Amitabh Bachchan immerses mother's ashes at 'mahasamshan'

Varanasi, Dec 28 [UNI] Mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan immersed the ashes of his mother Teji Bachchan in river Ganga here early this morning, amidst chanting of vedic hymns.

Amitabh Bachchan arrived from Allahabad last evening, along with his family, including wife Jaya Bachchan, younger brother Ajitabh, son Abhishekh, daughter-in-law Aishwariya Rai Bachchan, Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh and other family friends.

Teji had passed away following a porlonged illness in Mumbai on December 21.

A special programme of bhajans was also arranged by hotel management at night where only members and friends of the Bachchan family were present. The bhajans were recited by eminent bhajan singer Chhannu Lal.

Family and friends reached the famous Dashswamedh Ghat at 0600 hrs where the spiritual guru of Bachchan family and eminent scholar Chandramauli Upadhyay and Shridhar Pandey and Chandrakant Tiwari performed the rituals.

Later, the Bachchan family boarded a motorboat and reached ''mahasamshan'' Manikarnika Ghat and immersed the ashes in middle of the holy river.

In spite of biting cold, a huge crowd had gathered at the Dashswamedh ghat. The people loudly chanted Varanasi's traditional slogan '' har har mahadev''. Both Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan greeted the crowd by raising folded hands.

Adequate security arrangements were made at the ghat and in the river. Even the motorboat carrying the Bachchans was followed by security personnel on another motorboat.

After performing the rituals, the Bachchan family returned to Mumbai. All the programmes at the Dashswamedh Ghat were arranged by the founder president of Ganga Sewa Nidhi Satyendra Mishra, alias Mundan Guru.

Amitabh Bachchan had immersed part of the ashes in Sangam, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati at Allahabad and Mandakini river in Chitrakoot yesterday.

UNI