Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature Pran Puri (the traveling sanyasi) and an Aesthetic!
History Highlight: Pran Puri, the traveling Sanyasi
Pran Puri was a wandering 18th-century Hindu sanyasi, famous for his world travels (to places as far flung as Sri Lanka and Moscow), and also famous for being an urdhwababu, ie he maintained a vow to always keep his arms over his head. He was a gosain, a wandering monk that also engaged in political, business, and military matters who spent his days in Varanasi engaged in spiritual life after his travels.
His story became famous after two 18th-century British writers published works mentioning him; the first was in passing in a piece discussing Hindu settlements in Baku, Azerbaijan and Bahrain (by Francis Wilford in 1795) and the latter was a dedicated essay on Pran Puri, by Jonathan Duncan in 1797.
Pran Puri, who could not physically write due to complications from his spiritual discipline of urdhwababu, allowed Duncan to write and publish about his travels. Before we delve in further, we highly recommend reading Rahul Sagar’s interactive website chronicling his travels: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/1eaad6809af7406997816cc6a06312d5?item=1
He was born in a family that engaged in animal husbandry in Kannauj around 1742, and ran away to a place called Bithoor, where he met a guru who quided him on the path to becoming a sanyasi. At the age of 11, he attended the Kumbh Mela, and impressed by the piety of the attendees, began his vow of urdhwababu.
We highly recommend reading Rahul Sagar’s compilation for more details, but we will sum up his travels below. In spots as far flung as Kandy, Azerbaijan, and Astrakhan, he met with practicing Hindus.
Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu → Kandy, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka → West Coast of India → Hinglaj Mata, Pakistan → Afghanistan
Afghanistan - > Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan→Astrakhan
Astrakhan → Moscow (end of westward journey)
Moscow→Azerbaijan→Iran
Iran→Bahrain→Iraq
Iraq→Oman→Yemen
Yemen→ Sindh, Pakistan (via ship)
Sindh→Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan→Tajikistan→India→Nepal
Nepal→Tibet
Tibet→Varanasi
He interacted with numerous kings and emperors along his journey, and spent out the last of his days in Varanasi, passing away in 1800.
Aesthetic: Maharashtra Temple
