Pradesh, about 100 miles west of
Bhopal, the state capital. Ujjain is the
traditional center of the Malwaplateau
and has a long history as a commercial,
political, cultural, and sacred center. In
earlier times Ujjain was a major stop on
the central trade route, through which
goods from southern India were fun-
neled to other places farther north. Just
before the common era, Ujjain is said to
have been the capital of King
Vikramaditya, after whom the Vikram
era was named. Vikramaditya’s step-
brother, Bhartrhari, reportedly renounced
the throne to become an asceticbut is
best known for his poetry. In later days
Ujjain was the de factocapital of the
Gupta ruler Chandra Gupta II (r.
380–414 C.E.), under whose patronage
the greatest Sanskritpoet, Kalidasa, is
said to have worked.
As a sacred center, Ujjain has multi-
ple attractions, and this is its major
source of contemporary importance. It
is one of the Seven Sacred Citiesof
India. Dying in one of these cities is said
to bring liberation. Every twelve years
Ujjain plays host to the bathing (snana)
festival known as the Kumbha Mela,
although the melathere is smaller than
the ones at Haridwarand Allahabad.
Given its history, Ujjain is studded with
important religious sites. The most
important site is the temple to Shiva
in his form as Mahakaleshvar, the
“Lord of Death.” Shiva is present at
Mahakaleshvar in the form of a linga,
the pillar-shaped image that is his sym-
bolic form. The Mahakaleshvar linga is
one of the twelve jyotirlingas, a network
of sites deemed especially sacred to
Shiva and at which Shiva is uniquely
present. Ujjain is also famous for a tem-
ple associated with Matsyendranath,
the religious preceptor (guru) of
Gorakhnath, the founder of the
Nathpanthiascetics. In addition, Ujjain
has a temple to the nine planets, as
well as one of the baithaks, a group of
108 sacred sites associated with the
life and activity of the philosopher
Vallabhacharya. Ujjain’s most unusual
site is the temple to the deity Kal
Bhairav. Kal Bhairav is another name for
Bhairava, a horrific form of Shiva,
and the traditional offeringat the tem-
ple is liquor—a substance proscribed
and condemned by “respectable”
Hindus and thus the ideal offering for a
marginal deity such as Bhairava. See
also Gupta dynasty.Ukhimath
Himalayan town on the Mandakini
Riverin the hills of Uttar Pradesh,
across the river from Guptakashi.
Ukhimath is the winter seat of
Kedarnath, a form of Shivawhose sum-
mer home is a temple in the village of
Kedarnath, high in the mountains at the
Mandakini’s headwaters. The village is
at such high altitude that it is only acces-
sible between late April and October,
after the snows have melted; in October
the temple is ritually closed until
the next spring. When the temple at
Kedarnath has been closed for the
winter, the deity (symbolically repre-
sented by a movable image) takes
residence in Ukhimath for the winter
and then moves back to Kedarnath the
following spring.Ulatbamsi
(“upside-down language”) Word denot-
ing paradoxical language in which the
speaker’s utterances are reversals of
“normal” events, such as “The cow is
sucking the calf’s teat,” “Mouse stalks
cat,” “Rain falls from earthto sky.” The
most famous composer of such utter-
ances was the devotional (bhakti) poet-
saint Kabir, who inherited a tradition of
coded language (sandhabhasha) from
the Nathpanthiand Sahajiyareligious
communities. Ulatbamsi utterances are
not intended to be simply nonsensical,
nor is it simply a coded language in
which one term stands for another; they
are rather intended to stimulate the
hearer to active listening, interpretation,
and searching for a truth that lies
beyond right side up and upside
down. For a long discussion ofUlatbamsi