and commentary; to these texts, he
applied the rules that the Purva
Mimamsa philosophical school had
originally developed to interpret the
Vedas, the oldest Hindu religious texts.
According to tradition, he was a man
whose personal holiness was equal to
his great learning. He is reported to have
performed a miracle by causing rain to
fall out of season, convincing the
Muslim officials ruling Benares to allow
the Vishvanathtemple to be rebuilt.
Narmada River
Central Indian river that has its source at
the sacred site (tirtha) of Amarkantak
in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and
flows almost directly west through the
state of Gujarat, then to the Arabian Sea.
The Narmada is one of the few central
Indian rivers flowing from east to west;
rivers further south are channeled east
by the upthrust of the highlands known
as the Western Ghats. It is traditionally
considered one of the seven sacred
rivers of India, along with the Ganges,
Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Indus,
and Cauvery. An important site on the
Narmada is Omkareshvar, one of the
twelve jyotirlingas, a network of sites
sacred to the god Shiva. During the
1990s the Narmada has become a rally-
ing point for environmentalists who
have opposed construction of several
massive dams, on the grounds that
these dams have displaced too many
people and destroyed too much prime
farmland. Although work on these dams
has continued, the pace has slowed. In
1997 a minor earthquake in the
Narmada basin prompted the call for
further consideration of this project’s
environmental dangers.
Narsi Mehta
(16th c.) Gujaratipoet-saint who was a
well-known figure in northern Indian
devotional life. Narsi was a devotee
(bhakta) of the god Krishna. His poetry
describes the love affair between
Krishna and his consort Radha.
According to tradition, Narsi’s poetry
was rooted in a vision of Krishna’s ras
lila, or great circle dance, in which Narsi
was privileged to stand as attendant
holding a torch to light the lila. Narsi is
one of the devotees profiled in the
Bhaktamal, a text that gives short bio-
graphical profiles of more than 200
devotional (bhakti) saints; in the text
Narsi is portrayed as a paradigm of gen-
erosity, an earthly imitation of Krishna
himself. For further information see
John Stratton Hawley, “Morality Beyond
Morality in the Lives of Three Hindu
Saints,” in John Stratton Hawley (ed.),
Saints and Virtues, 1987.Nasik
City and sacred site (tirtha) near the
headwaters of the GodavariRiver in the
state of Maharashtra, about 100 miles
northeast of Bombay. Nasik is one of the
four sites for the Kumbha Mela, a reli-
gious bathing (snana) festival. Nasik
hosts this festival every twelve years.
Nasik is an important bathing place and
is a center of pilgrimage, piety, and
learning. According to tradition the god-
king Rama, his wife, Sita, and his brother,
Lakshmanalived during much of their
twelve years in exile in the nearby village
of Panchavati. Rama, Sita, and
Lakshmana are central characters in the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two great
Hindu epics. Although claims of them
living near Nasik are impossible to prove
or disprove, the legend adds one more
layer of sanctity to the site.Nasik Mela
The Nasik Mela is the celebration of the
Kumbha Melaat Nasik. The Kumbha
Mela is a religious festival celebrated in
four different locations: Haridwar,
Allahabad, Ujjain, and Nasik. The festi-
val’s focus is bathing (snana) in the
sacred rivers during particularly holy
moments. The Kumbha Mela’s primary
participants are ascetics, who come
from all over southern Asia to bathe
in the sacred waters. According toNasik Mela