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According to the Government of India’s District Information System for Education, Uttar Pradesh has built the most Amrit Sarovars in India, totaling 8,462. Amrit Sarovar (also called Amritsar) are tanks holding holy water. The sarovar or tank represents one of the places where the waters of the Ganges are considered especially sacred.
Although there are many holy rivers in India, few have the same significance as the holy Ganges River in northern India, known to Hindus as the Mother Ganga. Since Hindus believe bathing in this sacred river will lead to nirvana, they have built so many Amrit Sarovars or ghat crematoriums along its banks that Uttar Pradesh now has the highest number of Amrit Sarovars among all Indian states and union territories.
Key takeaways
- The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s directives were relayed by the Director of the Rural Development Department, G S Priyadarshini.
- 8,462 of the 15,497 Amrit Sarovar that were found in various village panchayats have already been developed.
- There are now twice as many Amirt Sarovars as there were when Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and Tamil Nadu, all together.
- Only one state in the nation, Uttar Pradesh, has built Amrit Sarovar in great numbers.
- Additionally, the state will create 1.20 lakh Amrit Sarovars, the most in the nation.
- Out of the 312 Amrit Sarovar in Lakhimpur Kheri, 256 have been finished.
How many Amrit Sarovars are there?
Amrit Sarovar’s construction efforts are being conducted in Uttar Pradesh with a military mindset. The state will create the most Amrit Sarovars in the nation, with a total of 1.20 lakh. Out of the 315 Amrit Sarovars in Lakhimpur Kheri, work on 256 has been finished, and 25 are still in the planning stages. Likewise, in Gorakhpur, 244 of the 312 Amrit Sarovars have been built, with work continuing on the remaining 18. Additionally, of the 282 lakes in Pratapgarh, 231 have been completed, while the building of the other 131 is still ongoing.
Details about construction
On average, UP builds 30-35 Amrit Sarovars every year. Out of them, 10-12 are hand built. And these can be seen across various locations such as Kanpur, Varanasi, Lucknow and Allahabad. Amrit sarovar provides a perfect setting for a sacred bath, and many pilgrims visit them throughout the year. In 2017 alone, UP’s Public Works Department built 33 Amrit Sarovars. No other state can compete with Uttar Pradesh for their number of Amrit Sarovars. UP leads the way with 8,462, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 5,994 and Rajasthan at 5,097. It’s an astonishing feat given that as recently as 1990, there were only a few sarovars in Uttar Pradesh; today, we have 8,462 across the state. This points to what some consider a worrying trend of Hindu-majority states like UP prioritising Hinduism over social issues like education and healthcare. Still, others see it as simply a result of immense faith among Hindus in those areas to take care of them. Religious or not, it’s hard to ignore these remarkable accomplishments.
Impact on local communities
What is a sarovar? A sarovar is a body of water or wet ground consecrated for ritual bathing by reciting sacred Vedic verses. The ultimate purpose of building Amrit Sarovars is to promote communal harmony and spiritual well-being among communities while deepening one’s commitment to humanity. With more than 20,000 years of collective spirituality, it’s easy to see why people seek them out as well.
In 2014 alone, Uttar Pradesh had 2924 new Amrit Sarovars constructed, accounting for about half of all newly built ones nationwide. UP became a hotbed for construction due to its high number of religious sites and its central location between North and South India – making it accessible for people from either direction.
After launching its drive to construct Amrit Sarovars last year, the UP government announced that they had built most of these tanks.
Amrit Sarovar is a tank or a well that provides ritual cleansing by providing water for ablutions before prayers. They are especially significant at holy places or where large numbers of people come together for pilgrimages. Hindu communities across India have traditionally built and kept up these structures. The UP government has added to this tradition by announcing their plan to build many more Amrit Sarovars this year than any other state has.
UP officials say that there is no limit on how many they will be able to build if demand continues to increase and they have enough money allocated for it. They plan on hosting workshops and seminars in various cities all over UP so that citizens can learn about the importance of this religious practice and why it should be kept up even when no one else around them practices it anymore.
Interesting facts
This year, Uttar Pradesh has built 1000 Amrit Sarovars than last year. UP has built 8,462 Amrit Sarovars over the past five years. This remarkable accomplishment is made possible by 1563 volunteers and 12187 man-days of labour. The Piyush Mani Foundation has donated Rs 5 crore to help with costs and support the foundation’s mission to make UP a better place for all by developing people and communities.
There are also 889 tanks or Pushkarini in UP – second only to Maharashtra. Apart from these two features, some sources say UP has many other things going for it, like providing over 100 million gallons of water daily to 12% of India’s population. If there’s one thing we know about UP- it sure knows how to be efficient! In addition to leading the country in Sarovars and Pushkarnis, UP also has a lot of wells (1,591) and natural lakes (300).
