Map of the Ganges

These two inter-connected pilgrimage route maps depict the river Ganga and one of its chief headwaters, the Alakananda, as seen by the devout pilgrim making a pilgrimage from Haridwar where the Ganga debouches into the plain, as far as the shrine at Badrinath in the Garhwal Himalayas. It is read from left to right. Most of the action is assumed to be, or subsumed into, the right bank of the river, i.e. the upper part of the scroll. In keeping with such route maps, things depicted on the left bank of the river are depicted upside down. The scroll is plentifully supplied with inscriptions, naming sacred places, villages, mountains and trees. Although it is difficult to date such items, it seems clear that this is a uniquely important religious document that deserves a great deal of further study.

The path is conspicuously painted yellow all the way along the scroll and we see travellers and pilgrims following it up and down mountainsides and over the bridges across the rivers. Many are on foot and equipped with staves, while the wealthy are carried in hill doolies or jampans, while two men carry women in panniers on their backs. The river and its tributaries are depicted in brilliant blue and white basket patterns, while the hillsides and mountains are in shades of mauve and brown (white for the highest mountains) set off by the brilliant depiction of the various trees in traditional Rajasthani style and by the numerous shrines.

The scroll is now in three sections. The maps presented here are the second and third sections. In the first the river is depicted branching as it does round Haridwar. Soon the road runs between hills on either side. Shivpuri (just beyond Rishikesh) is the first place of importance marked. Upriver there are numerous shrines dedicated to Rama Laksmana Sita and Hanuman as well as Krishna. The river Ganga is depicted as coming in from the right bank, as it does where the Bhagirathi and Alakananda meet at Deoprayag, where pilgrims are depicted bathing and washing their clothes. Here are a large temple dedicated to Ramacandra and two magnificent banyan trees. The pilgrimage path continues up the Alakananda. Fortresses are noted on both sides of the river, Vanagadh and Durgakoti.

The second section, included in the exhibition, begins at Deoprayag. The villages of Josigaon amd Josimath are noted. There are temples to Thakur (Krishna), Laksmi, Narasimha and Mataji. Lots of dharamsalas (pilgrim hostels) are shown. The Narasimha temple is presumably the famous one at Josimath. Josimath is the winter headquarters of the Rawul and other priests from Badrinath who bring the deity and the treasures down before their temple is completely cut off by the snow for six months of the year. Next comes Karnaprayag where the Karnaganga comes
in, shown here coming in from the right but in fact from the left (now called the Pindar River). Pilgrims are bathing where the Karnaganga joins the Alakananda at a Siva temple. Five peaks tower over the road where a sacred tank is dedicated like the mountains themselves to the five Pandava brothers, who spent time here in meditation according to the Mahabharata. They seem to represent the Pancakedara or five great Siva shrines round Kedarnath which tower above the road to Badrinath. The road off to Kedarnath leaves now before Srinagar. We have now reached what must be Srinagar the old capital of Garhwal, since here is depicted the Raja’s palace, but there is no inscription. Two elephants guard the outskirts of the palace and a Laksmi temple. Within the palace is seated Raja Fateh Shah. He is giving an audience to an official while outside his palace some men are awaiting a darshan or viewing of the Raja. Fateh Shah ruled the state of Garhwal 1684–1716 from his capital of Srinagar. Cows graze peacefully on a meadow while a bazaar is noted above the palace. For an apparently contemporary equestrian portrait of Fateh Shah see Lal 1951, p. 39a.
The topographical information is not to be taken literally in this route map, since for instance Karnaprayag is depicted before Srinagar whereas in fact it is considerably farther upstream. The next part of the journey in the third section of the scroll, presented herewith, is hurried over and within a short while we have arrived at the sacred site of Badrinath itself. Badrinath is one of the four great religious sites at the extremities of India along with Dwarka, Puri and Ramesvaram, as established by the great sage Sankaracarya in the ninth century. In keeping with this foundation, the chief priest or Rawul is always a Nambudiri Brahmin from Sankaracarya’s homeland of Kerala. The main road ends in Badrinath where the pilgrims bathe in the river beside the temple of Visnu, who is seen enshrined and being worshipped. Snow covered peaks rise above the temple including the mountain Nara which along with Narayan guards the shrine. A stream of water emerges from a dragon’s head beside the temple wall. On the ghat and the slope below the temple are the sacred tanks including the Tapt Kund, the hot spring where the god of fire Agni resides, while to the right is the Rawul or chief priest’s house. A small shrine labelled as Kedarnath and sacred to Siva is depicted nearby. Two springs labelled the Sitakund and the Suryakund feed their waters into the Naradakund on the edge of the river where pilgrims bath.

The temple at Badrinath was largely destroyed in the great Himalayan earthquake of 1803 and was rebuilt through the generosity of the Maharaja of Jaipur. In its present form the temple has a large and wide entrance gateway in Rajasthani style, a large hall or mandapa behind while the garbagrha where the deity resides consists of a tower with a two-tiered Himalayan roof. Although no images seem to exist of the earlier temple, it is unlikely to have looked liked the temple depicted here, which is typically Rajasthani with its domed mandapa in front of a tall curvilinear sikhara. Nonetheless the artist has gone to considerable trouble to include all the sacred spots in the immediate vicinity so clearly had accurate information about them.