Shivaratri on the banks of the Mauritian Ganges : a history of an Indian festival in the diaspora

Mahashivaratri is a pan-Indian annual festival celebrating God Shiva (Sanskr. Śiva). It lasts 3 or 10 days. The whole period of several consecutive days is marked by visiting local Shiva temples and offering fruits, leaves, sweets and milk to the Lord. When the flow of indentured labourers from India to Mauritius continued, the community grew in number and power as among them were successful individuals, who after some years of hard work could buy the land. The group strengthened their ties and religion had a crucial cementing impact on that process. The immigrants brought some texts sacred for them from India, soon they build the temples to perform rituals but they wanted more. An important place in Indian tradition has to be ascribed to pilgrimages. On the island of Mauritius, however, there was no place of particular importance for devotees to travel and travelling to India required a lot of time and money at that time. Soon such a place was found. It was Grand Bassin, a lake in a volcanic crater that has attracted the attention of Indian emigrants from the very beginning.