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Strife-torn Ayodhya not on pilgrims' must-visit list

NEW DELHI: The Ayodhya issue may have swallowed national mindspace over the last few days but the fact is that it hardly figures on north India's pilgrim circuit of the devout Hindu outside the cow-belt. The biggest tour operators on the teerth trail, and that includes the Indian Railways package deals, say there is no interest whatsoever in exploring the land of Rama's birth, despite the buzz around it. A fairly unanimous listing of Top 10 favoured pilgrimages include the Chardham, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mathura, Vaishno Devi and occasionally Kurukshetra but almost never Ayodhya. This may not necessarily mean that passions on the subject do not run high among pilgrims but none of them are even halfway keen for a darshan of the strife-torn site. For the devout, Ayodhya does not qualify as a must-do. In an average year, the favourite tour operator of middle-class south Indians, Panicker Travels deals with about 40,000-50,000 pilgrims. The pilgrim season which lasts mainly between May and November sees worshippers heading mostly for Chardham. This includes Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. "Our pilgrim tours have grown several fold since ashrams started organizing spiritual camps", says Babu Panicker of Panicker Travels who have been in the business since 1967. "Ayodhya figures nowhere on the company's attractions. We haven't really had any requests", he says. The new destinations that have caught the imagination of the pilgrims are Kurukshetra and Kailash-Mansarovar. In Kerala, this is largely thanks to the growing influence of the many powerful ashrams including Abhedananda, Narayanalayam, School of Bhagvad Gita, and the Chinmaya Mission. All of them are have big audiences for their discourses on Bhagvad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharat, Narayaneeyam and Bhagavad Purana and the places mentioned in them are popular for their on-site discourses. "The idea is to get devotees to connect with places that are important in Hindu mythology", says Girish of the Udaya Chaitanya cult which takes around 400 pilgrims everywhere on the Chardham trail, and sometimes to Dwaraka and Kurukshetra. "Ayodhya is too tough to deal with, given security and other issues. All we could do there was to stand some distance away from the disputed site and have quick talk on its significance". Among the biggest operators in the west, especially for the travel-happy Gujaratis, is Raj Travels. With their reputation for offering comfortable tours, they deal with over 300 families every year on the pilgrim circuit. The biggest pilgrim operator in the East is Kolkata-based Kundu Travels. Every year it takes around 10,000 travellers to religious destinations, mostly in the mountains. Badrinath, Kedarnath and Haridwar-Rishikesh are the most popular destinations. "We have never had inquiries for Ayodhya at all", says Soumitro Kundu of the agency. But does the average pilgrims disinterest in Ayodhya indicate a lack of significance in the Hindu scheme of things? No, says commentator Cho Ramaswamy: Hinduism accommodates several streams of religiosity. Not everyone goes to Rameswaram but does that make them non-religious? Ayodhya is still a place of great significance no matter whether it features on the pilgrim trail or not.

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