This story is from January 18, 2015

Lal Kataar, teer-kaman symbols of safety for rural pilgrims in Allahabad

When Jhabua started from Dhamtari in Chhattigarh for Magh Mela, leading a team of 18 people, his paramount thought centred around searching a man holding a flag with elephant as a symbol.
Lal Kataar, teer-kaman symbols of safety for rural pilgrims in Allahabad
ALLAHABAD: When Jhabua started from Dhamtari in Chhattigarh for Magh Mela, leading a team of 18 people, his paramount thought centred around searching a man holding a flag with elephant as a symbol. As soon as he got down at platform number 4 of Naini railway station, he started searching for one. His anxiety rose as he failed to locate his ‘address’, when suddenly a voice caught his attention: “Haathi wale panda bolna bhai.” His nerves immediately soothed as he realized that now his entire group was in safe hands.

In fact, the first thing that a pilgrim arriving from Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh does after reaching Allahabad is to search for flag with haathi (elephant), chandi ka nariyal (silver coconut), teer-kaman (bow and arrow), lal kataar (red dagger), bhagwa jhanda (saffron flag), tarbooz (watermelon), kaddu (pumpkin) etc.
These names may bemuse many but for rural folks arriving from small towns these symbols have guaranteed safety of their families for centuries. These symbols are of various pandas (priests) and act as guiding force for lakhs of pilgrims who come to Sangam City to either perform religious rituals or search their family history.
Almost all pandas of Sangam City are known by the symbols on their flags than their personal names. They have painstakingly maintained the family chronology of every pilgrim coming in their contact, irrespective of the time. They have chronology of families running into several generations. With change in time, they too have changed. Now, the new-age pandas are available to their ‘jajman’ (client) on internet too and few even boast of personal websites.
These pandas are in the business of recording family chronology for generations now and have even employed several people, to keep a track of their ‘jajman’ (client) as soon as they touch down in Sangam. Some of these pandas boast of around 150 or more juniors.
However, in this age of information technology, these pandas still rely on handwritten names of family members, who had earlier arrived at Sangam along with their addresses and names of their ancestors in their ‘bahi’ (a large-sized book covered by red cotton cloth).
“When I had to come to Allahabad to immerse ashes of my father, I was told to find a man who would be shouting the words ‘Lal kataar wale panda’ and he would take care of every thing. He not only arranged taxi, boat, etc, but even arranged necessary items for ‘pitra daan’ (ceremony performed for peace of departed soul),” said Hari Om who had come from Pipariya, MP.
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