Kaunhara ghat is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

bank in

Hajipur Hajipur (, ) is the headquarters and largest city of Vaishali district of the state of Bihar in India. Hajipur is the 16th most populous city of Bihar, besides being the second-fastest developing city, next to Patna. It had a total population ...

in the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. Kaunhara ghat is one of the main ''ghats'' of the Ganga-Gandak rivers. where worship and cremation have been performed side by side for centuries. Its name stems from a legend, according to which, the fight of Gaja (elephant)–Graah (crocodile), is the reason behind people asking - ''kaun'' ''haara''.

Lord Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

had to interfere to save his devotee Gajaraj from drowning. Both Gaja and Grah were ''gandharavas''. Due to a curse they became Gaja and Graah. Lord Visnu killed Graah to give him instant salvation, and saved Gajaraj. The fight is an emblem for the city, and is prominently depicted on the Hajipur railway station's dome, entry point of Sonepur fair and other notable places. Since Ganga flows from the west and Gandak from the north, they meet at a

right angle In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 Degree (angle), degrees or radians corresponding to a quarter turn (geometry), turn. If a Line (mathematics)#Ray, ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the ad ...

(Hindi: ''konhara''). This name was given in the fifth century. Spoken Hindi later evolved and the word changed from Kon to Kaun and Dhara to Hara.

Legend

Kaunhara ghat is related to the story of two brothers. The elder was humble and a worshiper of Lord Vishnu, while the younger was greedy and bad-natured. They fought over their land. The younger wanted more land than his brother and succeeded, as the elder was more gracious. In their next reincarnation, elder returned as an elephant while younger became a crocodile. The elephant remained a worshiper of Lord Vishnu and used to bathe early and then pray to Lord VIshnu there. One morning, when he entered the river for bath, the crocodile grabbed his leg, beginning a long fight. When the elephant was about to lose, he prayed to Lord Vishnu to save him. Lord Vishnu responded by cutting the crocodile into pieces with his

Sudarshan chakra Sudarshana Chakra (Sanskrit: सुदर्शन चक्र, lit. "disc of auspicious vision", IAST: Sudarśana Chakra) is a spinning, celestial discus with 108 serrated edges, attributed to Vishnu and Krishna in the Hindu scriptures. The Sud ...

. This became known as “Kaun Hara” – “who lost”.

Culture

People of

on every '' pornima'' and especially during

Karthik Purnima Kartika Purnima is a Hindu, Sikh and Jain cultural festival that is celebrated on Purnima (full moon day), the 15th (or 30th) lunar day of the month of Kartika. It falls in November or December of the Gregorian calendar and is also known as T ...

. The ghat is decorated for every Chaat puja.KAUNHARA ghat

References

External links

{{Rivers in Bihar Hajipur Ganges Ganges basin Rivers of Bihar Rivers of Jharkhand Ghats of India