Muni Ki Reti
Encyclopedia
Muni Ki Reti also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
:मुनि की रेती) is a town and a nagar panchayat
Nagar Panchayat
A nagar palika or nagar panchayat is a form of an urban political unit in India comparable to a municipality.An urban centre with more than 30,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants is classified as a nagar panchayat....
in Tehri Garhwal district
Tehri Garhwal District
Tehri Garhwal is one of the largest districts in the hill state of Uttarakhand, India. Its administrative headquarters is at New Tehri. The district has a population of 604,747 , a 16.15% increase over the previous decade...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
. It lies close to pilgrimage town of Rishikesh, and is most known for a host of ashrams in the area, including the Shri Shivananda Ashram of Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism...
, the founder of Divine Life Society
Divine Life Society
The Divine Life Society is a religious organization and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India...
.
Etymology
Traditionally, the sandy (reti) banks of Ganges RiverGanges River
The Ganges or Ganga, , is a trans-boundary river of India and Bangladesh. The river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. By discharge it...
here have been used by munis (sages) and sadhu
Sadhu
In Hinduism, sādhu denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa , the fourth and final aśrama , through meditation and contemplation of brahman...
s for tapasya, giving the place it is name Muni ki Reti, literally "sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
s of the sages"
History
Traditionally considered the gateway for the Char DhamChar Dham
The Chota Char Dham , is an important Hindu pilgrimage circuit in the Indian Himalayas...
pilgrimage — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri
Yamunotri
Yamunotri is the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the Goddess Yamuna in Hinduism. It is situated at an altitude of in the Garhwal Himalayas and located approximately North of Uttarkashi, the headquarters of the Uttarkashi district in the Garhwal Division of Uttarakhand, India...
.
'Kailash Ashram' was established here in 1880, later in 1932, Shivananda Ashram was established here by Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism...
, making it a popular destination for Yoga and Meditation practitioners from all over India, and seekers of Vedantic knowledge. The town became a nagar panchayat
Nagar Panchayat
A nagar palika or nagar panchayat is a form of an urban political unit in India comparable to a municipality.An urban centre with more than 30,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants is classified as a nagar panchayat....
on nagar panchayat 30 November 1949. Over the year several others ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
s have come up in the area namely Swargashram, Gita Bhawan, Parmarth Niketan of Swami Chidanand Saraswati
Swami chidanand saraswati
H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, , is the President and spiritual head of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India, one of India's largest and most renowned spiritual institutions...
and Vanprastha Ashram, all situated on the opposite bank of the Ganges
In February 1968 The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
visited, the now closed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
's ashram, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, even recorded a song here, titled, 'The Happy Hrishikesh Song' The Beatles composed nearly 48 songs during their time at the Maharishi's ashram, many of which appear on the White Album. Several other artists, including Mike Love
Mike Love
Michael Edward "Mike" Love is an American singer/songwriter and musician with The Beach Boys. He was a founding member of the band along with his cousins Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and their friend Al Jardine, and continues to perform with the band to the present day...
of The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and Gyp Mills, visited the site to contemplate and meditate.
For years boats were the only way to go across the Ganges where numerous ashrams lie, but in the 1986, the building of the 222 ft. 'Ram Jhula', similar to the Laxman Jhula at Rishikesh, allowed easy access to the area, and also its rapid growth.
Demographics
India censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, Muni Ki Reti had a population of 7879. Males constitute 63% of the population and females 37%. Muni Ki Reti has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 79%, and female literacy is 63%. In Muni Ki Reti, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Administration
The member of the Vidhan SabhaVidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
(Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....
) from Muni Ki Reti is Om Gopal, and Chairman, nagar palika
Nagar Palika
In India, a nagar palika or municipality is a urban local body that administers a city of population 20,000 or more. Under the Panchayati Raj system, it interacts directly with the state government, though it is administratively part of the district it is located in...
is Manoj Dwivedi.
External links
- Muni Ki Reti, Official website
- Muni Ki Reti wikimapiaWikimapiaWikiMapia is a privately owned, online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information, in the form of a note, to any location on Earth. Users may currently use this information for free...