The Indian Grand Tour

The Tirth Yatra (Holy Pilgrimage) is the closest version of the Grand Tour that exists in India. The journey entails visiting the 7 holy shrines (pre-determined by tradition and ancient lore) and paying homage to the Gods that reside in these temples. The main purpose or reason why people undertake this often strenuous but spiritually fulfilling journey, is to gain niravana in the afterlife and guarentee their place in heaven.

This journey is considered sacred because "Tirth" in Sanskrit roughly translates to "holy sites that are believed to be crossings between the wordly and divine spheres". They are places where Gods are said to descend to the earth and are thus believed to be gateways to the divine realm. Each of the seven temples/ temple towns have mythological lore and rich history attached to it. They are explained and often refrenced in the vedas (the holy books of the Hindus)

There are thousands of temples and holy cities all over the country, but there are seven of them in particular that are the most popular and are considered to be the ‘principal centres’ (only some of which are represented in the images above). Most people visit a few sites at a time as opposed to undertaking an ardous journey to all the 7 sites at once. The sites, listed in no particular order of importance, are:

Haridwar
Varanasi
Mathura
Kanchipuram
Badrinath
Puri (Hosts the famous annual Jagganth Yatra (procession)
Rameshwaram
Dwarka

As far as the traveler goes, all Hindus can go on these yatras. There are no restrictions based on status, caste, gender, etc. These trips are more popular with people above the age of 60 (as they would have entered the stage of Sanyasa - Stage of renouncement in their lives). Going to every single scared site in India may take an entire lifetime (if done the traditional way by foot) like the traveling monks and sages who can be seen all over the country.

The Tirth Yatra is extremely popular in India. Even though several thousand years have gone by since its inception, it is still very relevant in Indian culture. Children are still taught about it, you can read about this pilgrimage in books, it is often refrenced in colloquial speech, media and the news. Having lived in India my entire life, I have heard so much about these temples and the pilgrimage that I am not only intruiged by the mythology and stories behind these beautiful temples but also by their design and ornamentation. The architecture of these breath-taking temples differs so vastly and depends on where they are located and which era it was built in (as a simple example, temple architecture is extremely different in the northern and southern regions of India, irrespective of time period). My reasons for going on this pilgrimage, spirituality aside, would be to see what everyone has been talking about for thousands of years now in my country and to be inspired by the beauty of these marvelous temples.

--Preethi Chethan