Narmada Winner of the International Study Grant from - FLAME

85 Pages·2010·2.07 MB·English

by  Gopi Aravind

||Narmade Har||

Analytical report submitted to Discover India Program Committee, FLAME for partial fulfilment
of Discover India Program six credit course.

Research Team:
Aagam Sheth
Aditya Nahar
Akshay Jain
Amit Doshi
Gopi Aravind
Kund Sapani
Nayantara MB
Nishant Shah
Siddharth Sheth
Urvi Malpani
Faculty Mentor:
Prof. Ashutosh Mishra
AUTHENTIFICATION CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the work incorporated in this report
entitled „Narmade Har‟, submitted by the undersigned
research team was carried out under my mentorship. Such
material as has been obtained from other sources has been
duly acknowledged.

Research Team
Aagam Sheth (________________________)
Aditya Nahar (________________________)
Akshay Jain (________________________)
Amit Doshi (________________________)
Gopi Aravind (________________________)
Kund Sapani (________________________)
Nayantara MB (________________________)
Nishant Shah (________________________)
Siddharth Sheth (________________________)
Urvi Malpani (________________________)

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Ashutosh Mishra (________________________)
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Acknowledgements
We take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us through the course of this journey
towards producing this analytical report and presentation for the DIP project. We sincerely thank
the Chairman, Mr. Parag Shah and the President, Dr. Indira Parikh for granting us exposure
through this project and making it mandatory as a part of the undergraduate program at Flame.
We thank FLAME management for providing us the financial resources to meet our expenses
like travel, accommodation, etc.
We would like to express our gratitude to all the members of the DIP committee especially Prof.
Vinay Hardikar and Prof. Nandita Wagle for being a constant support and inspiration to us. Only
under their guidance, assistance and directions has our project taken on its current form.
We are especially grateful to our mentors Prof. Ashutosh Mishra and Prof. Shirisha Sathe for
their insights, criticisms and endless faith in us. They have motivated us in the most difficult
times. We thank them for every valuable advice they have provided us and we hope they
continues to be a source of inspiration to all the students who would take up this project in the
future.
Our field trip would not have been as convenient without the assistance provided by Mr. Sumit
Maheswari of Navbharat, a prominent newspaper in Madhya Pradesh. The press contacts
provided by him in the various cities that we visited helped our research to a great extent. Our
accommodation and food at Amarkantak had been very well taken care of by Kalyandas
Dharmshala. We received a great amount of help from various others including our drivers
Yashwant and Sujay who were with us throughout the journey.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7
1. Geographical Location and Significance: ............................................................................... 9
1.1 Physical:............................................................................................................................. 9
1.2 Climate: ............................................................................................................................. 9
2. History: .................................................................................................................................... 9
3. Focus of Work ....................................................................................................................... 10
3.1 Aim of the Project: .......................................................................................................... 10
3.2 Objectives: ....................................................................................................................... 10
3.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 2 - Reference Material ..................................................................................................... 12
1. Myths and Fables: ................................................................................................................. 12
2. Cities...................................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 Amarkantak ..................................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Hoshangabad ................................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Jabalpur ............................................................................................................................ 14
2.4 Omkareshwar ................................................................................................................... 15
2.5 Maheshwar....................................................................................................................... 15
3. Important religious places along the course of the river ....................................................... 15
4. Festivals:................................................................................................................................ 16
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5. Parikrama .............................................................................................................................. 16
6. Types of Narmada Parikrama ................................................................................................ 17
7. Tribes ..................................................................................................................................... 18
7.1 The Baigas ....................................................................................................................... 18
7.2 The Gonds........................................................................................................................ 18
8. Occupation ............................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter 3 - Primary Data .............................................................................................................. 21
1. Rationale................................................................................................................................ 21
2. Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 21
2.1 List of Interviews ............................................................................................................. 21
2.2 Interviews ........................................................................................................................ 23
2.3 Rishis ............................................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 4 – Journeys ..................................................................................................................... 45
1. Bombay-Bhopal (via Hoshangabad) Train Journey: (The First Glimpse) ............................ 45
2. Jabalpur to Amarkantak: (29th May) by car: ......................................................................... 46
Chapter 5 - Observations & Findings ........................................................................................... 48
1. The Religion of the River Narmada: ..................................................................................... 48
2. Myth Busters ......................................................................................................................... 54
3. Exploring Human Phenomena of “Helping Others” ............................................................. 56
3.1 Method ............................................................................................................................. 57
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3.2 Normative Data ................................................................................................................ 58
3.3 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 58
4. Pro-environment behaviour ................................................................................................... 59
4.1 Institutions and people/ why they do what they do: ........................................................ 59
4.2 Beliefs .............................................................................................................................. 60
4.3 Tribes: .............................................................................................................................. 60
5. Occupations ........................................................................................................................... 61
5.1 Observations .................................................................................................................... 61
5.2 Occupations along the stretch of the river ....................................................................... 61
6. Tribes, the Children of Nature............................................................................................... 66
6.1 The Gonds........................................................................................................................ 66
6.2 The Baigas ....................................................................................................................... 68
7. Reflections ............................................................................................................................. 70
7.1 The idea of happiness ...................................................................................................... 71
Chapter 6 - Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 73
Appendix A – Helping Attitude Scale (Questionnaire) ................................................................ 76
Appendix B – Survey Data ........................................................................................................... 78
1. Question/Participant/Location-wise scores compilation ....................................................... 78
2. Pivot Table ............................................................................................................................ 79
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Table of Figures
Figure 1-1 The Narmada ................................................................................................................. 7
Figure 2-1 the Dhuandhar Waterfall ............................................................................................. 14
Figure 2-2 Shrilal Chande ............................................................................................................. 41
Figure 2-3 Group members with Kalyandas Baba ........................................................................ 43
Figure 3-1 The Narmada Kund ..................................................................................................... 48
Figure 3-2 Shiv ling at Bhedaghat ................................................................................................ 50
Figure 3-3 The 3-word cycle......................................................................................................... 52
Figure 3-4 Malas at a store ........................................................................................................... 61
Figure 3-5 THE GONDS GOING TO THE DAILY MARKET .................................................. 66

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Chapter 1 - Introduction
NARMADE HAR!
Narmada, one of oldest rivers of India, flows right through her centre. Emerging from the heavily
forested hills near Amarkantak continues its journey westward for 1312 kilometers before
meeting the Arabian Sea at Bharuch. The area through which the Narmada flows is diverse
starting from the evergreen forests of Amarkantak, the plains in Gujarat and eventually coastal
line near its confluence. Unlike the Ganga or the Yamuna, the Narmada originates not because of
the melting of snow, but because of the percolation and collection of water in the forests
Vindhya and Satpura mountain ranges. Amongst the six major Indian rivers namely the Ganga,
Yamuna, Brahmputra, Godavari, Krishna, Saraswati and the Narmada, we chose The Narmada.
Why then the Narmada? What was it that got us motivated? Why did we choose to travel along
her banks?
FIGURE 0-1 THE NARMADA
The idea of following a river was given to us by a lady whose passion in life is reading and
travelling. The more we read, the more fascinated we were. The more we spoke, the more
excited we became. What started out as a lesson in Geography, was soon developing into a sense
of adventure, restlessness for travel and a pursuit for discovery. Our priority was no longer the
destination but was the journey itself. There were many times when we doubted ourselves as a
group, questioned the idea, questioned ourselves and our beliefs.
“Maa Rewatharopaaninirmal....
Maa Rewatharopaaninirmal
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khalkhalbehtojaaye

Amarkanth se nikli O rewa
jannjannkarirayothaarisewa
sewa se sab pawemewa,
asovedpuranbatayo re”
“Maa Rewa” the above song was sung by the Indian Music Group called Indian Ocean. In its
literal translation and meaning, the song is addressed to the Maa Rewa or Maa Narmada. It says
that „the water of the river Narmada is extremely pure and flows constantly. Ever since You
originated from Amarkantak, everyone has been worshipping You without exception. Every
person who worships You, finds release from their troubles and this fact has been stated in the
Puranas.‟
Any doubt that we ever had about our journey was put to rest during our first interview with Mr.
Anil Dave (RajyaSabha MP) on the first day itself. He said “Not many people have the
opportunity to be able to experience the river; you definitely have done moral deeds in your
previous lives”
Following any river is a journey of self-exploration, discovery and enlightenment. The pre-
research done by the group indicated a strong sense of spirituality and religion intertwined with
each other. It was not understood by us initially, it was only with time and patience that we
understood, true realization comes only with experience. With this report and eventually our
presentation we don‟t wish to impress you or win you over, but hope to share our journey with
you.
In our travels, we covered a distance of over 1,400 kilometers and it was the most fulfilling
journey of our life. It was challenging to complete this journey without talking about and
mentioning the dam. Since the dam was a very sensitive topic, we decided to steer away from
further discussion regarding this.

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1. Geographical Location and Significance:
1.1 Physical:
The Narmada basin extends over an area of 98796 Sq.km. and lies between east longitudes 72o
32' to 81o 45' and north latitudes 21o 20' to 23o 45'lying on the northern extremity of the Deccan
Plateau, the basin covers large areas in the states of M.P., Gujarat and comparatively smaller
areas in Maharashtra.
The hilly regions are well forested. The upper, middle and lower plains are broad and fertile
areas well suited for cultivation. The Narmada basin consists mainly of black soils. The coastal
plains in Gujarat are composed of alluvial clays with a layer of black soils on the surface.
1.2 Climate:
The tropic of Cancer crosses the Narmada Basin in the Upper plains area. The climate of the
basin is humid and tropical, but at some places extremes of heat and cold are often encountered.
The four most important seasons are winter, summer, the South west monsoon and post
monsoon.
Nearly 90% of this rainfall is received during the five monsoon months from June to October
about 60% is received in the two months of July & August.
The rainfall is heavy in the upper hilly area and upper plains of the basin. It gradually decreases
towards the lower plains and the lower hilly areas and again increases towards the coast and
south western portions of the basin.
2. History:
Mekulsuta, Reva, Murla, Samodhbhava, Trikuta, Vanmala, Shoukatmala, Purv-Ganga, Dakshin
Ganga, Mahajva, Nandana, Chandana, Gautami, Mahanand and the Narmada or „The Giver of
Pleasure‟. These are just a few of the many names that the river is called by and given.
There have been various versions and interpretations of how and when Narmada was born and
how it originated.
One story goes that Narmada was born from the feet of Shiv while doing tandav, but she was
born and brought up in the family, in the house of Maikal, which is a mountain range in
Amarkantak and is an origin of 3 rivers, Son, Narmada and Zubida. So the story goes that she
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