Millions of kanwariyas — barefoot pilgrims carrying sacred Ganga water — begin their annual journey each Sawan, and this year Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary personally flagged off the season at its most storied starting point. On Tuesday, 28 July 2026, he inaugurated Shravani Mela 2026 at the Namami Gange Ghat (Jahaj Ghat) in Sultanganj, Bhagalpur district, marking the formal opening of Bihar's largest annual religious congregation.

Posting in Hindi on X, Chief Minister Choudhary captured the mood of the occasion: 'Bol-Bam! Devaadhidev Mahadev ko samarpit unke sabse priy paavan maah Saawan mein Bolbam ke jaighosh se poora vaatavaran Shivamay ho uthta hai' — 'Bol-Bam! In Sawan, the holiest month of the Lord of Lords, Mahadev, the entire atmosphere reverberates with devotion and becomes suffused with Shiva's presence.' He added that the Bihar government has made comprehensive and robust preparations to ensure a safe, smooth, and comfortable journey for every devotee, so that no follower of Baba Bholenath faces any inconvenience.

Sultanganj's Jahaj Ghat: where the pilgrimage begins

Sultanganj, perched on the banks of the Ganga in Bhagalpur district, is the traditional embarkation point for kanwariyas who collect sacred river water here before walking roughly 105 kilometres to the Baidyanath Dham Shiva temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand. The Jahaj Ghat — developed under the Central government's Namami Gange programme, launched in 2015 for Ganga rejuvenation and ghat infrastructure — has become the ceremonial heart of this pilgrimage. The ghat's upgrades represent a deliberate convergence of river conservation policy and religious tourism infrastructure.

Bihar government's mela preparations

The state has historically deployed layered logistics for Shravani Mela — crowd management, medical camps, transport corridors, and security cover — to handle the surge of crores of pilgrims that descend on Bhagalpur and the surrounding region across the month of Sawan. This year, Chief Minister Choudhary underscored that arrangements have been strengthened to prevent any disruption to devotees' experience. The Bhagalpur district administration coordinates directly with state agencies to manage the mela's scale.

The inauguration also signals the state government's intent to position Shravani Mela as a flagship event on Bihar's religious-tourism calendar — one where central infrastructure investment and state administrative capacity visibly come together before millions of pilgrims and a national audience.

As the chants of 'Har-Har Mahadev' fill the ghats of Sultanganj this Sawan, the real test will be in the execution — whether the preparations announced today translate into a seamless, incident-free pilgrimage for every kanwariya who lifts a pot of Ganga water and walks toward Deoghar.