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kanwarias and their fantastic kanwar, originally uploaded by tigerpoint3.

In the month of Savan or the first month of the monsoons, devotees of lord shiva in various parts of india, make a strange trip. when a prayer in the form of a wish is sent to the lord, it is also promised by a devotee as to she/he will go through if the wish is fulfilled. devotees of mahadeva promise such a trip. usually, depending on the part of country you are in you go to the river ganges fill your vessels with her waters and carry them back to a place where you pour it --could be another river, could be local temple. a popular destination for people in the north is to go to Haridwar and return on foot to their native places. this fetching and pouring of the water by the kanwaria is physically daunting. at times it means travelling on foot about 300 km and sometimes even more. the kanwar or the vessels are usually carried on the ends of a bamboo resting on ones shoulder . suspended at the two ends are the vessels carrying the holy water. the contraption shown here is a rarer kind not often seen and is being carried by four people. remember, at no time during this journey shall the kanwaria rest his kanwar on the ground!!