Prayagraj: A week before Maha Kumbh, a Naga sadhu was immersed in the eclectic pursuit of fortune and frivolity. Amrit Puri was organising Khatu Shyam bhandaras that fetch him Rs one lakh a month, watching clips of his favourite cricketer Virender Sehwag, and posting Instagram reels—all this from his Noida ashram on the busy Grand Trunk Road.
But by 12 January, a day before the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, Puri underwent a profound transformation. The saffron dhoti-kurta-clad saint was gone, replaced by an ash-smeared naked sadhu with matted hair. He strode towards the riverbanks, embodying the very essence of the Naga sadhu upon whom legends have been built— the ascetic who has renounced all attachments, living in caves and the Himalayas, immune to searing heat and biting cold despite his nudity.
Naga sadhus are the poster boys of the Kumbh—and mystical India. Their fierce and fiery visage has graced many a coffee-table book that wax eloquent about their lives in the snow-capped mountains. They are treated like an endangered species. But behind this image is a paradoxical reality—one that blends the ancient with the modern.
They have permanent addresses, voter IDs, ration cards, Aadhaar cards, social media accounts, bank accounts, bills to pay and UPI. A few even have OTT subscriptions. JioTv and SonyLiv rub shoulders with Flipkart and Meesho on Puri’s phone. They drive to the Kumbh venues in expensive SUVs, Boleros and Scorpios.
“It is a wrong notion that every Naga sadhu lives in the forest or mountains. That’s only a part of our life. The rest of the time we live in our ashrams among the society and do religious works,” said Puri, his attention on the India-England T20 playing on his Android phone. He occasionally tears his eyes away from the screen to bless people with a broom made of peacock feathers.
During the Kumbh, he lives in one of thirteen akharas in a designated area in Sector 20. It’s like being in a fishbowl surrounded by the devout and the curious. Some Naga sadhus revel in it, performing for the masses. Others chafe at the cameras thrust in their faces.
Originally from Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, Puri became a Naga sadhu in 2010 at Haridwar Kumbh. He now runs an ashram at Chhapraula, Noida.
“People think all the Nagas are naked and eat kandmool (root vegetable) but this is not true,” he said. He cuts a compelling figure, his sartorial choice pared down to just a rudraksha bead necklace, headgear and a lone silver ring. His ash-smeared body glowed in the flickering lights around the small open tent outside the Mahanirvani Akhara.
“In Noida, I live a normal life. I play cricket, meet bhakts, solve their problems, and in my free time watch Sehwag videos. He is the man who really changed cricket,” said Puri.
From fabric to fire
Yagya Giri (52) has little patience with curious onlookers and influencers looking for a sound byte for their reels. He waves his peacock-feather broom furiously at one group of people.
“Don’t dare come here again,” he shouted before turning back to his fire altar (havan kund) made with bricks and mud and filled with wood chips and glowing charcoal embers.
There are plenty of photos and reels of Naga sadhus beating people up, and abusing them. “They provoke us,” said Yagya. He’s tired of being asked the same question again and again: How did you become a Naga sadhu? What was your life like before you became a Naga sadhu?
Yagya’s life followed an unconventional path from fabric to fire. Before he decided to become a Naga sadhu, he was Yagya Dev, a tailor at Asia’s biggest textile market, Gandhi Nagar in Delhi earning Rs 8,000 a month.
“One day a thought came from within to take sanyas and I left the sewing job and my home in Ashok Nagar,” said Yagya. During the 2010 Kumbh in Haridwar, after 12 years of service to his guru, he became a Naga Sadhu.
Today, he has an ashram in Ahmedabad, fifty-odd followers and a TVS bike. It has all the trappings of a middle-class home—an AC, TV, geysers, heaters, and WiFi.
“The first condition of becoming a Naga is renunciation,” he said.
Yagya has mastered the fine art of making reels and editing photos with apps like GirlFriend Photo Editor, WaterFall Photo Frame, Garden Photo Frame. In a photo on his Facebook, he’s wearing a pair of Ray Bans, while holding rifles.
“I love old Hindi songs. I also like Jubin Nautiyal, especially his bhajans such as prem prabhu ka baras raha hai.” In a reel, he is seen digging a field to the tune of Mere Desh Ki Dharti from the 1967 Hindi film Upkar.
“Technology is good as well as bad. It depends on how the person is using it,” he said. Last month he bought a bhagwa patta from Meesho, an online shopping website.
Yagya earns more than Rs 25,000 a day from a steady stream of supplicants. They come to him with their troubles—unable to get married or find a job, family feuds. He listens to them, gives them ashes from his fire pit. “This will solve all your problems,” he says.
There’s a collective fascination with these sadhus, according to Dhananjay Chopra, author of the book Bharat Me Kumbh and professor at Allahabad University. “People want to spend time with them, and when they move, many people even pick up the soil where their feet have fallen and keep it with them.”
Many Naga sadhus enjoy the adulation and put up a good show for gawkers. Some blare Shiva bhajans from massive speakers in their tents. A Naga Sadhu sits on the bonnet of his Bolero car and takes selfies with people near Swastik Dwar in Sector 20 of Kumbh area. Many have thousands of Rudraksha beads on their heads, some have affixed LED lights on those beads and many others are wearing glitzy glasses. Others perform stunts with their penis. Most appeared to be inebriated.
At the gate of Juna Akhara, a Naga Sadhu had stuck an axe in his penis. Another had affixed a lock on his appendage. Both gathered huge crowds—and offerings.
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Fast track to becoming a Naga Sadhu
On 27 January, before the auspicious Mauni Amavasya snan, on the banks of the Ganga, 15-year-old Nitesh Giri from Jind, Haryana, was ready to come of age. In a few hours, he would become one of the youngest Naga sadhus in this Kumbh.
It’s rare for a teenager to become a Naga sadhu, practically unheard of even a few decades ago. After Yagya Giri left his house and joined a guru in Ahmedabad, it took him 12 years of ‘training’ in philosophy, Sanatan dharma, history of the Naga Sadhu and sword training before he passed all the levels and was accepted into the fold.
But Nitesh served the Juna akhara for only five years—he left home when he was 10—before he was deemed ready to become a Naga sadhu.
Akharas have started ‘fast-tracking’ the training of young apprentices, said Ravindra Puri, president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad. It’s an attempt to boost their dwindling numbers and counter the rise of fake Naga sadhus. To become a Naga sadhu, an initiate has to go through three stages – a Brahmachari, Mahapurush and Avdhoot.
Under an orange-tinged sky as the sun was about to set, Nitesh along with around 2,000 initiates participated in the sacred initiation rituals on the banks of the Ganga. Two pandits oversaw the process, and hundreds of onlookers chanted Har Har Mahadev and Sanatan Dharam ki Jai.
“I have also done my Pinddaan to become Naga. It’s the declaration that I no longer have any connection with the material world,” said Nitesh while making 17 pinds (food offerings) from flour. The pandit asked if they had any second thoughts.
“If anyone still does not want to become a Naga, then tell us. We will take you to your guru and tell them that this person is not ready for sanyas yet. But there is no way to return to normal life after the last Pinddaan,” said a pandit. No one backed out.
In the final stage of the ceremony called tang tode a pundit pulls the foreskin of the initiate’s penis.
This is done three times, “forcefully, snapping the membrane underneath, which restrains it,” wrote Deepak Kumar Sen in his book The Divine Kumbh: Echoes of Eternity: Ganga, Shipra, Godavari, and Sangam, “Only after this ritual does a sanyasi qualify fully as a Naga.”
According to Ravindra Puri, every guru has to submit the names of their disciples to the Akharas along with a fee that can run up to a few thousand rupees. Each applicant is then vetted, their backgrounds investigated for any “ambiguity” –marriage, criminal records and so on. Those who have tried to hide their past or submitted false details are immediately struck off from the list.
“Only those who meet our rules are made Naga Sadhus during Kumbh,” said Puri. Out of the 13 Akharas, seven are Shaiv Akharas but initiation as Naga Sadhu is given in six of them.
More than 5,000 initiates became Naga sadhus this year.
“These people are warriors of Sanatan culture,” said Ravindra Puri.
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Climbing the akhara ladder
Just like in the corporate sector and even in academia, there is clamour for ‘plum positions’ based on seniority, experience and preference. Some are assigned to become kotwals who police the akhara. The bhandaris oversee kitchen work, while the mahants train the new recruits and oversee the working of the akhara.
They may not get a salary, but some of the positions come with power and prestige. Soldiers, though, are no longer needed, but everyone is trained to fight.
“We do not fight wars because India has its own strong army,” said Naga sadhu Darshan Giri (52). “The biggest post is that of Secretary.” He likens it to being prime minister of the akhara.
Darshan has been associated with the Niranjani Akhara since he became a Naga sadhu back in 2004 during the Ujjain Kumbh Mela. Where the initiation ceremony took place is also a matter of prestige.
“The one who becomes a Naga in Prayag is called Raj Rajeshwar, the one who becomes a Naga in Haridwar is called Barfani, the one who becomes a Naga in Ujjain is called Khooni and the one who becomes a Naga in Nashik is called Khichdi Naga,” said Darshan. Prayag is the most celebrated Kumbh followed by Haridwar.
There’s a renewed feeling of purpose among the Naga sadhus over the last few years with the BJP-led government making good on its promises. The renovation of the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor and the construction of Ram Mandir were some of the happiest moments of Darshan’s life.
“Modi is working for Sanatan Dharma. No one has done this before. Development is taking place in every field and everyone is keen to know about Sanatan Dharma,” said Darshan.
Complicated history of Naga sadhus
Every Naga sadhu is immersed in their wars, legends and lore that go back to the 8th century CE. It’s where they learn about their founder, the Shaivite seer Adi Shankaracharya. A proponent of the Advaita philosophy, he envisioned them as an army to protect Hindu Sanatan Dharma.
“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,” wrote Deepak Sen in his book The Divine Kumbh.
They belong to 10 religious orders: Aranya, Ashram, Bharti, Giri, Parvata, Puri, Saraswati, Sagara, Tirtha and Vana.
But historian Jadunath Sarkar counters the view that the Naga sadhus were established by Adi Shankaracharya in his book A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis.
“It would be more correct to hold that Shankar was the inspirer rather than the actual builder of the Dasnami orders,” wrote Sarkar. In the introduction to the book, freedom fighter and politician KM Munshi referred to the Naga sadhus as gymnosophists—naked philosophers and ascetics who existed “long before the dawn of history”.
During their training period, initiates are taught about the big battles and warrior sadhus like Rajendra Giri Gosain and his disciple Anup Giri Gosain who commanded huge forces during the late 18th century.
In The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, William Dalrymple described how Mughal commander Mirza Najaf Khan, was joined by the “dreadlocked Nagas of Anupgiri Gosain” who commanded 6,000 naked warriors.
The Naga sadhus emerged as a formidable force in the 18th century, as the Mughal Empire’s grip on India began to wane. According to Sarkar, by then they were employed in service of the maharajas of Udaipur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Baroda, Marwar, Bhuj and in many instances were part of a regularly paid standing army.
Initiates like Darshan are told about the Naga sadhus’ role in modern war as well, such as the Battle of Panipat in 1761 and Battle of Buxar in 1764. Both times Nagas fought on the side of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.
“All this is told orally by the gurus,” said Darshan.
But DP Dubey, retired professor of ancient history at Allahabad University, who has studied Kumbh and its history for the last 50 years said that Naga sadhus fought all sides.
“At the time, the Nagas had a large and strong army. Such unity was never seen in history. But from time to time they kept changing their political leanings, joining whoever supported them. They fought for Mughal emperor Shah Alam II in the battle of Panipat against the Marathas. They fought the British in the Battle of Buxar,” said DP Dubey.
But as the British deepened their control over India, the Nagas receded into the background. The British systematically dismantled their stronghold in Bundelkhand—and their growing power.
“With the complete domination of the British over India, their political influence started decreasing,” said Dubey.
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21st-century transformation
Back at the Maha Kumbh, Yagya Giri fielded calls about his ashram in Ahmedabad, and scrolled through Facebook and WhatsApp for notifications and updates on his Samsung smartphone.
WhatsApp is how the Naga sadhus keep in touch with each other. Yagya, for instance, is part of the group run by the Naga sadhus in Kankhal (Haridwar, Uttarakhand) and Kurukshetra in Haryana. Every day, he sends a blast message—a good morning text or suprabhat with an image of a Hindu god.
Now all the Naga sadhus are tech-savvy, said Bharat Me Kumbh author Dhananjay Chopra.
On Facebook, where Yagya has more than 1,100 friends, he’s riding a tractor in saffron robes. He likes and shares posts on cricketers Hardik Pandya, Sachin Tendulkar and Shikhar Dhawan.
They are connected to the internet — and the world. A Naga sadhu at another Akhara listens to Sajan Re Jhooth Mat Bolo on his smartphone.
“My whole day is spent in chai and charcha. Kumbh is the Karmabhoomi for us, that’s why it’s only here that we are seen in our real avatar,” said Yagya.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)