Nirvani Ani Akhada

At a glance

• Family — Vaishnava Bairagi — Ramanandi sampradaya
• Traditional role — the Sena (army) among the three anis
• Principal association — Hanuman Garhi, Ayodhya
• Organised by — Swami Balanand of the Ramanandi order, early eighteenth century
• Mark — the urdhva-pundra — the vertical Vaishnava tilak

The order

Nirvani carries nirvana — the extinguishing of the flame, liberation. In the traditional division of the three Ramanandi anis it holds the role of Sena, the army: the arm that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did the actual defending.

The ani is closely associated with Hanuman Garhi at Ayodhya — a temple built as a small fort on a mound, dedicated to Hanuman, and historically garrisoned by bairagi sadhus. The martial character of the Vaishnava anis is not a metaphor: Hanuman Garhi's walls and its position were built for what they were used for.

Hanuman, and the shape of Vaishnava asceticism

That the fighting ani should centre on Hanuman is fitting in a way the tradition finds obvious. Hanuman is the servant whose devotion takes the form of strength placed entirely at another's disposal — the model of the warrior who is also a bhakta, and therefore the natural deity of monks who bore arms in the service of Rama.

Ramanandi bairagis differ from the Shaiva sannyasis in more than their tilak. Their path is bhakti — devotion to a personal deity, Rama — where the Dashanami sannyasi's is classically jnana, the knowledge of the non-dual absolute. Both are present at every Kumbh, camped within sight of one another.

At the Kumbh

Nirvani Ani bathes with the Vaishnava anis in their own order. At the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha the Vaishnava akhadas take Ramkund at Nashik — 11 September 2027 in the coming cycle — while the Shaiva akhadas take Kushavarta at Trimbakeshwar the next day.

That separation of place and day is the settled answer to a question that was, in earlier centuries, fought over. It is worth knowing when standing at either kund that the peaceful arrangement is itself a historical achievement.