In an anthology of travel Eric Newby quotes a list given by VR Ragam in his Pilgrim's Travel Guide to North India and the Himalayas of "suggestive items" to take on a pilgrimage.

It is an epic compilation that starts with japamalas and ends with corked bottles for holy water, and takes into account over 120 other items, including canvas bucket, cooker, bag for coal, mosquito curtain, smelling salts, tongue cleaners, thermos flask, camera, maps, lots of food and "list of departed souls and their Gotras."

One does have visions of pilgrims tumbling down mountains under the burden of Ragam's kit, but on the other hand it would have come in real handy for many of the pilgrims stranded in Uttarakhand until the Army could come and deliver them to the politicians waiting for photo-ops (how many pilgrims, one wonders, wanted to go right back?) But Ragam's list is a good reminder of what the Uttarakhand crisis has emphasised in such an extreme way - pilgrimages should not be undertaken lightly.

Taxing Devotion 

Because we've all seen how this has been happening, or heard those annoying acquaintances who combine dubious income sources with extreme devotion boast about how often and fast they can dash over from Delhi to Vaishnodevi (or similar shrines across the country), zooming up the hill by helicopter and back again, paying big bucks to by-pass queues, going on special 5-star hotel packages that take them from luxury suites to special darshan and back in time for lunch.

Most pilgrims in Uttarakhand weren't like this of course but as the number of affluent Indians, both in the country and from abroad, have been increasing, so has their desire to go on pilgrimages, but with as little real change to their lives as possible. This is one reason for the boom in building on the way to pilgrimage sites: all these deluxe devotees need the facilities and support staff to help them on their way to enlightenment.

And, of course, these were the ones whose families pulled every possible string to bring them back safely - complicating rescue efforts - while other pilgrims struggled to survive.

If any good was to come from this crisis it might be a rethink on this kind of pilgrimage. What has happened in Uttarakhand is a stark reminder that pilgrimages are dangerous, though there is perhaps no need to make them even more so by straining their requirements beyond reasonable needs. In an essay on the meaning of pilgrimages the Indologist Richard Lannoy defines them as "intentionally difficult journeys of devotion." He emphasises that the suffering en route is essential for the trip.

"A stressful journey, possibly through hostile territory, or under taxing climatic conditions, overcoming all kinds of hardships and hazards, is a way to test character at all levels...cooperative effort stimulates the timid to strive far beyond their customary abilities." This has always been the case with pilgrimages, across the world, and in other places the expected outcomes were even more severe.

Lannoy notes a study of 526 medieval pilgrimages to Jerusalem where none involved a return. A similar idea exists in India of pilgrimages as a suitable way to end one's life - particularly suitable perhaps for the surviving family which didn't have to take care of old and extraneous family members - and this has been called the mahaprasthanaka pilgrimage after the journey the Pandavas took at the end of their lives.

Source: The Economic Times, DT. July 6, 2013.