Inside the bhasma aarti of Mahakaleshwar Temple

Every morning in Ujjain, the Bhasma Aarti marks the start of the day at Mahakaleshwar.

Transcript

00:00This is Ujjain's Mahakalishwa Temple, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas, and the only place

00:09where Lord Shiva is worshipped with sacred ash.

00:14Why ash?

00:15There's an old tale in one of the regional retellings of the Shiv Puran.

00:19The story is about a forest monk named Pranad who became so pure through penance that he

00:24no longer bled blood but sap.

00:27He was a complete vegetarian who would only feed on fruits and plants that the animals

00:31would get him.

00:32Eventually, he is said to have gone to Lulu, believing he had transcended death itself.

00:36Along came Shiva disguised as an old man.

00:39He listened, smiled and cut his finger.

00:42What came out was ash, a reminder that no matter how pure, everything ends in ash.

00:48That ash became Shiva's truth and his adornment.

00:51Now Bhasma Aarti draws from this very idea that Shiva, the destroyer, the timeless one,

00:57must be greeted not with garlands but with what remains after everything else is gone.

01:02The tradition goes back over a thousand years to the Paramara dynasty of the 9th century.

01:07You must have heard of Raja Bhoj.

01:09This dynasty is said to have reached its peak under Raja Bhoj.

01:11Ujjain, then known as Avantika, was the Paramara capital and a centre of Shaivism and Tantric traditions.

01:17By the 12th century, poets like Balal Sena described Bhasma Aarti as the most potent expression

01:22of surrender, where all that remained of identity, power or body was ash.

01:28When the temple was destroyed by Ildutmish's forces in 1235 CE, the Aarti stopped.

01:34But in the 18th century, Rani Ahilyabhai Holkar rebuilt the shrine, reinstating old rituals.

01:39The Sindhya rulers supported their daily performance and Tantric Shaiva priests preserved the method.

01:44Today, the ritual has strict rules.

01:46It must happen before dawn.

01:48The Lingam is bathed, dressed in cloth and then anointed with ash.

01:52Only male devotees in traditional attire, a dhoti worn without upper garments, are allowed

01:56inside during the ceremony.

01:58Ancient ash is no longer used and has been replaced with ritual bhasan, made from cow dung, ghee

02:03and herbs.

02:04But the intention remains to offer to Shiva what we all eventually become.

02:08Ash is what humbles the path, what silences the noise, what reminds us that nothing, not

02:12even this moment, is permanent.

02:15For more no-fluff explainers like this, subscribe to more, share this with your friends and we'll

02:19see you in the next one.

02:20I'm Anish Adhikari, thank you for watching The Culture Project.

02:28Bye.

02:29Bye.