ABSTRACT
Many of the rules of the pilgrimage outlined in booklets distributed freely in Sultanganj are instructions that urge pilgrims to help fellow pilgrims in trouble and how to avoid impurities. The purity rites have other functions, which only become apparent through doing the pilgrimage. Pilgrims become quite attached to their kanwar through the constant concern with keeping it pure. Many of the food purity rituals practiced today, have been historically inspired by caste, specifically notions about how caste substance is transferred. Purity overlaps with the good, the perfect, the sacred and the satvic state and may be enhanced via various means such as spiritual discipline, ways of living and diet. The purity rites have other functions, which only become apparent through doing the pilgrimage. An important distinction that reveals basic concepts about the transmission of purity/impurity is that between kaccha food deemed porous and hence liable to penetration by impurities and pukka food which is impenetrable to impurities.
