Trailanga Swami: The Walking Shiva of Kashi

This section exists because a devotional article that repeats every claim without comment is not being respectful to anybody.

The age

The tradition gives him 1607 to 1887, which is two hundred and eighty years.

This is not credible and should be said plainly.

Why it is not credible: there is no verified case of a human being living past about a hundred and twenty two years, the documentation for Trailanga's early life is devotional and much later than the events, and the earliest contemporary references to him in Varanasi come from a period consistent with a very long but ordinary life rather than a triple one.

Why the tradition says it anyway

Because extreme longevity is a genre marker in Indian hagiography and not a claim in the ordinary sense.

This batch alone has recorded Sankaradeva at a hundred and nineteen, Damodardev at a hundred and ten, and Bhaskararaya at ninety five, and the numbers get rounder and larger the further the writer is from the subject.

What the number is doing is saying that the person was outside ordinary conditions, and it is doing it in the vocabulary available to somebody writing before anybody kept registers.

Which means the honest reading is not that the tradition is lying. It is that a very long life is being reported in a convention that modern readers take literally and the original writers did not.

And it does not damage him. A man who lived perhaps a hundred and fifty years by tradition, and eighty or ninety by any sober count, sitting naked on the Varanasi ghats through it, is remarkable without the arithmetic.

The miracles

The accounts include a great many: being seen in two places, remaining under water for long periods, floating, indifference to heat and cold, knowing what visitors were carrying and thinking, walking out of a locked cell after being arrested for public nudity, and drinking things that should have killed him.

What can be said about them

One. They are eyewitness reports from devotees, which is the weakest category of evidence there is, and none of them was recorded under any conditions that would let anybody check.

Two. Some of them have ordinary explanations and some do not, and the honest position is that we cannot sort them at this distance.

Three, and this is the point that matters: the tradition's own senior figures did not think siddhis were the point.

Ramakrishna, who is the best witness Trailanga has, was consistently dismissive of occult powers. His recorded position is that siddhis are an obstacle, that a person who acquires them and stops there has stopped short, and that the man who wants powers does not want God.

So the person who called Trailanga the walking Shiva of Kashi is also the person who said the powers are not what to look at, and that is not a contradiction. He was pointing at what the man was, not at what the man could do.

And a specific safety point, because people do imitate

The poison story is dangerous.

Do not drink anything handed to you at a ghat, an ashram, or a gathering by somebody who says it is safe because of their attainment.

Do not test any claim on yourself. No spiritual state protects against a toxin, a pathogen or hypothermia, and a person who tells you otherwise is asking you to risk your life to validate them.

If somebody has consumed something harmful: ambulance 108, the nearest hospital, and take the container or substance with you.

What Trailanga is actually useful for

Strip the arithmetic and the wonders and what remains is a specific and rare thing.

A man who wanted nothing at all.

No clothes, no house, no order, no book, no disciples on a register, no property, no schedule, no defence of a position, and no interest in being explained. He sat by a river for decades and people came and looked at him and he mostly did not respond.

And the entire nineteenth century devotional world of north India went out of its way to see him, which tells you what that condition is worth in a tradition that had every other kind of teacher available.

This is the practical part, and Varanasi needs it more than most places.

Where to go

• Panchganga Ghat, where Trailanga Swami's math stands
• Kashi Vishwanath, the Jyotirlinga, now with the corridor connecting it to the river
• Dashashwamedh Ghat for the evening Ganga aarti, which is at dusk daily
• Assi Ghat for the morning, which is quieter and has a dawn aarti
• Manikarnika and Harishchandra, the burning ghats
• Sankat Mochan, the Hanuman temple
• Sarnath, ten kilometres out, where the Buddha gave his first teaching
• Vishalakshi, the Shakti Peeth
• Kal Bhairav, the guardian of the city

The best hour

Before sunrise, on a boat, moving north to south along the ghats. It is cool, it is quiet, the light is worth it, and the city is doing what it actually does rather than performing.

Now the cautions, in order of how often they catch people

One. The unsolicited priest

Somebody approaches at a ghat, applies a tilak, ties a thread, begins a sankalpa, uses your name and your father's name, and then names a figure.

The figure is usually large. The escalation is: a small amount to begin, then a larger amount because of the specific ritual, then a still larger amount because of your ancestors, and the whole thing is conducted publicly so that refusing feels like sacrilege.

What to do: do not accept a tilak or a thread from somebody who approached you. If it has already happened, pay a small sum once, decline the rest calmly, and walk. You have not offended anybody and no ritual has been left incomplete, because none was validly begun.

Two. The ancestor scam

A specific and cruel version. You are told that a departed relative is unsettled, that you have not done what was needed, and that a particular rite must be performed now.

Shraddha and pinda dana at Varanasi and Gaya are genuine and ancient practices and this article is not disputing them.

What is not genuine is a stranger identifying your dead relative's condition at a ghat. If you want to perform shraddha, arrange it in advance, through your family priest or the temple's own arrangements, at a known cost.

Three. The burning ghats

Manikarnika and Harishchandra are working cremation grounds, and every caution in the Tarapith entry applies here.

No photographs. Not of pyres, not of bodies, not of mourners. It is enforced socially and sometimes physically, and it is right that it is.

And there is a specific scam here, which is the wood collection: somebody appears, explains that a poor family cannot afford the wood, walks you to a viewing point, and asks for a donation for firewood, sometimes citing a price per kilogram. Some of this is genuine charity and much of it is not, and you have no way to tell, and there is no obligation. If you want to help with cremation costs, do it through an established organisation rather than at the ghat.

Four. The river itself

Two separate risks and both are real.

Drowning. The Ganga at Varanasi has strong currents, the depth changes abruptly beyond the steps, the steps are slippery with algae, and people drown there every year including strong swimmers. Do not go beyond the shallow steps. Do not swim across. Do not enter at night. Do not enter after drinking.

Water quality. The bacterial load in the river at Varanasi is high and has been measured as such for decades. Do not drink it. Do not enter with an open wound. Keep it out of your eyes, nose and mouth as far as you can. If you take a dip, rinse with clean water afterwards.

None of this is a comment on the river's sanctity, which is not a chemistry question. It is a comment on E coli.

Five. Boats, shops and the rest

• Agree the boat fare before boarding, including the number of people and the duration, and be clear whether it is per person or per boat
• Shop commissions. A guide, driver or boatman who takes you to a silk shop is being paid to. Prices there are set with that in mind
• Bhang. It is sold openly in Varanasi and it is legal in some forms in Uttar Pradesh, and the tourist version is far stronger than people expect, comes on slowly, and lasts many hours. A great many bad evenings in that city start with a lassi somebody said was mild
• Monkeys at the temples take food, glasses and phones, and bite. Do not carry food openly and do not engage

Six. If something goes wrong

• Police 112
• Tourist helpline 1363
• Ambulance 108
• Women's helpline 181
• Cybercrime 1930 for anything paid online

A daily practice from this entry

• Om Namah Shivaya
• The Kashi Vishwanath name, wherever you are, since the tradition holds the city is available at a distance
• And the Trailanga question, which is the one his life asks: what would be left of you if you put down everything you are currently carrying

Who: Trailanga Swami, who died at Varanasi in 1887. He was born Shivarama at Vizianagaram in what is now Andhra Pradesh, to a Telugu brahmana family, his father Narasingha Rao and mother Vidyavati, and the name he is known by is a place name marking him as the man from the Telugu country. After his mother's death he stayed at the cremation ground and never resumed ordinary life, wandered for a long period, took sannyasa in the Dashanami Saraswati order under Bhagirathananda Saraswati as Ganapati Saraswati, and then came to Kashi and stayed.

What people saw: a very large man, naked, on the ghats and in the river. He wore nothing, spent long periods in silence sometimes lasting years, sat in the Ganga and on the steps in sun and cold apparently unaffected, ate irregularly and sometimes not at all, and slept where he was. He did not teach in any organised way, found no order, wrote nothing and kept no formal following, leaving a math at Panchganga Ghat and a very large number of accounts by people who came to look.

The witnesses: Ramakrishna went to see him and described him afterwards as Shiva himself walking in Kashi, which is recorded in the Kathamrita by Mahendranath Gupta, a man who was in the room. Lahiri Mahasaya, Bhaskarananda Saraswati of Varanasi and a stream of Bengali visitors also appear in the accounts. He died in 1887 and his body was given jala samadhi, immersion in the Ganga, which is customary for a sannyasi.

The age claim: the tradition gives him 1607 to 1887, two hundred and eighty years, and this is not credible. No verified human has lived past about a hundred and twenty two, the documentation for his early life is devotional and much later, and the earliest contemporary references are consistent with a very long but ordinary life. Extreme longevity is a genre marker in Indian hagiography rather than a claim in the ordinary sense, and this batch alone records Sankaradeva at a hundred and nineteen and Damodardev at a hundred and ten. The number is saying the person was outside ordinary conditions, in the vocabulary available before anybody kept registers, and it does not damage him: a man sitting naked on the Varanasi ghats for decades is remarkable without the arithmetic.

The miracles: being seen in two places, remaining underwater, floating, indifference to heat and cold, knowing what visitors carried, walking out of a locked cell after arrest for public nudity, and drinking things that should have killed him. They are eyewitness reports from devotees, the weakest category of evidence, recorded under no conditions that permit checking, and cannot be sorted at this distance. The point that matters is that Ramakrishna, Trailanga's best witness, was consistently dismissive of occult powers, holding that siddhis are an obstacle and that the man who wants powers does not want God. He was pointing at what Trailanga was, not what he could do.

A safety note: the poison story is dangerous because people imitate. Do not drink anything handed to you at a ghat or ashram by somebody who says it is safe because of their attainment, and do not test any claim on yourself, since no spiritual state protects against a toxin, a pathogen or hypothermia. Ambulance 108 if somebody has consumed something harmful, and take the substance with you.

Varanasi practicalities: go to Panchganga Ghat for his math, Kashi Vishwanath, Dashashwamedh for the evening aarti, Assi for the morning, Sankat Mochan, Vishalakshi, Kal Bhairav and Sarnath, and take a boat before sunrise. Do not accept a tilak or thread from somebody who approached you, since the sequence ends in escalating demands conducted publicly so refusing feels like sacrilege; pay a small sum once and walk, because no ritual was validly begun. Be especially wary of a stranger identifying a dead relative's condition, since shraddha at Varanasi is genuine but should be arranged in advance at a known cost. No photographs at the burning ghats, and route any cremation charity through an established organisation rather than the wood collection at the ghat. Do not go beyond the shallow steps in the river, which has strong currents, abrupt depth changes and slippery steps and drowns people every year; do not drink the water or enter with an open wound, since the bacterial load is high. Agree boat fares before boarding, expect shop commissions, treat bhang lassi as far stronger and longer than advertised, and keep food away from the monkeys. Police 112, tourist helpline 1363, ambulance 108.