational signage, and marketing materials for the sites. In contrast,
extended family clans manage Yamunotri and Gangotri.
Figure 5: The “Institutional” Måhåtmya (2000)
Typically, Badrinath overshadows the other sites in multi-site måhåt-

myas. In this example, the two sites are given relatively equal treatment
(Figure 5). This innovation may be interpreted in terms of the temple
committee’s concern to promote visitor flows to both of its properties
and to achieve greater parity in terms of visitor numbers between the two
very different sites. At present, Kedarnath receives about half the pilgrim
numbers of Badrinath. The text features the now-typical imbrication of
Sanskritic content with current affairs ephemera, including:
• Timings when visitors can have audience with the shrine’s deities
• Enumeration of shrines infrequently visited by tourists that the com-
mittee has been trying to promote for years (for example, Pañc Çilå;
Pañc Kedår)
• Listing of community rest houses (viçråm g®he)
• Travel distances between points
• Lyrics for religious recitation (årat⁄).
What has changed from the older måhåtmyas, is that promoting the
region has become a secondary concern, relative to the emphasis on link-
ing the two dhåms. The appearance of this text is also suggestive of a
possible return of publishing agency to the region, though it now expresses
an institutional rather than individual tone that reflects the consolidation
and professionalization of the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee’s mana-
gerial influence over the decades. Finally, members of BKMS itself were
also well-informed regarding existing site publications and did not have
high opinions of them. For example, the former chairman of the Badri-
Kedar Temple Committee, Nand Kishore Nautiyal, categorically deemed
the non-regionally produced Hindi 4-Dhåm måhåtmyas to be “rubbish,”
identifying a decline in their quality.17
While the “Institutional” or Çr⁄ Badr⁄-Kedår Mahåtmya is, in a sense,
an advertisement for the board’s services, its concern is undoubtedly
local regarding the knowledge conveyed about the region and the site. It
also represents an extreme narrowing of focus—understandable given the
text’s authorship—when contrasted with the view of Uttarakhand as a
sacred region that was expressed by the “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya and
the “"abrål” Måhåtmya.
Twenty-First Century Måhåtmyas

The most recent kinds of Uttarakhand måhåtmyas transcend print media
altogether, being comprised of VCD and DVD format video måhåtmyas.
Figure 6 depicts four video format måhåtmyas from 2003, 2004, 2005,
and 2006. The first three were produced in Delhi, but the 2006 edition
was produced in Garhwal.
The transition from audio to video is an important recent innovation,
flagged by the proliferation of VCDs and DVDs in the bazårs of the four
sites. Site-specific cassettes with devotional songs (bhajans) about the
4-Dhåm deities have been produced since at least the 1990s. This market
has since ebbed and has largely transitioned to CD format and most
recently to DVD. Kiran A. Shinde (2013, in this issue) has characterized
the videography industry serving Tuljapur, an important regional pilgrim-
age center in Maharashtra, as swiftly responsive to pop trends emerging
from Mumbai and Pune, with Tuljapur devotional lyrics being set with
dancers to the tunes of the latest Hindi film songs. Shinde reveals that in
the past, it used to take nearly six months from production to the release
of new VCDs and DVDs: “…now the time is reduced to almost a day.
Once a song or album becomes famous, it can be copied immediately for
another deity and another place, as most studios in Mumbai and Pune
have the technology to do a hash-up job and imitation almost immediately”
(332). Even with low production values, video representations of sacred
sites powerfully convey the presence of the place to distant viewers.
Figure 6: 4-Dhåm Video Måhåtmyas,

Non-Local (2003, 2004, 2005) and Local (2006)
Similarly, the relative lack of overhead required to produce and dis-

seminate 4-Dhåm video måhåtmyas has allowed local producers to com-
pete with large media corporations such as T-Series. The 4-Dhåm video
måhåtmyas are largely “high brow” rather than “film⁄” in tone and seem
pitched to reflect the scriptural gravitas of Uttarakhand. The first ones
were typically produced in Delhi; in 2006, I found a locally produced
Hindi-language VCD of the pilgrimage. Other local variants capitalize on
interest in local Garhwali language and folk music, but this is a small
minority of the new media forms produced and sold in the region.
Whitmore, in his discussion of videography at Kedarnath in a forth-
coming book chapter, suggests that commercial Uttarakhand videos have
inherited (or usurped) the role formerly held by printed måhåtmyas and
printed souvenir images of the site:
These videos, usually framed by well-known Hindi bhajans, highly

Sanskritized Hindi, and lengthy summaries of relevant mahapuranic
episodes, lavish equal attention on journey and destination. The camera
dwells on different forms of travel and arrival: the winding mountain
roads, the path from Gaurikund to Kedarnath (including a good amount
of focus on paidal-yatris), waiting in line for darshan. They interpene-
trate the darshanic with the “yatric.” They invite the viewer to consider
the special nature of journey to the sites of the Char Dham and fore-
ground the experience of those on the journey. We can see here a filmic
acknowledgement that the practices, understanding, and experience of
pilgrimage to Kedarnath are changing before our eyes (2014).
In presenting the pilgrimage in video format, as a theatrically staged

journey to a site accessed by dangerous-looking roads, the representation
of pilgrimage is converted to a sight for consumption about the act of
pilgrimage.
In short, the shift in måhåtmya media from printed text to the visual
culture of moving images marks a profound shift in the representation of
the site and understanding the experience of being there. As I have argued
in a forthcoming book chapter, printed måhåtmya texts are consumed in
different but important ways by priests, pilgrims, porters, and so on—by
nearly all categories of visitors to the 4-Dhåm sites (Pinkney 2014). Yet
the texts’ ability to represent the region is extremely limited when com-
pared to the power of måhåtmya videos to transport Uttarakhand from

the Himålayas to any video playing device on earth, suggesting a new
universality of access to the experience of pilgrimage, even for those
who do not physically perform it. Interestingly, the total transparency of
(attenuated) experience afforded by video måhåtmyas peculiarly exceeds
Nivedita’s appeal for information about the pilgrimage, made one hundred
years earlier.
From this detailed presentation of seven representative Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas, I now turn to my final field of inquiry, in which I reflect on
the major themes in these texts and the texts’ relationship to the classical
genre of måhåtmyas. How does the legacy of Hindu scripture inform
contemporary iterations of måhåtmya literature?
Reflections on Contemporary and Classical Måhåtmyas
Classical måhåtmya texts functioned as pilgrimage guides, after a fash-

ion, such as the sixth-century Vårå~as⁄måhåtmya section of the Skanda-
purå~a, a Hindu scripture described by Travis L. Smith as marked by
“geographical specificity” (2007: 59). Likewise, Smith characterizes the
eleventh-century Kåç⁄kha~ a as the “epitome” of the genre of sthala-
måhåtmya, as it covers “several hundred” actual geographical sites (141).
In such examples, the narrative of place is conveyed through the device
of having Çiva lead Pårvat⁄ through a grand tour of Varanasi, thereby
proposing a Çaiva vision of the city. Likewise, James G. Lochtefeld
(2010: 47) details how Sanskrit encomia on Haridwar, the Haridvåra-
måhåtmya and the Måyåp¨r⁄måhåtmya, include rich description of real
“places that are still important in Haridwar,” framed as sites that ought to
be visited by pilgrims in the city and outlying areas. Yet these Sanskrit
texts skirt the prosaic concerns of everyday life in a manner that is pecu-
liar to their genre. In magnifying the greatness of a sacred site, this lit-
erature is primarily concerned with place. But one of the purposes—if
not the purpose—of Sanskrit måhåtmyas is to read the quotidian into
the other-worldly, so that named sites are woven into Purå~ic narratives,
honored by visits from the gods, and venerated by the appropriate ritual
actions of devotees.
What is distinctive and innovative about the new genre of Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas is the inclusion of up-to-date information alongside declarative
praise portions that faithfully retain the style of Sanskrit måhåtmyas. Unlike
Sanskrit måhåtmyas, Uttarakhand måhåtmyas are not atemporal at all, but
are minutely concerned with current affairs that affect travelers to the region.
Sanskrit måhåtmya literature praises Hindu deities and places. Diana L.
Eck’s scholarship on Varanasi as a holy place for Hindus is deeply informed
by her use of måhåtmyas: she characterizes them as “…not descriptive
statements of fact about an ordinary city, but statements of faith about a
sacred city” (1983: 23). Smith, in his work on Varanasi måhåtmyas, cites
Agehananda Bharati’s epigrammatic description of them as “archaic adver-
tisements” (1963: 145–46; Smith 2007: 2). He describes the genre as
encompassing måhåtmyas, sthala-måhåtmyas, and sthala-purå~as and
succinctly relates the three terms as follows:
A sthala-purå~a or sthala-måhåtmya elucidates the “greatness” (måhåt-

mya) of a particular “place” (sthala), and this is accomplished through
presenting series of interlocking narratives of the “ancient lore” (purå~a)
of the place…[which usually includes]…the deeds of gods, sages, kings
and a whole assortment of divine and semi-divine characters (Smith
2007: 1).
Structurally, both classical and contemporary texts present narratives

where an actor is present at a given site, performs some particular action(s)
and receives some highly desirable outcome(s), often followed by asser-
tions that modeling the aforementioned behavior will generate similar
reward(s). Stylistically, both types of måhåtmyas frequently strike a
declarative tone, in claiming that Ga gå water, for example, is peerlessly
curative, can reverse the effects of a curse, and can immediately treat
leprosy and other diseases, and so on.
For a more concrete rendering of måhåtmya structure and style, I repro-
duce examples of typical statements drawn from the entire contents of a
1990s Uttarakhand måhåtmya that replicate the conventions of Sanskrit
måhåtmya. It must be highlighted that objects of praise—whether sites,
places, deities or rivers (in this case, the Ga gå)—are used almost inter-
changeably and can be freely plugged into the måhåtmya equation:
Those men and women who have thought of the rightness of their path
want to have darçan of the Ga gå, because only the Ga gå expiates
sins (påp)….Remembering the Ga gå for even just an instant destroys

sin….The most extreme sins are destroyed by singing of the greatness
of Ga gå. The biggest and heaviest sins are destroyed by the darçan of
Ga gå….Bathing in Ga gå water and drinking Ga gå water is worth
more than offering libations to one’s ancestors in Ga gå water daily
[which also expiates enormous quantities of sin]….In the same way
that dry cotton is incinerated by fire, the contact of Ga gå’s waters
burns away the sins of humanity in an instant….Bathing in the waters
of Ga gå is very great—from doing this, people get a place in heaven;
they never encounter ruinous influence; they reach the [blessed] feet of
Çr⁄ Keçava [Vi‚~u]; the highest worldly fame, the favor of the state and
awfully great merit (ghor mahån pu~ya) is achieved so that, at the end
time, the ascent to heaven occurs…(Cåroμ Dhåm Yåtrå Måhåtmya
n.d.: 1–64).
Måhåtmyas use a typical “exponential merit” formula to express how

much better it is to do pious acts at the eulogized site than if performed
elsewhere. The base variable of this calculation is usually some other
famous Hindu religious site already renowned for its merit-making
ability. The hyperbolic comparison with such sites infinitely multiplies
the value of visiting a måhåtmya site on a parabola of piety. Other varia-
tions invert the måhåtmya formula so that a simple act performed at the
eulogized site is said to be worth a hyperbolic act at some other famous
site or that an act performed at the famous site is worth little when com-
pared to the same act performed at the måhåtmya site. Many of the major
continuities between classical and contemporary måhåtmyas can be sum-
marized as follows:
• Contemporary descriptions and mythological history of the other

“All-India” 4-Dhåm sites (for example, Dvarka, Puri, Ramesvar)
• Standard mythological narratives about the object of praise, such as
the descent of Ga gå (Ga!gå avatara~ k⁄ kathå)
• Deity-måhåtmya Hindi prose sections interspersed with Sanskrit
quotations (for example, Çr⁄ Badr⁄nåråya~ Mahåtm)
• Site-måhåtmya Hindi prose sections interspersed with Sanskrit quota-
tions (for example, Taptku~ Mahåtm)
• Instructions for taking darçan and descriptions of the primary icons
• Lists of the god(s)’ epithets

• Sections detailing the karmic benefits of performing rituals on-site or
to the given deity
Such content is the hallmark of måhåtmya literature, whether ancient

or modern. In summary, the concern of Sanskrit måhåtmyas to imbricate
mythological super-narratives into contemporary site history is, essen-
tially, retained in contemporary måhåtmya literature. In this way, we can
speculate that an authorial investment in reading the legendary past of
Hindu scripture into the present and locating it geo-spatially has remained
constantly relevant—whether this “ever-present history” is the eleventh-
century world of the Kåç⁄kha~ a or the twenty-first-century world of a
måhåtmya published by the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee. While the
reliance on Sanskrit scripture, and even the translation of its key themes,
is a major convergence between the classical and contemporary genres,
there are other innovative elements which distinguish the new genre.
Based on my reading of numerous representative texts, the following
list presents many topics I identify as modern innovations in Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas:
• Contemporary South Asian language lyrics to devotional songs (stuti)

• List of related sites promoted for tourism purposes (for example,
Panc Badri, Panc Kedar, Panc Prayag)
• Descriptions of places to visit with no religious association (Valley
of Flowers, for example)
• Advertisements by the publisher for its other publications
• List of distances between points by bus
• Descriptions of non-pilgrimage towns along the highway and their
facilities
• Non-mythological description and history of temple management and
structure (for example, Badrinath management committee founded in
1939, control of Badrinath ceded to a Namb¨dri Brahmin known as
the Råval in 1899)
• List of bus fares between points, and current road conditions
• Images of gods and temples, combining artist-drawn images with
photographs
• Artist-drawn maps combining road distances, bilingual Hindi and
English names of way stations, altitudes, figures of pilgrims, drawings

of mountains, rivers, temples, and gods
• Tourist agency recommendations
• Color or monochrome plates of the temples and site precincts
• Medical advice to treat the effects of altitude, travel, and cold tempera-
tures; for example, Davå⁄yåμ: evom⁄n k⁄ gol⁄ (mårg meμ cakkar åne
ke lie), or “Medicine: Avomine tablets (for dizziness on the road),”
and so on.
This inventory reveals the complexity and variability of elements that

make up contemporary Uttarakhand måhåtmyas. In reflecting on their
significance, it is striking how they radically depart from the core concerns
of Sanskrit måhåtmyas in providing a thoroughly temporal reading of the
sites—one that is so up-to-date that it is at risk of becoming obsolete even
before the end of any given pilgrimage season. In his textual study of
Mathura, Alan W. Entwistle notes that the Sanskrit Mathura måhåtmyas
emphasized performing rites such as çråddha (homage to deceased fore-
bears) rather than devotional practices and became out of step with the
changing expectations of pilgrims, so that they were eclipsed by “simpli-
fied itineraries in the vernacular” (1990: 22). In comparison with the
centuries-old practice of pilgrimage to Mathura, Uttarakhand’s inacces-
sibility has meant that pilgrimage to the region was extremely limited
until the recent past. Partially due to the innovations of Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas, the Sanskritic tradition associated with the 4-Dhåm region
that was formerly relevant to a very limited audience has become newly
relevant to a large audience for the first time, through its publicization in
contemporary måhåtmya texts and the influx of tourists to the region.
This is achieved by the texts’ ability to mingle classical conventions with
ephemera and logistics.
This understanding of the present breaks the illusion of timelessness
and transcendence that is maintained in the Sanskrit måhåtmyas, while it
simultaneously assures its reading contemporary prestige by being founded
on classical conventions. As I discussed above, the oldest måhåtmyas
address the concerns of the traveling audience using a first-person and
second-person perspective; in doing so the authors of the Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas disrupt the proverbial fourth wall and thereby invite readers
into the authorial world of the 4-Dhåm. The texts invite their audience to
participate in a mythologized yet real world, as presented in the texts,

through the imbrication of practical metafiction with legendary mytho-
fiction. Consumers of religious texts who read from the perspective of
devotional piety have, at some level, the option to suspend disbelief for
faith.
Figure 7: Måhåtmya Map of Uttarakhand (approximately 1990s)
For such readers, Uttarakhand måhåtmyas may offer a powerful ren-

dering of an everyday yet other-worldly reality, through representing the
4-Dhåm sites as portals to a world that is otherwise accessible only through
devotional imagination. Måhåtmya maps of the region cartographically
reinforce this reading, through depicting the 4-Dhåm sites as actually
inhabited by the Hindu gods, with real-world kilometer markers on the
highways to their abodes, as depicted in Figure 7. However, the linking
of the individual 4-Dhåm sites into a circuit that has come to define the
region now overshadows the very totality of the “Land of the Gods” that
was documented so painstakingly in the “"abrål” Måhåtmya, with its
virtually innumerable sacred sites. This amalgamation of the Dhåm sites
into a network, coupled with an expanding regional sensibility that is
increasingly integrated into a pan-Indian narrative of commercialized
sacred space, promises an accessible extension of the major metros, New

Delhi in particular. While the earliest, locally published texts show an
intimate familiarity with the region; from the 1990s onwards, modern
måhåtmya texts reflect a new continuity with the plains (and the rest of
the world). This too is graphically represented in the 1990s måhåtmya
map; in the lower left corner, the road to the gods of the Garhwal Himålaya
is depicted as commencing in Delhi, represented by a drawing of one of
Delhi’s famous landmarks, Qut¨b Minår.
Conclusions
The genre of contemporary Uttarakhand måhåtmyas employs a flexible

set of juxtapositions that are responsive and agentive in interpreting the
changing nature of pilgrimage to the region. In conclusion, I offer some
thoughts on how the texts strike this peculiar balance. I have argued
above that pilgrims’ booklets are one of the major ways that ancient sites
are “read into relevance” because of their ability to suggest a continuity
with a remote Hindu past. Multiple modes of consumption for måhåtmya
texts indicate that they continue to be an extremely important interpretive
medium for the region, as their consumers include pilgrims, priests, mer-
chants, seasonal workers, shrine officials, and other participants in the
pilgrimage economies of temple towns. In terms of content, Uttarakhand
måhåtmyas present a third-person perspective on the transcendent other-
world of Himålayan Hindu narratives and characters. This reflects an
abiding interest in localizing Hindu antiquity through textual heritage
and an interesting convergence of modernity and antiquity in the repre-
sentation of Uttarakhand in måhåtmya literature. In terms of language,
the imbrication of Hindi with Sanskrit simultaneously telescopes distance
and creates it.
These texts connect the narratives and other-worldly presence of these
particular Hindu sacred sites with the experiences and self-understanding
of whatever is viewed as “contemporary,” a perspective has evolved viv-
idly over the decades. In reading these texts, a particular kind of modernity
is performed that spans temporalities (now and antiquity) yet is radically
grounded in geo-spatiality (here and here only). These qualities, in par-
ticular, provide a way for måhåtmya consumers to relate the Hindu scrip-
tural past with real-world places and ensures that the sites remain mean-
ingful in an ever-accessible present.
Notes
1. Thank you to Andrea Acri for his sustaining interest and outstanding
collaboration in all aspects of this project; to William Chong Eng Keat
for his editorial assistance; and to those involved in the IJHS review
process for their extremely helpful suggestions. Thank you also to the
Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore) for providing
an opportunity to present part of this research at a workshop co-organized
with Andrea Acri in 2013: “Replaying the Past: Performances of Hindu
Textual Heritage in India and Bali.” All images and translations (from
Hindi and Sanskrit) are contributed by author. Ethnographic observations
are based on data collected over the summer pilgrimage seasons in 1996,
1998, 2001, 2004, and 2006.
2. There are other regions that refer to themselves as divine bh¨mis,
such as Bhramaur, Himachal Pradesh, known as Çivbh¨mi (Rose and
Ibbetson 1911: 259). The entire state of Himachal Pradesh has also been
called Devbh¨mi—by the Himachal state government in its planning
report (Himachal Pradesh Development Report 2005: 207).
3. In the case of Kedarnath, Whitmore (2011: 201–23) has documented
all of the site’s major scriptural associations.
4. See The Official Website of Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temple
Committee, “Number of Pilgrims,” http://www.badarikedar.org/content-
badari.aspx?id=9 (accessed December 19, 2013).
5. The Official Website of Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temple Com-
mittee, http://www.badarikedar.org/content-kedar.aspx?id=43 (accessed
December 19, 2013).
6. In the following discussion, I have assigned “nicknames” to each of
the måhåtmyas as the original titles of the texts are frequently similar or
even identical.
7. Many scholarly analyses of måhåtmyas have helped to frame my dis-
cussion of Uttarakhand måhåtmyas in relation to particular Hindu deities,
regions, and sacred sites. Coburn and Brown have written widely cited
studies of Hindu goddess måhåtmyas, the Dev⁄måhåtmya (Coburn 1984)
and the Dev⁄bhågavatapurå~a (Brown 1990). Numerous scholars have
worked on various måhåtmyas of place, of which I may only mention a
few here: Lochtefeld (2010), in his study of Haridwar, has extensively

interpreted site-specific måhåtmyas, as has Whitmore (2011) on Kedar-
nath. A volume on Indian pilgrimage edited by Bakker (1990) offers
many valuable contributions to måhåtmya studies, including chapters on
Mathura måhåtmyas by Entwistle and the Pu‚kara Måhåtmya by Malik.
8. The five decades’ worth of måhåtmya texts here are described as
“modern” since all engage with pilgrimage in Uttarakhand in the post-
Independence era of increased motor accessibility within the region.
9. According to Gengnagel (2006: 145), from the mid-nineteenth century
onwards, India’s nascent print culture facilitated the appearance of litho-
graphed pilgrims’ maps, along with the early British production of carto-
graphic representations of Varanasi from the first half of the nineteenth
century onwards, beginning with James Prinsep’s famous Varanasi map
of 1822.
10. According to the National Library of India, this account was first
published in 1911 as The Northern Tirtha: A Pilgrim’s Diary (see: http://
nationallibrary.gov.in/showdetails.php?id=623828); it was then reprinted
in 1928, as Kedar Nath and Badri Narayan: A Pilgrim’s Diary. S. K. Rat-
cliffe, editor of Studies from an Eastern Home, notes that Sister Nivedita
traveled to Uttarakhand (Kumaon) with Svåm⁄ Vivekånanda and three
other women companions in 1898, her first year in India, see Noble (1913:
xiii–xiv).
11. Bhisma C. Kukreti, “Vishalmani Upadhyaya ‘Sharma’: A Religious
Garhwali Playwright and Publisher,” October 7, 2009, http://e-magazineof
uttarakhand.blogspot.sg/2009/10/garhwali-kumaoni-himalayan-literature_
3111.html (accessed December 19, 2013).
12. R. S. Tolia, “Remembering Acharya Shiv Prasad Dabral,” December
25, 2012, http://rstolia.in/wp/remembering-acharya-shiv-prasad-dabral/
(accessed December 19, 2013).
13. See James G. Lochtefeld, “Badrinath,” http://personal.carthage.edu/
jlochtefeld/picturepages/3dham/badrinath.html (accessed December 19,
2013).
14. Vishal Karyalaya began operations in 1921; in the preface to this
text Sharma states that the press has been operating for fifty years, indi-
cating a date of 1971.
15. Interview with Ganga Dhar Vajpayee at Kedarnath, June 2, 2004.
16. Garhwal does not have the status of an official Indian language. Hindi
dominates the state’s public sphere particularly among the younger genera-
tion. Garhwali literature, music, and film is enjoying a limited renaissance,
but the language is currently listed as “vulnerable” by UNESCO: http://
www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php (accessed December
19, 2013).
17. Interview with Nand Kishore Nautiyal at Santa Cruz, Mumbai,
February 10, 2002.
References Cited
Bakker, Hans, ed. 1990. The History of Sacred Places in India as Refleted
in Traditional Literature. Leiden: Brill.
Bharati, Agehananda. 1963. “Pilgrimage in the Indian Tradition.” History
of Religions 3, 1: 135–67.
Brown, C. MacKenzie. 1990. The Triumph of the Goddess: The Canonical
Models and Theological Visions of the Dev⁄-Bhågavata Purå~a. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
Cåroμ Dhåm Yåtrå Måhåtmya. N.d. Cåroμ Dhåm Yåtrå Måhåtmya.
Haridwar: Randhir Prakashan.
Coburn, Thomas B. 1984. Dev⁄-Måhåtmya: The Crystallization of the
Goddess Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Dabral, S. P. 1961. Uttaråkha~ Yåtrå Darçan. Narayankoti: Vishal
Karyalaya.
Doniger, Wendy and Sudhir Kakar, trans. 2002. Vatsyayana Kamasutra.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Eck, Diana L. 1983 [1982]. Banaras: City of Light. Delhi: Penguin Books.
Eck, Diana L. 2012. India: A Sacred Geography. New York: Harmony
Books.
Entwistle, Alan W. 1990. “Måhåtmya Sources on the Pilgrimage Circuit
of Mathurå.” In Hans Bakker, ed., The History of Sacred Places in
India as Refleted in Traditional Literature, 5–28. Leiden: Brill.
Feldhaus, Anne. 1995. Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of
Rivers in Maharashtra. New York: Oxford University Press.
Feldhaus, Anne. 2003. Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage, and Geo-
graphical Imagination in India. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gengnagel, Jörg. 2006. “Maps and Processions in Banaras: The Debate
Concerning the Pañcakroç⁄yåtrå.” In Martin Gaenszle and Jörg Geng-
nagel, eds., Visualizing Space in Banaras: Images, Maps, and the Prac-
tice of Representation, 145–63. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Himachal Pradesh Development Report. 2005. New Delhi: Planning
Commission, Government of India
Malik, Aditya. 1990. “The Pu‚kara Måhåtmya: A Short Report.” In Hans
Bakker, ed., The History of Sacred Places in India as Refleted in Tradi-
tional Literature, 192–207. Leiden: Brill.
Nivedita, Sister. 1928 [1911]. Kedar Nath and Badri Narayan: A Pilgrim’s
Diary. Calcutta: Udbodhan Office.
Noble, Margaret Elizabeth. 1913. Studies from an Eastern Home (ed. S.
K. Ratcliffe). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Pinkney, Andrea Marion. 2014, Forthcoming. “Pocketing the Himalayas:
Sacred Souvenirs of the 4-Dhåm Pilgrimage.” In Megan Adamson
Sijapati and Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, eds., Religion and Modernity
in the Himalaya. London: Routledge.
Rose, Horace A., Denzil Ibbetson, and Edward D. MacLagan. 1911. A
Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Fron-
tier Province. Volume 2. Lahore: Government Printing Punjab. https://
archive.org/stream/glossaryoftribes03rose/glossaryoftribes03rose_djvu
.txt.
Sharma, Vishalmani, ed. 1955. Çr⁄ Kedåreçvara Måhåtmya. Narayankoti:
Vishal Karyalaya.
Sharma, Vishalmani, ed. 1971. Cåroμdhåm-Yåtrå Måhåtmya. Narayan-
koti: Vishal Karyalaya.
Shastri, Govind Ram. 1986 [1981]. Shri Kedar Mahtamya (trans. J. M.
Tara). Kedarnath: Pt. Gangadhar Vajpayee.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2013. “Re-scripting the Legends of Tu¬jå Bhavån⁄:
Texts, Performances, and New Media in Maharashtra.” International
Journal of Hindu Studies 17, 3: 315–39.
Çr⁄ Ga gå Mahåtm aur Ga gotr⁄ Mahåtm. N.d. Çr⁄ Ga gå Mahåtm aur
Ga gotr⁄ Mahåtm. Haridwar: Randhir Prakashan.
Smith, Travis LaMar. 2007. “The Sacred Center and Its Peripheries: Çai-
vism and the Vårå~as⁄ Sthala-Purå~as.” Ph.D. Dissertation. Columbia:
Columbia University Library.
Whitmore, Luke. 2011. “In Pursuit of Maheçvara: Understanding Kedar-
nåth as Place and as T⁄rtha.” Ph.D. Dissertation. Atlanta: Emory Uni-
versity Library.
Whitmore, Luke. 2014, Forthcoming. “Framing the World, Framing Your-

self: Video in Kedarnath at the Beginning of a New Millennium.” In
Megan Adamson Sijapati and Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, eds., Religion
and Modernity in the Himalaya. London: Routledge.
Yang, Anand A. 1998. Bazaar India: Markets, Society, and the Colonial
State in Gangetic Bihar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
ANDREA MARION PINKNEY is assistant professor of South Asian

Religions at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
[email protected]

An Ever Present History in The Land of T

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Ever Present History in The Land of T

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Ever Present History in The Land of T

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Ever-Present History in the Land of the Gods:

Modern Måhåtmya Writing on Uttarakhand

Andrea Marion Pinkney

The 4-Dhåm Pilgrimage

International Journal of Hindu Studies 17, 3 (2013): 231–262

in the extreme northwest of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state that was

It is worth highlighting the emphasis placed on “planning and prepara-

Whether classical or contemporary, måhåtmyas extol the virtues of a

determined pilgrims. For example, Sister Nivedita (born Margaret Eliza-

It is very characteristic, that while Hinduism lays great emphasis on the

authors, rather than viewing it as a limitation of the texts’ interest and

The 1950s: The “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya

Indian government to target Uttarakhand for intensive infrastructure devel-

Figure 1: The “Little” 4-Dhåm Måhåtmya (1955)

The 1960s: The “"abrål” Måhåtmya

Sanskritic and Perso-Arabic vocabulary that in subsequent decades gives

The 1970s: The “Çarmå” Måhåtmya

Figure 2: The “Çarmå” Måhåtmya (1971)

Typical måhåtmya language identifies the praised site as primus inter

first-person elements include the recollection of a fire that broke out in

The 1980s: The “English” Måhåtmya

an interview in Kedarnath in 2004, he criticized the commercial Uttara-

Figure 3: The “English” Måhåtmya (1986) and

One of the important services of måhåtmya literature is the listing of

The shrines set up in the Himalayas are undoubtedly Houses of Salva-

great Himalayas…[and the rivers]…Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini,

Devotees from various provinces wanted this book in English. In this

in undertaking the translation:

Finally, the text’s main purpose is perhaps self-evident, in that it is an

The 1990s: The “Ra~dh⁄r” Måhåtmya

Figure 4: The “Ra~dh⁄r” Måhåtmya (n.d.)

This phase of development in the genre of Uttarakhand måhåtmyas is

in Haridwar, such as Randhir Prakashan and Arjun Singh Book Sellers

The 2000s: The “Institutional” Måhåtmya

nance and town planning to the publishing of ritual (p¨jå) schedules,

Figure 5: The “Institutional” Måhåtmya (2000)

Typically, Badrinath overshadows the other sites in multi-site måhåt-

Twenty-First Century Måhåtmyas

Figure 6: 4-Dhåm Video Måhåtmyas,

Similarly, the relative lack of overhead required to produce and dis-

These videos, usually framed by well-known Hindi bhajans, highly

In presenting the pilgrimage in video format, as a theatrically staged

pared to the power of måhåtmya videos to transport Uttarakhand from

Reflections on Contemporary and Classical Måhåtmyas

Classical måhåtmya texts functioned as pilgrimage guides, after a fash-

A sthala-purå~a or sthala-måhåtmya elucidates the “greatness” (måhåt-

Structurally, both classical and contemporary texts present narratives

sins (påp)….Remembering the Ga gå for even just an instant destroys

Måhåtmyas use a typical “exponential merit” formula to express how

• Contemporary descriptions and mythological history of the other

• Lists of the god(s)’ epithets

Such content is the hallmark of måhåtmya literature, whether ancient

• Contemporary South Asian language lyrics to devotional songs (stuti)

English names of way stations, altitudes, figures of pilgrims, drawings

This inventory reveals the complexity and variability of elements that

participate in a mythologized yet real world, as presented in the texts,

Figure 7: Måhåtmya Map of Uttarakhand (approximately 1990s)

For such readers, Uttarakhand måhåtmyas may offer a powerful ren-

sacred space, promises an accessible extension of the major metros, New