Thousands of Kanwar pilgrims have started reaching Devghar with the start of Sawan at Vaidyanath temple in Jharkhand, which is included in Dwadash Jyotirlingas. Based on the traditions, the Kanwar pilgrims from all over the country come right here during the holy month of Sawan and supply Jalabhisheka to Lord Shiva.
But there's another tradition with Jalabhishek, which has been discharged in the temple since British times. Within the Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga of Devghar, Lord Shiva is worn with a special crown during the evening makeup for years.
The special thing is that this crown is made by the people who find themselves guilty of serious crimes and are kept in jail here.
This unique view of faith and customs is found within the district jail of Deoghar. As per tradition, the prisoners of Devghar jail make special snake crowns with flowers for Lord Shiva.
This crown, made by the inmates of the jail daily because the time of British India, is delivered to the temple for decoration and for this, soldiers are sent from the jail with the crown on foot.
In jail for the murder of his spouse, a prisoner in jail, Rajesh Mandal (name changed), says that he together with 10 of his comrades build this crown every day. Everyday jail guards go to pick flowers to build this crown. After the arrival of the flowers, the prisoners construct this special crown in about 6 hours, for which remuneration of Rs 91 is also given to every one of them by the jail administration.
Construction of two crowns on the day of Sawan Purnima
On the full moon day of the month of Savan, the jail inmates build two such crowns, one of which is sent to Basukinath Dham of Dumka and the other to Vaidyanath temple. Jail Superintendent Kumar Chandrasekhar explains that there's a belief within the traditions that Baba Basukinath offers his blessings sooner than Baba Vaidyanath.He advised that Shivaratri is not made a snake crown for Lord Shiva on just one day of the year, as a result of it's believed that Lord Shiva was married on that day and he wears a different type of crown on that day.
Started in 1911
Referring to the beginning of Nag Mukut tradition, Deoghar SP Narendra Singh stated that the jail inmates and soldiers have been keeping a deep religion in the temple since 1911.He told that within the British period, the commissioning of Bengal Presidency was began from the time of JW Taylor to make the Naga crown. He stated that the well being of Commissioner Taylor's son had deteriorated that year.
When docs across the country refused to treat the child, a monk advised Taylor to go to the Vaidyanath temple. After the go to, Taylor's son got properly and this one incident connected not only Indian but also overseas devotees to the religion here.
