HANUMAAN

BAJRANG BALI & BADA MANGAL !!

Hanuman,is a favorite deity of Hindus,specially UP,and definitely the most popular Hindu God of Lucknow.Bajrangbali,or Hanuman,is not only the idol for all the young bachelors but also of devotees of all ages!
While Hanuman mandir can be found in every locality,mohalla and even lanes of the city, there are four temples that are most popular,The Purana Hanuman Mandir of Aliganj,Hanumansetu mandir ,Hanuman Temple of Hazratganj and the CDRI Hanuman temple.Though all have the same deity,their history and fan following are different ! The CDRI Temple is more for,few selective families and ardent loyal bhakts,leaving the remaining three to fight for the lime light.

The purana,Aliganj temple,is the oldest and the original main Hanuman mandir of the city,It was patronized,at time,when Aliganj was outskirts of the city,with IT College being the end of Lucknow in those good old days.As time passed,and when there weren't many vehicles or a good public transport system in the city,popel realized the need of another Hanuman Temple,in the centre of the city,and what other place could be the best for it,other than Hazratgunj,the heart of the city.Initially the temple started in the sixties as a statue under the peepal tree,next to Krishna Restaurant.The statue was without a roof,and once in the summer months,people saw the statue crying.The care-taker,in his desperation to have a temple for the hanumanji had played a trick.He had drilled holes in the eyes of the statue,and would hide ice behind it,which would melt and come out as tears.People got highly emotional,that hanuman is crying as he doesn't have a home,and donated ,generously and the temple came up,almost overnight.
The hanuman temple,pulled a large number of bhakts toward itself,and became the hub for the rendezvous of youngsters,specially from Lucknow University.All young men,from the hostels of Lucknow colleges,gathered around the temple every evening,and their power and popularity was evident by the size of Tika,the pundit put on their foreheads.Though tradionaly and conventionally hanuman is the symbol of brahmcharya or celibacy,the Ganj Hanuman Mandir also became the place where many a love affairs started and many eloped couples got married,in those good old days.

A bridge was then started to be built over the Gomti leading to the University.It would collapse every time,it reached a particular height.It happened several time,and then people,thought they should offer prayers.They made a small,make shift hanuman temple,at the side of the bridge and named the bridge,Hanuman Setu.The trick worked,the Lord was pleased and the bridge was completed,and then they constructed a proper temple,at that site,under the ages of Karori Baba,which soon became popularized as the Hanuman Setu temple.The temple became a hot favorite,almost overnight and has remained so for over four decades.

Tuesday,being the day of hanumanji and hanuman ji being popular in Lucknow,Tuesday,or mangal,is special for the city,specially the Bada Mangals, the Tuesdays of the month of Jeht month of the Hindi calendar,which fall usually in the month of June.In spite of all the scorching heat and sultry humidity,during the month,the four and occasionally five mangals are celebrated with great fervor.My memories of bada mangal go back to sixties,when the only temple,one could or rather had to visit,was the Aliganj mandir.We would get up early,and leave home,even before the sunrise,to avoid the heat and then would take hours to reach by rickshaw,and then the never ending serpentine rows of devotees.Something real spectacular was to see the young devotees,in red thongs(Langots) crawling on the hot blazing tarred road,to reach the temple,from far distances.As time passed,due to the distance and lack of space,infrastructure and glamour,the attendance started thinning at Aliganj and gradually almost finished,till it was revived few years back,but Hanuman Setu temple still remains the hot spot!

The main attraction of the bada Mangals,besides the prasad of boondi laddu,are the piyaoos or the stalls offering water to the devotees.Earleir they use to offer just cold water,then batashas and later boondi,but now the few of these are replaced with innumerable lavishly decorated counters which serve roohafza,neembo pani,lassi,juice,frooti,puri sabji,halwa and even proper meals cooked in pure ghee,and all these are in such large quantity,that often there are more people to serve than those to be served! All this gives the Hanumanji of Lucknow a separate identity,but I often wonder that if we stick to just water and prasad for all devotees,then from all the money that is spent during these four days,on the rest,we can easily place and run water coolers,at several places of the city,to function round the year.But if the rich devotees of bajrangbali,want it so,be it so !

Jai Hanuman

Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow