Believing that a dip in the Brahmaputra on an auspicious day in Chaitra washes away all sins, Hindu pilgrims gather along the two kilometre bank of the river at Langalbandh for Astami Snan every year.
Devotees bathe in the river at 16 places, but the most auspicious of these is the Rajghat.
The story behind this holy ceremony goes like this: Ages ago, Renuka, the beautiful wife of the sage Jamadagni, enraged her ascetic husband by yearning for the luxuries of her parents’ home.
In a fury, Jamadagni asked his five sons to kill their mother. The older four refused, but little Parashuram obeyed and dutifully dispatched his mother with an axe.
Now, defiled by the sin of matricide, father and son sought out a way for Parashuram to be cleansed.
In the Himalayas, Jamadagni discovered the god Brahmaputra, and sure enough, a dip in its source did the job.
To atone for his misdeed, Parashuram worked to bring the Brahmaputra to the plains below.
He attached his axe to a plough and dug a canal allowing the Brahmaputra River to wend its way down the hills and valleys and finally stop at Langalbandh, exhausted.
There Parashuram stopped ploughing the land. And there, devotees return to wipe away the stain of sin.
