He has published a survey of major Himalayan and Tibetan Travelogues entitled Mountain Travelogues on the Himalayas and Tibet published by Pilgrims Publication Varanasi and a collection of short-stories entitled A Day in the Life of Ghulam Sarwar published by Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata in 2014. A Secret life on the Alaknanda is his second collection of short-stories. Dr. Singh has been an academic Associate at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study(IIAS)Shimla from 2011 to 2014. He was Fulbright Scholar in Residence from August 2019 to May 2020 at Claflin University , a Historically Black campus located in South Carolina, USA.

One of the notably prolific genres of literature is travel writing. Travel serves multiple purposes. It is a break from daily routine, a source of pleasure or an opportunity for exploration and knowledge and can serve also as experience for writing a travel/sojourn narrative. Yet one of the most sublime forms of travel is the pilgrimage. Be it any religion, the pilgrimage is one of the most sacred of journeys undertaken by a traveller. It may be a temple, mosque or church or any other place of worship. It may also be a journey to the shrine of a deity or spiritual mentor be it a birthplace or the site of enlightenment or revelation or then cremation or burial of a mentor/Guru/prophet.

A Hindu pilgrimage arises out of the aspiration to connect with the divine in several ways; either through Darshan of the deity or for wish fulfillment or then for thanksgiving for a wish fulfilled. Pilgrimages may also be performed for the more exalted purpose of spiritual enlightenment. The nature and intensity of the aspirant may vary depending on the kind of pilgrimage the devout has undertaken though a measure of sanctity is always associated with the very idea and experience of pilgrimage. From the point of view of a travel experience whether it be a journey by foot or a mode of transport the pilgrim’s journey is an experience that is itself worth documentation just as any journey while the actual experience of Darshan is always imbued with a touch of the sacred. Yet another kind of pilgrimage is to celebrate a divine occasion such as the birth of a deity or a symbolic journey that the deity must take either to a relative as for example the Rath Yatra, Lord Jagannath’s journey to his aunt’s house or Raj Jat a journey undertaken in a palanquin by the goddess Nanda Devi, the hill manifestation of Shiva’s consort to her husband’s home in the upper ranges of Kumaon much like any bride’s journey to her husband’s abode. In the case of Hindu pilgrimage another most notable form of pilgrimage is the journey to the site of a sacred river as for example the Ganga in Varanasi and Haridwar, Shipra in Ujjain or Godavari in Nasik. This is unique to Hindu pilgrimage because of the sanctity attached to rivers and ritual bathing .

I propose to study a cross section of Hindu Pilgrimages across India thereby focusing on several pilgrimages rather than a few specific ones. While theoretical and cultural aspects of Hindu pilgrimage have been fairly well expounded by pilgrim scholars a survey of major pilgrim sites should yield many new insights and facets of pilgrimage. My methodology will entail a wide range of study of pilgrim narratives while examining why pilgrims choose to go to a certain pilgrimage, what makes the site sacred for them and what hopes they have from their pilgrimage and the sense of fulfillment they receive. These narratives will also be analyzed as travelogues. A proposed list of pilgrim narratives is as follows: Diana Eck’s : Banaras, City of Light , “Rana PB. Singh’s: “The Ganga River: Images of Salvific and Sacred places” in Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage, Swami Chaitanya Bhakti’s: The Most sacred place in the universe: Vrindavan, Devi Prasad Dubey’s: Prayag ,The Site of the Kumbha Mela, Barbara Nimri Aziz’: A Pilgrimage to Amarnath: the Hindu’s Search for Immortality, Alan W. Entwistle’s: “Braj :Centre of Krishna Pilgrimage”, Irawati Karwe’s: “On the Road: A Maharashtrian Pilgrimage”, Nilesh Nathwani’s: Kailash Mansarovar: Diary of a Pilgrim, Krishna Reddy’s : Mount Kailash Yatra/Diary of an Irreverent Pilgrim , Swami Atmashraddhananda’s Kanyakumari and Rameswaram: A journey through India’s most Sacred Centres of Pilgrimage, Riya Lingwal’s : Kamakhya :An Appreciation of the Lady, Subhadra Sengupta’s: Dwarka, Krishna’s Dham by the Sea, Anil Rao’s: O Tirupati ,A Pilgrims Companion and K.Ravindran’s : Sabarimala: Legend and Pilgrimage .These Pilgrim narratives among others not mentioned here represent a Pan-India selection that would be worthy material for the sheer locational and cultural diversity of Hindu pilgrimage from North to South and East to West.

To reiterate the purpose of this research project will be to examine Hindu pilgrimage both as a religious/spiritual enterprise and as travelogue: This will entail an exploration of the nature of the pilgrim’s journey with all its rigours and sense of camaraderie or what Victor Turner terms as, “communitas”or collaborative spirit with fellow pilgrims and the experience of the actual pilgrim destination. The purpose of my study will be to examine also the pilgrimage as a travelogue because the exaltation of the pilgrim’s experience becomes also a sublime form of travel. As travelogues pilgrimage is a journey encompassing impressions of location, landscape, people, food and culture which incorporates religion, mythology, folklore and history so that every pilgrim’s journey becomes a fascinating saga of experiences other than those strictly in the domain of the pilgrimage site. Thus every pilgrimage is as much

a journey as it is a religious or spiritual experience irrespective of the importance we attach as pilgrims or as scholars of pilgrimage studies to one over the other.