Bare souls, boundless spirit: decoding the Naga Sadhus | Research News

In Kumbh, Naga sadhus (ascetics) or the Nagas are the most photographed but least understood cult members. They mostly remain aloof from the civilisation, and very rarely appear in public. Kumbh Mela is said to be one of those rare events where the common population get a chance to see them. During this, they could be seen at the Mela area adorned with jewellery, trinkets, trishul, damru, and rudraksha malas.

The picture of thousands of ash smeared Naga sadhus wearing nothing but marigold garlands, shrieking in ecstacy and marching under the huge flags, signs, and banners of assorted akharas of Dashnami ascetics, on their way to the Shahi Snan at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati is the most important feature of the Kumbh Mela, and no photograph is complete without this. It also presents India’s spiritual image to the world.

The procession of Naga sadhus attracts a large number of visitors to the Mela, due to the various myths associated with them. Tourists from every corner of the world flock to the Kumbh to watch Naga babas mediating and performing various rituals, in their out–of–the–world appearance.

Naga sadhus basically belong to a group of ascetics who have renounced the materialistic world and practised celibacy to escape from the cycle of birth and death to attain moksha. The unique characteristic features of these saints include the fact that they remain naked, even in biting cold. They smear their bodies with a layer of ash, wear heavy coils of matted hair on their head, hold tridents or any weapon, and smoke marijuana through a pipe called chillum or ‘Shiv Muli’. They draw their inspiration for living such a life from Lord Shiva. But there is also another aspect of these Shaivite saints. They are militant in nature and always ready to fight for Hinduism as religious warriors.

Historically, the Naga tradition began in the 8th century when a Hindu seer and exponent of Advait philosophy, Adi Shankaracharya created them as a Hindu army to protect Sanatan Dharma, and Hinduism in extension. Born in Kalady, in Kerala, Shankaracharya left home at the age of five to travel across India. He created the Dashnaam Sanyas ashrams primarily with members from the Giris (mountain sects), Puris (dwellers of towns and cities), Saraswatis (priests), Van-Aranyaks (forest hermits), and Sagar (seaside sects).

Realising the need for shaastra (knowledge) as well as shastra (weapons), Adi Shankaracharya preserved shaastra for the Acharyas and made shastra the ornament of the Nagas. Nagas are part of Dashnami ascetics (akharas), who are militant Shaivites. They can belong to any of the 10 religious orders (Dashnam means ‘ten names’) founded by Adi Shankaracharya.

All Dashnami Akharas have ascetics of any or all 10 orders, and they have names that reflect this allegiance: Aranya, Ashram, Bharti, Giri, Parvata, Puri, Saraswati, Sagara, Tirtha and Vana. With their deep veneration for Adi Shankaracharya, they still chant, ‘Shankaram Shankaracharya Keshavam Badyarayanan, Sutrabhashyakatobande Bhagwatepunahpunah’, which means ‘I am that Shiva, born in every age to save the world from itself.’ This is the Shaivite equivalent of the famous sayings of Lord Krishna in Bhagwad Gita, ‘Dharma Samsthapanaarthya Sambhavaami Yugeyuge’. It is said that it was these militant Nagas who were instrumental in winning back Hinduism from Buddhism. They even laid their lives to protect Hinduism during an attack in 1757 by the Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdali on Gokul and Vrindavan, the fabled birthplace and playground of Lord Krishna. The Afghan invader sent hordes of his soldiers into the holy places, to loot, plunder, and rape.

He had to face stiff resistance from the Hindu Jat prince Jawahar Singh, who ruled the Barj-Matsya region. The holy city of Mathura was ransacked and brutalised by Abdali’s soldiers after the death of the Jat prince’s 10,000 soldiers. Temples were destroyed and at many holy places, women jumped into Yamuna to save themselves from rape. The Afghan had given orders to, ‘[m]ove into the boundaries of the accursed Jat, and in every town and district held by him, slay and plunder. The city of Mathura is a holy place of the Hindus…let it be put entirely to the edge of the sword. Up to Agra leave not a single place standing.’

Vrindavan, which is about 11 km north of Mathura, could not escape this fate. Much wealth was displayed in its many temples. Here Abdali’s general Jahan Khan and Najib plundered the town with 20,000 men, and another general massacre was carried out against the inoffensive monks of the most pacifist order of Vishnu worshippers, (c. 6 March 1757).

One of the diary entries of the Afghan ruler’s diarist records a visit to Vrindavan: Wherever you gazed you beheld heaps of slain; you could only pick your way with difficulty, owing to the number of bodies lying about and the amount of blood spilt. At one place that we reached, we saw about 200 dead children lying in a heap. Not one of the dead bodies had a head… The stench and effluvium in the air were such that it was painful to open your mouth or even to draw breath.

After Vrindavan, it was the turn of Gokul, Lord Krishna’s birthplace. Sardar Khan, prime general of the Afghans, launched an attack on Gokul, but here, thousands of ash-smeared warrior monks stopped them. The Naga sadhus armed with swords, matchlocks, and cannons, had gathered after calling together their wandering bands, to rise in defence of dharma.

Stirred by the atrocities of the Afghans and Muslim rulers, bands of Naga sadhus and assorted holy men, coalesced into larger groups, often numbering more than 10,000, to provide protection to the temples, to travel routes, and even to towns and rival armies.

For many centuries these Naga monks and their disciples began to take up arms amid the upheavals in northern India. During the fall of the Mughal Empire, they emerged as a serious force to reckon with.

Their notable leader Rajendra Giri Gosain, from whose time we have a correct and written history of the Nagas, held such a reputation of bravery that his band of Nagas would contend with enemies who outnumbered them more than ten times over, with utter abandon and fury.

Later on, some of the larger bands, under Himmat Bahadur and Anupgir Gosain, lead vast armies across the northern Indian plains. The notorious Afghan cavalry launched itself against the Nagas just to face a wild and reckless counter charge. The Nagas, displaying utter disregard for their own lives, forced the Afghan attackers to retreat in confusion and defeat.

After some time the Afghans, with reinforcement, returned to the attack. and a bitter struggle ensued. The Afghans were fighting for loot, plunder and rape, while the Naga sadhus, who had already given up their worldly and material attachments, and were participants in a long tradition of warfare, fought solely for dharma and faith.

The battle cry of the Nagas, ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and of the Afghans, ‘Ya Ali’ rose above the groans and shrieks of the wounded and dying. The battle continued even as dusk fell and they fought while stepping on the bodies of the slain, but still, the Nagas did not give ground. Enraged, Abdali then sent more troops into the battle.

The yet undefeated soldiers of Abdali, who had marched victoriously from the borders of India to Central Asia, were met with renewed charges and attacks from the Naga sanyasis. They fought so fiercely that the Afghans began to lose hope of victory. Their leader Sardar Khan called a retreat after the Afghan army suffered huge losses, and the Afghans fell back in defeat and humiliation. The holy town of Gokul was saved but at an appalling cost of human life.

The Naga sadhus not only saved the shrines and the thousands of refugees inside them, but they exemplified the age-old tradition of valour mixed with dharma—the concept of rising in arms each time they were called upon. They went on to fight bitter, decade-long struggles with the British in India.

This history was famously celebrated in the late 19th-century novel Ananda Math. Their exploits became the inspiration for the freedom fighters of the 20th century. Keeping up with their military traditions, they call their retreats Chhavni or army camps, to this day. They hold mock jousts using words, spears and tridents, during the Kumbh Mela.

Being a militant sect, it is said that it isn’t unusual for them to strike to kill someone on issues of honour, even during a Kumbh Mela. Noted historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar, in his book on Dashnami Akharas, wrote: The first indisputably historical evidence that we find of fighting Brahmans occurs in the course of Alexander’s invasion of India in 3 BC when after crossing the river Ravi in pursuit of Malaya people… The Naga Sannyasis were called by the Greeks “Gymnosophists,” which literally means “naked philosopher”, they are thus described by ancient Greek writer Arrian in his book.

The philosophers (Brahmans) from the caste most esteemed in reputation and dignity, no necessity is incumbent upon them to any bodily labour… nor have they any compulsory duty except to offer sacrifice to the gods on behalf of the commonwealth of India. These philosophers pass their lives naked in the winter, in the sun under the open sky, but in the summer when the sun holds sway, they live in the meadows and in the marshes under the great trees…

Why Nagas live naked is a question which arouses curiosity among the common population. They, in their cryptic words, will say that this is in order to ‘become detached to attain salvation in order to set themselves free from the vicious cycle of birth and death’.

For complete detachment, you have to shed your clothes. They have logic to this. Even if you have just clothes on your body, you would need to clean them to wear them. While washing them, you need another set of clothes.

After washing, you need to keep them at some place to wear them the next time, for that you would need a bag. If you have a bag then you will have to take care of it, so that you don’t lose it or have it stolen from you. This in fact leads to attachment. So the Nagas, to save themselves from these unwanted attachments, decide to remain naked.

Naga sadhus are supposed to be so deeply spiritual and devoted to god, that they don’t care about how they look, and also about the weather, if it is warm or cold.

Describing the differences between Nagas and other sadhus, Sir Sarkar has written: The sannyasis worship Shiva in the ordinary way and Shakti (or Shiva’s female consort) with a special secret ritual called marga of salvation. As Shiva himself wears a rosary of Rudraksha seeds, every sannyasi does the same. A rudraksha seed with only one line of depressions (Ek Mukhi) is considered to have the greatest sanctity and mystic power… The Nagas and Tapaswis smear their whole body with ashes (regarded as the Bibhuti of Shiva the Yogi), other Sannyasis only mark Tripundarik (three lines) with ashes on their forehead, and similar lines on eleven other places of the body, the whole being known as Dwadash Bibhuti.

To become a Naga, any male has to go through a ‘must-follow’ set of esoteric initiation rituals, according to the secret Dashami rules. One has to spend several years devoted to his Guru, and pass four important stages.

First, an aspirant becomes a chela or a brahmachari (disciple) in an akhara. He has to serve his Guru with total devotion. After serving in the Akhara to his Guru’s satisfaction, he then progresses to become Mahapurush, later, an Avdhoot, and finally a Naga. The last of these rituals to become a Naga, held after midnight, is notable for the mark it leaves on the man. At the appointed time, an aspirant who wants to join the Akhara stands next to a kirtistambh (triumphal column), accompanied by four Shri Mahants and an Acharya Guru who assigns him a mantra. A Mahant then pulls the foreskin of his penis back thrice, forcefully, snapping the membrane underneath, which restrains it. It is called the tang tode ceremony. Only after this ritual does a sanyasi qualify fully as a Naga and over time, prolonged exposure desensitises the penis to an extent.

The tang tode may be performed in symbolic or token ways as well, but the Naga, often seen with smoking marijuana in a chillum, decorated with ashes, and dancing on vedic chants is the most important attraction of the Mela. The consumption of bhang or opium is also considered to be a part of the ritual performed by Naga sadhus.

It is said in the holy scriptures that doing so will lead them to eternity or nirvana. The authenticity of Nagahood is determined by the status of the ascetic’s sexual organ. The Nagas are forbidding and would not do anything that would help in demystifying them.

‘Don’t mess with us’ would be an apt refrain for them.