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Mahakumbh: Batuks from Varanasi getting hands-on training at Akhada camp

By, Prayagraj
Jan 12, 2025 07:24 AM IST

Over 450 Vedic and Sanskrit scholars staying among the seers to learn how to perform rituals and conduct themselves

As the sun rises on the tent city of Mahakumbh-2025 on the sandy banks of Sangam, Krishna Richariya, 16, rises quickly and gets ready after a quick bath and a brief prayer. Now he enters the kitchen for duty in the sprawling camp of Shri Panchayati Akhada Mahanirwani located in sector 20 of the temporary Mahakumbh Nagar.

In the Mahanirwani akhada camp, there are 450 of his fellow ‘batuks’ (students) performing different tasks and helping senior sadhus while learning how to serve food, how to talk and interact. (Anil Kumar Maurya/HT)
In the Mahanirwani akhada camp, there are 450 of his fellow ‘batuks’ (students) performing different tasks and helping senior sadhus while learning how to serve food, how to talk and interact. (Anil Kumar Maurya/HT)

The clock reads 6am. What follows for the next four hours is hectic, efficient but quick working ensuring meals and tea get prepared for hundreds of sadhus of the monastic order in time and Krishna ensures that while performing these chores he remains disciplined and shows deference to senior saints. He then helps saints in performing various rituals, reciting and learning the proper pronunciation of different mantras and arranging holy books all through the day before hitting the bed by 9pm.

Krishna, a Vedic and Sanskrit scholar pursuing Uttar Madhyama Pratham (class 11) at Varanasi-based Annapurna Mutt is not alone who performs these duties. In the Mahanirwani akhada camp, there are 450 of his fellow ‘batuks’ (students) performing different tasks and helping senior sadhus while learning how to serve food, how to talk and interact with sadhus besides learning to perfectly perform various rituals as part of their onsite practical training.

“My dream is to complete my studies and become a kathavachak (religious discourse giver). But I also have a back-up plan to become a Sanskrit or Veda teacher in a school if I fail to make it as a kathavachak,” shared Krishna with a smile.

Hailing from a small village near Satna in Madhya Pradesh, Krishna said that his father Sunil Richariya is a small-time farmer. “I am the youngest among three sisters and four brothers. I enrolled in the Annapurna Mutt Vidyalaya in 2019 and hope to complete my schooling in another year,” he shared before rushing to the akhada’s camp yagyashala to help out along with his junior Harshit Mishra, 14, a student of Purva Madhyama Pratham (class 9) and hailing from West Champaran in Bihar.

“Along with serving food in the morning and prasad during the Bhandara in the afternoon and learning the method of Sandhya Pujan in the evening, these Batuks are also learning how to conduct thesmelves with the saints and Mahants and how to address and talk to them. What should be the body language if a sadhu is passing by, etc. All these Batuks are also getting knowledge about the methods of Yagya, construction of Yagyashala and other such details at Mahakumbh-2025,” shared Acharya Ashutosh Dwivedi, the teacher heading the group of batuks from Varanasi.

He said that in the school, mainly Grammar, Literature, Vedanta, Mimansa, Astrology along Sanskrit is taught to these students. Computer, Social Science, History, Geography, Civics are also taught to them as per UP Board’s prescribed syllabus. But the practical education that is received while remaining among the sadhus is not possible in the school and therefore this visit of 45 days to the mela has been planned for the batuks.

By staying here, they will not only get the blessings of the sadhus, but the students studying Sanskrit will also grasp the finer nuances of Sanatan Dharma, said the teacher.

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