The newer of the two Udasin houses — and the one whose entry procession is unlike every other at the Mela, because it carries no acharya on a palanquin and bears no weapons at all.
The word naya simply means new. The Naya Udasin Akhada came into being in 1846 as a separation from the older Bada Udasin house, following an internal dispute, under Mahant Sudhir Das. Its seat is at Kankhal in Haridwar.
Both Udasin akhadas share the same lineage and the same veneration of Sri Chand, the elder son of Guru Nanak — called here Guru Chandracharya — and both describe themselves within the Sanatan Sikh understanding while worshipping Shiva. The split was institutional rather than doctrinal, and the two houses remain recognisably one tradition in two organisations.
The most striking thing about this akhada is visible on the one day everyone is watching. Where every other akhada's Peshwai is a display — the deity in front, mahamandaleshwars on palanquins and chariots, naga regiments with tridents, spears and swords, drums and conches — the Naya Udasin procession has no acharya carried in a palanquin, no spears, no arms.
For an akhada whose whole public moment at a Kumbh is the procession, choosing to enter without the marks of rank or the instruments of force is a considerable statement. A visitor who knows to look for it will see one of the quietest things in the loudest week of the Mela.
Naya Udasin is governed, like its parent house, by a Shri Panch — a council of five — rather than by a single head, and it takes its place with the Udasin group in the order of bathing.
Together the two Udasin akhadas and the Nirmal Akhada make up the third family of the thirteen, distinct from both the Shaiva sannyasis and the Vaishnava bairagis, and each of the three has a foundation documented in the nineteenth century rather than claimed for antiquity.
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The house where the Guru Granth Sahib is enthroned at the centre, founded in 1862 and seated at Kankhal.
Read: Nirmal Akhada →