Not far from Godwalia, a compound, the back of which a courtyard lined with sparse rooms homing Sannyasin. When we visited most were in Allahabad, attending the Kumbh Mela. The few remaining were too old or ill to go.
Sannyasin (for male, the female is Sannyasini) are renouncers, leaving behind their former lives and their families, stepping outside of society to concentrate on spiritual pursuits. As we made our way through the compound we met one leaving the courtyard. Our guide asked him if he could spare a few minutes answering some questions. He neither looked nor paused, just gave a terse “no” and passed by. He wasn’t being rude, the guide explained. Renouncers, having left their lives behind, are not supposed to discuss them, or indeed acknowledge them in any way.
Inside the courtyard the guide was explaining to us about the Sannyasa. One emerged from his room just to the side. We apologised, asked if we were disturbing him, and he said, no, he was just curious. He explained he had been taken ill and was too weak to travel to the Kumbh.
The photo above was the first one I took, immediately after I had asked permission to do so. The Sannyasin reacted with a surprised smile, and a glint in the eye, closely followed by assured pose and intense stare seemingly drawn from what he imagined my expectations of a portrait of him would look like. In the second he has reverted to his previous posture, slightly hunched, the stern purpose gone from his face, the fire in his eyes deposed. He stayed and talked with us a while, took us to see the shrine at which he worshipped, answered all our questions. We left.
These were taken with a Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.2, wide open, on Tri-X film, rated 400. It was in a covered corridor nearing evening. It is a superb lens for low light, allowing manageable shutter speeds at reasonable ISOs without the need to push, sharp wide open and lovely rendering of the scene. This is one time that I wished I had taken the photo in colour, or had taken it on digital RAW, so I would have the chance to choose. His robe was a wonderful orange. There were no other distracting colours in the scene, it would have been a bold statement of colour in a desaturated scene.
Luckily, the journalist I was with, Noah Buchan, took this picture:
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