nigambodh ghat

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Yamuna is the sister of yama the god of death and it is believed that flowing the ashes after dead ones in the river is the last step of salvation, cremation and many rituals happen here on the coast of the river.

since a long time people live on the ghats, ghats are the platforms on the coast of the river where people were settled as it’s was along the river and they had a good source of water, you can see these stairs to the river this are few steps made to get in to the river and use the river water for daily needs kids used to bath there and they still do according to the records Yamuna is highly polluted and it contains toxic chemicals, Yamuna is no more a river it is a drainage now.

People there do the basic rituals of cremation  for the people who don’t have money to do it in the shamshan ghat so this gets the families there bread and butter, their source of income is generated from the ghat they do the rituals, These ghats are similar to those in Benaras and is an attraction for tourist so they take them in the boats and give them a tour, it’s insane that a river which is so polluted and on one side people are debating about it’s pollution tourists also prefer to come there because in a era like this where we are so developed it’s the only place you can find peace it’s a different world in these city.

Delhi has 72 ghats they don’t have any name but in Kashmiri gate there is a place called yamuna bazar , on ghat no 24 Ganesh lives with his family, his grand parents settled here, he lives with his mother his brother his sister and his nephew, this place is on rent and people here to survive sell fruits, flowers, prasad, and practice diffrent occupations.

Ganesh is a boat man and he does all the cremation rituals here, Yamuna is a river of life and death and it’s the same with the families who live on the ghats.

Through my work i’m trying to show how people believe in mythologies and rituals, how the lives of the people who are living on the ghats are connected to the river and how they are surviving, how there is a difference in the ideologies of the different people as people come there for rituals and people come the for photoshoot also it’s not a place for rituals anymore, its much more then that.