Meditation, processions, chanting, chillum-smoking and money-making accompany the annual Shivratri Mela aka Bhavnath Fair near Junagadh in the Indian state of Gujarat when hundreds of saffron-clad and ash-powdered naked Shaivite sadhus set camp in the vicinity of Mount Girnar. It’s a boisterous five-day festival, held every year on the 14th day of the Hindu calendar month of Magha, culminating with the full-scale worship of God Shiva at midnight of the Maha Shivaratri which is thronged with naked sadhus aka naga sadhus offering their prayers at the temple. Many of the Shaivite devotees believe that God Shiva himself visits the shrine here on this
holiest day.
By the way, the Bhavnath Fair is the backbone of the economy of Junagadh, as more than one million pilgrims who visit the fair generate a revenue of c. 250 million Indian rupees (c. 4 million US$) in only five days...
"There is one thing the photograph must contain,
the humanity of the moment."
(Robert Frank)
More portrait photographs with Shaivite devotees in Matt Hahnewald's
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