Kaunhara ghat

kaunhara ghat is a river bank in hajipur,bihar . kaunhara ghat ^[1] is considered as one of the main ghats of the Ganga-Gandak banks, where worshiping and cremation has been performed side-by-side for centuries. This ghat has got its name based on an ancient legend, according to this legend, "The famous fight of Gaja(elephant)-Graah (crocodile), which is well covered in Indian scriptures, is the reason behind people asking - kaun haara. Hence the name. Scriptures tell that Lord Vishnu had to interfere in the fight to save his devotee Gajaraj, who was being drowned by crocodile. Both Gaja and Grah were gandharavas. But due to some curse they became Gaja and Graah. Lord Visnu killed Graah to give him instant salvation, and saved life Of Gajaraj. The depiction of fighting Gaja Graah is an emblem for the city, and is prominently shown on the Hajipur railway station's dome, entry point of Sonepur fair and other notable places."

history

Kaunhara Ghat is related by with the story of two brother. The elder one was humble and a great worshiper of lord vishnu, while the younger one was greedy and ill-natured.

Both of them had fight over the land.Younger tried his best to get more piece of land than his brother and he managed to get it, as the elder one was more grace towards his younger.

In the next birth, Elder brother took birth as elephant while the younger one as crocodile.

Elephant was still a great worshiper of Lord Vishnu and used to visit ^[2] for bath early in the morning and then pray lord VIshnu there.

One Early morning, when he entered in the river for bath the crocodile, who was waiting for his food, bit his leg. Both of them had a fight for long. In the last when the elephant was about to lose, he prayed lord vishnu to save his life.

Lord Vishnu came there n cut the crocodile into pieces with his Sudarshan chakra and saved elephant`s life.

Now people relates this as “KAUN HARA” – “who lost” Elephant or Crocodile as the fight was between two, and Lord Vishnu came in between for help.

May be the story behind this would be true but there is one more strong fact behind the Name KAUN HARA.

KAUN HARA GHAT resides on the bank of river GANDAK and GANGA^[3]

Actually River GANGA Comes from west and River GANDAK comes from north. They Both meets making Right Angle. In Hindi we call it "KONDHARA". This name was given long time back in 5th century.Nowadays because of so many changes in spoken Hindi since that time, the name Changed from KON to KAUN and DHARA to HARA. So called KAUN – HARA :)

Culture

People of Hajipur feels to have a nice time near ^[4] on every pornima and specially during KARTHIK PURNIMA and above all the Ghat gets decorated on the auspicious occasion of CHAAT puja.

References

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