Daraganj
Encyclopedia
Daraganj is a prominent suburb
and a landmark in the city of Allahabad, India. It is the oldest suburb of Prayag at the bank of celestial river Ganges and not far from Triveni Sangam - the confluence of three sacred rivers: Ganges and Yamuna, and the third invisible river Saraswati.
, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil
, Telugu, Kannad and Gujrathi communities, apart from natives thrive within a small area. Set up in a small village setting, Daraganj is a mesh of narrow lanes without any road signs. However, all of these lanes inevitably lead to the main road. This is the last bathing Ghat on the river Ganges before it joins the river Yamuna.
The name "Daraganj" is presumably derived from the word "Dharaganj" meaning the place of the stream or current of water. Legend also has an alternative explanation that it is named after "Dara Shikoh", the elder brother of Mughal king Aurangjeb who was subsequently killed by Aurangjeb in the power struggle for the throne. Dara Shikoh was known to have studied Hindu Scriptures and translated many of the Upanishads and Puranas into Persian. Presumably, that translation work had taken place at Daraganj.
conducted first (pra) ten yajnas (yag) there at Dashaswamedh Ghat also located in Daraganj. Considering that Lord Brahma
lives one hundred celestial years- equivalent to 311 trillion 40 billion earth years, and we are currently in fiftyfifth year of Brahma
, and assumimg that Brahma
performed first ten Yajnas when he was twenty years of age, it is established that it happened 110 trillions years ago."Lord Brahmā's day, consisting of his 12 hours, lasts 4 billion 320 million years, and his night is of the same duration."(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 12.8.2-5) http://vedabase.net/sb/12/8/2-5/
Lord Rama visited Prayag twice. The first stay was at Bharadwaj Ashram which still exists near University of Allahabad.
Lord Rama, Sita
and Lakshmana
visited the Veni Madhav Temple during their fourteen year long exile and it was at Daraganj where "Nishad", the king of boatsmen, helped them cross the Ganges river. After killing Ravana,the "Pushpak Viman" carrying Lord Rama, Lakshman and Hanuman and the victorious army of monkeys and bears stopped over at Prayag again where Lord Rama and Lakshman did "prayashchit" for having killed Brahmanas. This happened 1.7 million years ago in Treta Yuga. NASA photographs confirm the bridge made of boulders between Sri Lanka and India and predict it to be 1.7 million years old.
The famous debate between Shankaracharya
and Mandan Mishra and his learned wife Bharati Mishra took place in 700 AD- Bharati Mishra was the judge. When the couple lost the philosophical debate and was about to enter alive in the pyre- according to "rules of engagement" in those days- Shankaracharya
granted them pardon and right to live, and preach Vedic knowledge rather than Buddhism.
About 500 years ago, Lord Chaitanya preached the essential principals of devotion to Rupa Goswami for ten days at Dashaswamedh Ghat. There is a plaque bearing the historic marking "Rupa Shikshsthali" at Dashaswamedh Ghat. Not far is another plaque bearing the foot prints of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
at Veni Madhava Temple, where Lord Chaitanya used to sing and dance everyday. Lord Chaitanya stayed for three nights at "Naag Vasuki " Mandir.
About 500 years ago, Mirabai visited Daraganj and composed famous devotional poem "chalo man Ganga Yamuna teer".
In 483 AD, Moghul Emperor Akbar named Prayag as Ilahabad - City of God- also called Allahabad
. Founder of Arya Samaj
Dayanand Saraswati too stayed at " Naag Vasuki " Mandir for three nights.
It is an important religious center with hundreds of Hindu
temples, such as Dashaswamedh Temple, Veni-Madhav Temple, Naag-Vasuki Temple,"Bhishma Shaiya", Bade Hanumaanji Temple, and Sri Jagannath Temple. Thus, it is considered inappropriate to skip the visit to Dashaswamedh temple after bathing in the holy river of Ganges at the Daraganj Ghat. Next to Daraganj is the "Alopi Devi Mandir
", It is a temple dedicated to "Mother Sati", the wife of Lord Shiva. The story as told in Puranas suggests that the Alopi Temple was the place where the last remains of Mother Sati fell, when Shiva was sadly carrying them around the world. To bring Lord Shiva out of his mourning, Lord Vishnu threw his "Chakra' at the remains causing the remains to drop at various places on the earth. The last piece of the remains dropped at this place. Hence the place came to be known as "Alopi" meaning disappearance (of remains).
" often known by his pen name "Niraala". Initially, Niraala was a native Bengali
speaker and writer. When he got married, was encouraged by his non-bengali speaking wife to write in Hindi and to write about the pains of an average man on the street, a job to which Niraala has no other match to compete with even today 45 years after his death. As a memorial to his contributions to Hindi literature, Niraala's statue has been installed at the main market square in Daraganj which now serves as a landmark for visitors and travellers known as ADDA
. This place is in front of Daraganj Police Station. Daraganj is also home to well known academic statistician Ravindra Khattree
who spent his early years in Daraganj. Hindi writer and painter Jagdish Gupt also resided in Daraganj for most of his life.
is the first government official in the world who has issued Proclamations on Sri Krishna Janmashtami.
Dussehra of Daraganj is famous all over its vicinity. Here Ramlila committee organizes the Dussehra in which kali dance is famous which is carried out for three nights of navratri.
Daraganj is the reference point for "Magh" fairs, held every year during winter and for "Kumbh Mela
" fairs held every twelve years. On these occasions, an entirely new temporary town is created in the vicinity of Daraganj to serve the needs of the millions of pilgrims, with its own postoffice, bridges, police station and public services. During the "Kumbh" fairs Daraganj arguably becomes one of the most densely populated place on earth, when millions of pilgrims live within its small borders in the makeshift tents.
Daraganj has its own railways station with the same name and has another temporary train station known as "Prayagraj" which is functional during "Magh" and "Kumbh" fairs.
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
and a landmark in the city of Allahabad, India. It is the oldest suburb of Prayag at the bank of celestial river Ganges and not far from Triveni Sangam - the confluence of three sacred rivers: Ganges and Yamuna, and the third invisible river Saraswati.
Location
Situated on the bank of the river Ganges, Daraganj is very cosmopolitan in the sense that a significant mix of PunjabiPunjabi people
The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...
, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
, Telugu, Kannad and Gujrathi communities, apart from natives thrive within a small area. Set up in a small village setting, Daraganj is a mesh of narrow lanes without any road signs. However, all of these lanes inevitably lead to the main road. This is the last bathing Ghat on the river Ganges before it joins the river Yamuna.
The name "Daraganj" is presumably derived from the word "Dharaganj" meaning the place of the stream or current of water. Legend also has an alternative explanation that it is named after "Dara Shikoh", the elder brother of Mughal king Aurangjeb who was subsequently killed by Aurangjeb in the power struggle for the throne. Dara Shikoh was known to have studied Hindu Scriptures and translated many of the Upanishads and Puranas into Persian. Presumably, that translation work had taken place at Daraganj.
Religious significance
PrayagRaj is the king of all pilgrimage centers because Lord BrahmaBrahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
conducted first (pra) ten yajnas (yag) there at Dashaswamedh Ghat also located in Daraganj. Considering that Lord Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
lives one hundred celestial years- equivalent to 311 trillion 40 billion earth years, and we are currently in fiftyfifth year of Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
, and assumimg that Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
performed first ten Yajnas when he was twenty years of age, it is established that it happened 110 trillions years ago."Lord Brahmā's day, consisting of his 12 hours, lasts 4 billion 320 million years, and his night is of the same duration."(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 12.8.2-5) http://vedabase.net/sb/12/8/2-5/
Lord Rama visited Prayag twice. The first stay was at Bharadwaj Ashram which still exists near University of Allahabad.
Lord Rama, Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
and Lakshmana
Lakshmana
Lakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...
visited the Veni Madhav Temple during their fourteen year long exile and it was at Daraganj where "Nishad", the king of boatsmen, helped them cross the Ganges river. After killing Ravana,the "Pushpak Viman" carrying Lord Rama, Lakshman and Hanuman and the victorious army of monkeys and bears stopped over at Prayag again where Lord Rama and Lakshman did "prayashchit" for having killed Brahmanas. This happened 1.7 million years ago in Treta Yuga. NASA photographs confirm the bridge made of boulders between Sri Lanka and India and predict it to be 1.7 million years old.
The famous debate between Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
and Mandan Mishra and his learned wife Bharati Mishra took place in 700 AD- Bharati Mishra was the judge. When the couple lost the philosophical debate and was about to enter alive in the pyre- according to "rules of engagement" in those days- Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
granted them pardon and right to live, and preach Vedic knowledge rather than Buddhism.
About 500 years ago, Lord Chaitanya preached the essential principals of devotion to Rupa Goswami for ten days at Dashaswamedh Ghat. There is a plaque bearing the historic marking "Rupa Shikshsthali" at Dashaswamedh Ghat. Not far is another plaque bearing the foot prints of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaishnava saint and social reformer in eastern India in the 16th century, believed by followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism to be the full incarnation of Lord Krishna...
at Veni Madhava Temple, where Lord Chaitanya used to sing and dance everyday. Lord Chaitanya stayed for three nights at "Naag Vasuki " Mandir.
About 500 years ago, Mirabai visited Daraganj and composed famous devotional poem "chalo man Ganga Yamuna teer".
In 483 AD, Moghul Emperor Akbar named Prayag as Ilahabad - City of God- also called Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
. Founder of Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
Dayanand Saraswati too stayed at " Naag Vasuki " Mandir for three nights.
It is an important religious center with hundreds of Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
temples, such as Dashaswamedh Temple, Veni-Madhav Temple, Naag-Vasuki Temple,"Bhishma Shaiya", Bade Hanumaanji Temple, and Sri Jagannath Temple. Thus, it is considered inappropriate to skip the visit to Dashaswamedh temple after bathing in the holy river of Ganges at the Daraganj Ghat. Next to Daraganj is the "Alopi Devi Mandir
Alopi Devi Mandir
Alopi Devi Mandir is situated in Alopibagh in Allahabad in state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is near to the holy Sangam, or confluence, where the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the legendary Sarasvati meet. Kumbh Mela is near to this place....
", It is a temple dedicated to "Mother Sati", the wife of Lord Shiva. The story as told in Puranas suggests that the Alopi Temple was the place where the last remains of Mother Sati fell, when Shiva was sadly carrying them around the world. To bring Lord Shiva out of his mourning, Lord Vishnu threw his "Chakra' at the remains causing the remains to drop at various places on the earth. The last piece of the remains dropped at this place. Hence the place came to be known as "Alopi" meaning disappearance (of remains).
Notable residents
Daraganj is the home of the well known Hindi poet and writer, Mahakavi "Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'
Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' was one of the most famous figures of the modern Hindi literature. He was a poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer...
" often known by his pen name "Niraala". Initially, Niraala was a native Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
speaker and writer. When he got married, was encouraged by his non-bengali speaking wife to write in Hindi and to write about the pains of an average man on the street, a job to which Niraala has no other match to compete with even today 45 years after his death. As a memorial to his contributions to Hindi literature, Niraala's statue has been installed at the main market square in Daraganj which now serves as a landmark for visitors and travellers known as ADDA
Adda
Adda can refer to:*Adda in Italy.*River Adda in Wales.*Adda , a concept/slang in South Asia, especial Bengal, also Addabazi.*Adda , an archaeological site in Nigeria.*Adda Corporation, a Taiwanese fan manufacturer....
. This place is in front of Daraganj Police Station. Daraganj is also home to well known academic statistician Ravindra Khattree
Ravindra Khattree
Ravindra Khattree is an Indian born statistician and professor of statistics at Oakland University. His contribution to the Fountain-Khattree-Peddada Theorem in Pitman measure of closeness is one of the important results of his work. Khattree is the coauthor of two books and has coedited two...
who spent his early years in Daraganj. Hindi writer and painter Jagdish Gupt also resided in Daraganj for most of his life.
Education
It has a big Intermediate college named as Radha Raman Inter College in front of Daraganj Railway Station and behind PrayagRaj Railway Station. An alumnus of Radha Raman Inter College, Prayag Narayan Misra has a record hitting blog on Sri Krishna Janmashtami where Janet NapolitanoJanet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano is the third and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She is the fourth person to hold the position, which was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the 21st...
is the first government official in the world who has issued Proclamations on Sri Krishna Janmashtami.
Festivals
Moreover Daraganj is a place for festivals. One can see a festival in every 15 days.these festivals are of native types which are celebrated mainly in daraganj and other very few places. Some of these are Vata Savitri,Ganga Dussehra,dhendia,bhai duj,bada ittwaar etc. Naag Panchami Mela at Naag Vasuki Temple in Daraganj is a unique festival where along with worshipping thousands of serpants, masses participate in shopping for fun and sing songs.Dussehra of Daraganj is famous all over its vicinity. Here Ramlila committee organizes the Dussehra in which kali dance is famous which is carried out for three nights of navratri.
Daraganj is the reference point for "Magh" fairs, held every year during winter and for "Kumbh Mela
Kumbh Mela
Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus gather at the Ganges river.The normal Kumbh Mela is celebrated every 3 years, the Ardh Kumbh Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Prayag, the Purna Kumbh takes place every twelve years, at four places Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain,...
" fairs held every twelve years. On these occasions, an entirely new temporary town is created in the vicinity of Daraganj to serve the needs of the millions of pilgrims, with its own postoffice, bridges, police station and public services. During the "Kumbh" fairs Daraganj arguably becomes one of the most densely populated place on earth, when millions of pilgrims live within its small borders in the makeshift tents.
Daraganj has its own railways station with the same name and has another temporary train station known as "Prayagraj" which is functional during "Magh" and "Kumbh" fairs.