Asian Journal of Social Psychology

Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2009), 12, 285–292 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01291.x

SHORT NOTES
Psychological well-being and pilgrimage: Religiosity, happiness
and life satisfaction of Ardh–Kumbh Mela pilgrims (Kalpvasis) at
Prayag, India
Saurabh Maheshwari and Purnima Singh
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi, India

Pilgrimage is an important aspect of our life and has both religious as well as spiritual significance. The present
study examined the relationship of religiosity, happiness and satisfaction with life in the case of pilgrims in a very
special cultural context of the Ardh-Kumbh Mela (held in Prayag, Allahabad, India) during the months of January
and February, 2007). The study specifically examined these relationships in a sample of Kalpvasis (pilgrims who
stay at the banks of the Sangam for a month in the holy city of Prayag during the Mela period). One hundred and
fifty-four Kalpvasis participated in the study. Positive association between religiosity, happiness and life satis-
faction was obtained. Results showed that gender did not have a significant role on these relations in the case of
pilgrims. Implications of these results are discussed.

Key words: happiness, life satisfaction, pilgrimage, psychological well-being, religiosity.

Introduction almost ignored aspect of human life. Commonsense sug-

Pilgrimage is a very important and significant part of our
religious life. It is a kind of journey that is undertaken to
some holy or sacred place as an act of devotion, penance,
solace or to seek some supernatural blessing and power. In
all religions, pilgrimage is considered to be important (e.g.
Hujj to Mecca for Muslims, Amarnath Yatra or Kumbh
Mela for Hindus, Jerusalem for Christians and Bodh-Gaya
pilgrimage for Buddhists). In this modern era, it seems that
materialism and consumerism dominate and that pilgrim-
age is losing its importance, but the reality is otherwise. In
the Ardh Kumbh Mela (held in January 2007 in Allahabad,
India), on one single auspicious day (i.e. Mauni Amavaysa,
new moon day) 18 million people took a holy dip in the
shivering cold water of the river Ganga (Times of India,
20th January 2007). This is just one instance of the impor-
tance of pilgrimage in contemporary times. Similar
instances can be found in other religions also. Pilgrimages
have been studied enthusiastically by historians, sociolo-
gists, geographers and anthropologists (Morinis, 1984;
Gold, 1988; Elshtain, 1998; Gesler & Pierce, 2000; Hun-
tsinger & Fernandez-Gimenez, 2000) but very few psycho-
logical studies have been carried out that attempt to
understand the significance and impact of pilgrimage on
pilgrims. The present study is an attempt to explore this
Correspondence: Purnima Singh, Department of Humanities and
Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi 110016, India. Email: purnima125@
hotmail.com
Received 19 September 2007; accepted 16 October 2008.
gests that apart from religious beliefs, one important reason
why people undertake pilgrimage is in search of happiness,
bliss and satisfaction. It would be interesting to examine the
relationship between these variables and religiosity in this
sample of pilgrims.
Religiosity not only plays an important role in our lives,
it is an important determinant of well-being for those who
believe in the power of religion (Eldering & Pandey, 2007).
Despite the significance of religion in personal and social
lives, psychologists have not shown much interest in
researching religiosity. This may be attributed to variety of
reasons. Miller and Thoresen (2003) identified two basic
reasons for this neglect, an assumption that spirituality and
religiosity cannot be studied scientifically and also that it
should not be studied scientifically. Only recently research
on religiosity has gained some systematic attention of
psychologists. Definition of religion as a phenomenon has
been problematic as being a subjective construct; every
researcher has his/her own definition. Thus, a widely
acceptable definition is still elusive. Miller and Thoresen
(1999) viewed religiosity as a societal phenomenon involv-
ing social institutions with ritual covenants and formal pro-
cedures. To further complicate things, there has been a
conceptual confusion with another cognate concept, that of
spirituality. Spirituality has increasingly come to mean a
more personal experience, a focus on the transcendent that
may or may not be rooted in an organized church or a
formal creed (King, Speck & Thomas, 1994).
In the present study, similar to Miller and Thoresen’s
(2003) views, we consider religiosity as a societal

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© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
286
phenomenon, having implications for the personal well-
being of pilgrims. The study postulates a positive relation-
ship between religiosity, life satisfaction and happiness. In
the literature, there has been some conceptual confusion
between the concepts of life satisfaction and happiness.
Some consider both as synonymous (Veenhoven, 1991;
Snoep, 2008) whereas others treat subjective well-being
and happiness identically and life satisfaction as a part of
them (Diener, 1984; Lewis & Joseph, 1995; Myers &
Deiner, 1995; Lewis, 1998). We posit that both are distinct
but overlapping and are part of larger psychological well-
being. Life satisfaction, which is a cognitive aspect of psy-
chological well-being, refers to a favourable attitude
towards one’s life as a whole. Happiness, however, is an
affective part of psychological well-being comprising posi-
tive experiences in daily life leading to ‘anand’.
Religiosity, life satisfaction and happiness
The relationship between religiosity, happiness and life
satisfaction has always been debated. Research that has
attempted to examine the relationship between religiosity
and happiness has revealed mixed results. Some scholars
reported a positive association between them (Ellison &
Levin, 1998; Levin & Chatters, 1998; Francis & Robbins,
2000; Francis, Robbins, & White, 2003; Francis, Katz,
Yablon, & Robbins, 2004; Mookerjee & Beron, 2005;
Abdel-Khalek, 2006), whereas others found no association
(Lewis, Maltby, & Burkinshaw, 2000; Lewis, 2002; Lewis,
Maltby, & Day, 2005; Abdel-Khalek & Nacuer, 2006)
while still some others reported negative relations (Hood,
1992; Pressman, Lyons, Larson, & Gartner, 1992; Argyle &
Hills, 2000).
Lewis and Cruise (2006) examined the reasons for these
inconsistent results between religiosity and happiness and
concluded that the discrepancy in the results depends upon
how the researcher conceptualized and operationalized
happiness. They reported that when the researcher opera-
tionalized happiness in terms of the Oxford Happiness
Inventory, results showed a positive association between
religiosity and happiness, but when the researcher opera-
tionalized happiness in terms of the Depression-Happiness
Scale, the results showed no association between them.
They further explained that these differences might be
because the Oxford Happiness Inventory is primarily
related to the intensity of happiness, whereas the
Depression-Happiness Scale measures the frequency of
happiness (Lewis & Cruise, 2006). Lewis et al. (2005)
further argue that religiosity conceptualization and opera-
tionalization can also affect the relationship between
happiness and religiosity. They stated that, in previous
research, religiosity has been conceptualized in various
ways, but these can be put under two dominant perspec-
tives. First, is religious orientation, which might be intrinsic
© 2009 The Authors
© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Saurabh Maheshwari and Purnima Singh
or extrinsic and the second is religious coping, which
includes positive coping and negative coping (Lewis et al.,
2005). They further reported a positive association between
religiosity and happiness when religiosity is conceptualized
in terms of intrinsic religious orientation and positive reli-
gious coping, but there was no relation between them when
religiosity was conceptualized in terms of extrinsic reli-
gious orientation and negative religious coping. Our opera-
tionalization of happiness and religiosity is different.
Happiness is measured as positive experiences in daily life
leading to ‘anand’ and the religiosity measure consists of
religious beliefs, perception and experiences related to reli-
gion. It would be worthwhile to determine the relationship
between these variables when they are operationalized in
this manner.
Relationship between life satisfaction and religiosity,
however, is not as complex as that between religiosity and
happiness. Researchers consistently reported a positive
relationship between them (Peterson & Roy, 1985; Poloma
& Pendleton, 1990; Myers & Deiner, 1995; Ellison &
Levin, 1998; Levin & Chatters, 1998). However, some
recent studies have also shown no association between
them (Lewis, Joseph, & Noble, 1996; Lewis, Lanigan,
Joseph, & de Fockert, 1997; Lewis, 1998). Several expla-
nations for this have been given by different researchers.
Ellison, Gay, and Glass (1989) argued that religious
meaning was more important than religious belongingness
for a positive relationship with life satisfaction. Ellison
(1991) further found that staunch religious belief was posi-
tively associated with satisfaction.
Despite several studies conducted to unravel the role of
religiosity on happiness and satisfaction with life, several
issues still require the attention of researchers. Although the
previous studies were conducted on various samples, no
studies have used pilgrims as a sample. Most studies are
conducted on college/university students (French & Joseph,
1999; Francis & Robbins, 2000; Lewis, 2002; Francis et al.,
2003; Francis et al., 2004), with the exception of a few
(Lewis, 1998; Lewis, Maltby, & Burkinshaw, 2000; Lewis,
Maltby, & Day, 2005). In his study, Lewis (1998) found a
positive association between religiosity and life satisfaction
for an adult sample but no association was found in case of
college students. Similarly, Hunsberger (1985) and Krause
(2003, 2004) found a positive relation between religiosity
and satisfaction with life for aged people. However, Ellison
and Gay (1990) found that religiosity and satisfaction is
dependent on age only for non-southerner Black Ameri-
cans. In a recent study, Yoon and Lee (2007) found a
positive relation between religiosity and psychological
well-being in the elderly. These results show that age could
be a key factor for religiosity, happiness, satisfaction with
life and their interaction. It seems plausible to argue here
that the relationship between religiosity, happiness and life
satisfaction may be different for different samples, as the
Religiosity, happiness and life satisfaction
significance of these concepts and their meaning will be
different. In the present study, we have taken an elderly
group of devotees as a sample who are undertaking a
pilgrimage.
Are there gender differences in religiosity? ‘That men
are less religious than women is a generalization that
holds around the world and across the centuries. However,
there has been virtually no study of this phenomenon
because it has seemed so obvious that it is the result of
differential sex role socialization’ Stark (2002, p. 495).
For these obvious reasons, varied explanations have been
given by researchers such as the risk preferences theory
(Miller & Hoffmann, 1995), the structural location theory
(Vaus & Mcallister, 1987), socialization and so on. The
fact that there are gender differences in religiosity has
obviously been considered, but researchers have shown
much less interest in unravelling the role of gender in the
relationship between religiosity, happiness and life satis-
faction. Recently, some researchers tried to explore the
moderating effect of gender in these relationships and
found significant differences between males and females.
Dorahy et al. (1998) found no significant association
between religiosity and life satisfaction for women;
however, they found a positive association between them
for men. Lewis et al. (1997) also looked at gender differ-
ences and they did not find significant differences. We
hypothesize that there would be no gender differences in
the relationship between religiosity, happiness and satis-
faction with life in this elderly sample. At this stage of
life, both men and women turn towards God, religion and
other-worldly aspects as they are free from job demands
and family responsibilities. In the Hindu system there are
four stages of life, ‘brahmcharya’, ‘grihistha’, ‘vanpr-
astha’ and ‘sanyas’. The elderly fall in the ‘vanprastha’
and ‘sanyas’ stage where renunciation of worldly life and
pleasures and affinity to God and spirituality become
salient concerns.
Most of the research in this field has been conducted in
the West on Christian samples, but other religions such as
Islam or Hinduism and non-Western context are usually
ignored in research. In a recent study, Snoep (2008)
attempted to explore the role of culture on the relationship
between religiosity and happiness. This study showed that
the relationship between religiosity and happiness is higher
in the USA than in the Netherlands and Denmark. Dorahy
et al. (1998) found a significant positive association
between religiosity and life satisfaction for male respon-
dents of Ghana, Nigeria and Northern Ireland, but no asso-
ciation in the case of Swaziland males. These studies show
the importance of specific context. The present study exam-
ines the relationship between religiosity, happiness and life
satisfaction in the case of a unique sample and context. Our
sample in this study is not only Hindu but also those Hindus
who are elderly and deeply religious as they submerge
© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
287
themselves into religious practices and rituals for an entire
month on the banks of Sangam in Allahabad, a city in North
India.
Context of the study
Prayag (Allahabad) is one of the holiest places of the Hindu
religion and is located in Uttar Pradesh, a state in North
India. The population of Allahabad is approximately
1042 229 (2001 census). It is surrounded by two of the most
holy rivers of India, the Ganga and Yamuna, in three direc-
tions. The culmination point of these two holy rivers, along
with the holy and mythical river, Saraswati, is regarded as
one of the holiest places on earth and is called ‘Sangam’.
According to the Hindu belief system, a holy dip in the
Sangam ensures an attainment of Moksha (i.e. salvation
from the cycle of rebirth and free from one’s sins). At the
banks of the Sangam every year at Allahabad a mass fair is
held in the month of Magh (around January–February)
known as the Magh Mela. After every 6 years the Ardh
Kumbh Mela is held, and after every 12 years the Kumbh
Mela is organized.
In Prayag, pilgrims undertake Kalpvas, which is a
1-month stay at the Sangam in the month of Magh for
religious rituals and related events (Eldering & Pandey,
2007). They feel a sense of coming closer to God and
walking on the path of Mokhsha (salvation) by following
the various rituals here. It also gives them a feeling of
inbuilt cultural continuity handed down through the years.
‘Bathing in the Ganges, worshipping (Puja), hearing reli-
gious discourses by saints and attending performances of
the Hindu epics were the daily activities mentioned by
more than 85% of the respondents (Eldering & Pandey,
2007, p. 281).
Ardh Kumbh Mela of 2007 was held between 3 January
and 2 February. Around 0.5 million pilgrims undertook
Kalpvas in this festival for an entire month. On the most
auspicious day of Mela, called Mauni Amavasya (new
moon day), nearly 18 million devotees took the holy dip.
Method
Participants
One hundred and fifty-four Kalpvasis participated in the
study. The mean age of the sample was 61.38 years. Ninety-
four respondents were male and 60 were female.
Measures
Background information. This included items relating to
participant’s age, gender, educational qualifications,
marital status, occupation and place of residence – rural or
urban.
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288 Saurabh Maheshwari and Purnima Singh

Happiness. This included 18 items taken from Summers
and Watson’s (2005) Happiness Scale. The original scale
had 36 items, 18 items were adapted to the local context and
participants were presented with a five-point Likert scale
(What I do in my daily life at home or work makes me
happy). Cronbach’s alpha for these 18 items was found to
be 0.79.
Satisfaction with life. For this measure, the Hindi transla-
tion of Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) Satis-
faction with Life Scale was taken and presented using a
five-point scale (I am satisfied with my life). Cronbach’s
alpha value was found to be 0.62.
Religiosity. This measure had eight items (Cronbach’s
alpha = 0.58). Four measured religious beliefs and were
taken from the Religiosity Scale of Bhushan (1971) (The
only driving force of this universe is God); two items were
developed to measure perceived religiosity (By visiting
holy places, I feel I am purified) and the remaining two
measured one’s religious experience (I experience supreme
power).
Procedure
The interviewer visited the Ardh Kumbh Mela site for
several days and spent considerable time observing the
context and interviewing the Kalpvasis. Each interview
took more than half an hour. The interview was taken at
their place of residence in the Mela site, which was a
campsite. Respondents were explained the purpose of the
study and their cooperation was solicited. Most people vol-
unteered to give their time, and very few showed reluc-
tance. As the interviewer was a local person, he had no
problems in building rapport with the respondents. The
interviewer made sure to avoid those times when the
respondents would be involved with the rituals and visited
them during the afternoon when they would be free.
Results
Results presented in Table 1 show that religiosity is highly
correlated with happiness and satisfaction with life. Happi-
ness has been found to be significantly correlated with
satisfaction with life and religiosity. Similarly, satisfaction
with life shows a significant positive correlation with reli-
giosity and happiness. Results presented in the table show
the mean and SD scores of the three study variables.
Table 2 presents results related to gender differences.
Correlational analysis shows almost similar results as were
obtained in Table 1 for the total sample. Relationship
between age and satisfaction with life and between age and
happiness showed only some significant differences

Table 1 Correlations, Mean and SD among variables in the study

Mean SD Happiness Satisfaction with life Religiosity

Happiness 72.66 9.32 1 0.397*** 0.342***

Satisfaction with life 14.34 3.33 1 0.430***
Religiosity 31.14 4.15 1

***p < 0.001.

Table 2 Correlations and t-tests for male and female respondents (males N = 94, females N = 60)

Age Happiness Satisfaction with life Religiosity Mean SD t

Age
Male 1 -0.150 0.168 0.323** 63.16 12.21
Female 0.224 0.453** 0.428** 58.58 12.18 2.27*
Happiness
Male 1 0.390** 0.349** 73.66 9.91
Female 0.389** 0.337** 71.08 8.15 1.68
Satisfaction with life
Male 1 0.461** 14.78 3.05
Female 0.399** 13.65 3.67 2.06*
Religiosity
Male 1 31.21 4.05
Female 31.03 4.34 0.26

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

© 2009 The Authors

© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Religiosity, happiness and life satisfaction 289

Table 3 Hierarchical regression analysis for testing predictors of happiness

Happiness

Independent Variable b b t R2 DR2

Step 1
Religiosity 0.767 0.342 4.48** 0.117**
Step 2
Age -0.105 -0.139 -1.70 0.133** 0.017

**p < 0.01.

Table 4 Hierarchical regression analysis for testing predictors of satisfaction with life

Satisfaction with life

Independent Variable b b t R2 DR2

Step 1
Religiosity 0.345 0.430 5.86** 0.185**
Step 2
Happiness 0.101 0.283 3.78** 0.255** 0.071**
Step 3
Age 0.060 0.222 2.99** 0.297** 0.042**

**p < 0.01.

between males and females. A t-test showed that in the case
of happiness and religiosity, there are no differences for
males and females; however, in the case of satisfaction with
life and age, significant differences were observed between
males and females.
Table 3 shows the predictors of happiness. Clearly, reli-
giosity has been found to be a significant predictor of hap-
piness, but not age. However, religiosity and age together
are predicting happiness more than religiosity alone, but the
difference in R2 is not significant.
Table 4 shows the predictors of satisfaction with life.
Results show that religiosity, happiness (which is taken as
one of the predictors) and age are significant predictors of
satisfaction with life. R2 change analysis shows that when
all three predictors were taken together, they predict satis-
faction with life more than when they were taken in steps
one or two.
Discussion
The present study examined the relationship of religiosity
with happiness and satisfaction with life in the case of
pilgrims of Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayag. Religiosity was
found to be positively related with happiness and satisfac-
tion with life. Our results relating religiosity and happiness
are consistent with the findings of earlier studies in this area
(Francis & Robbins, 2000; Francis et al., 2003; Francis
et al., 2004; Mookerjee & Beron, 2005; Abdel-Khalek,
2006). Results also show religiosity is a significant predic-
tor of happiness and satisfaction with life. In a recent study,
Eldering and Pandey (2007) reported that Kalpvasis come
and stay at the bank of the river Ganga for 1 month in order
to relieve all the tensions of their daily chores and to attain
inner tranquility and mental peace. Our results concur with
these findings. Most of the earlier studies in this area have
come from the Western world. We believe that specific
cultural contexts may uniquely influence the relationship
among variables. The context of the present study is also
exclusive, which not only represents Hindus, but particu-
larly a section of Hindus who are elderly and are rigorously
engaged in religious rituals and undertaking a pilgrimage.
Results show that religiosity significantly predicts happi-
ness. There are several plausible explanations for this.
Religious engagements are excellent platforms for gaining
social support. People who are collectively engaged in reli-
gious activities, such as listening to religious preaching and
plays, identify with each other and share positive feelings
and bonding, which might further act as a source of happi-
ness. This aspect is especially important for those who are
single, elderly or suffering from chronic disease, because
their religious activities provide them with a purpose in life.
In addition, social support also provides emotional and
sometimes economical support during less fortunate times.

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290
Another possible reason might be the context of the reli-
gious fair. People from different parts of India come and
stay together for an entire month. This leads to the devel-
opment of strong bonds that get strengthened when they
meet every year. Therefore, their reunion, the purpose of
which is a religious cause, also provides a source of hap-
piness. Furthermore, religion and religiosity provide us
with meaningful events, which provide a paradigm in
which we develop a sense of coherence and predictability
about the world. Although this is not directly related to
happiness, it somehow reduces our anxiety and worry about
daily events and our future. Studies show that general reli-
gious beliefs or rituals help people to overcome stressful
circumstances, such as the loss of a loved one or a terminal
disease. These studies demonstrate the comfort aspect of
religion (Musick, Traphagan, Koenig, & Larson, 2000,
p. 79).
Religiosity and satisfaction with life also show a signifi-
cant positive correlation. This finding is consistent with
previous findings (Peterson & Roy, 1985; Myers & Deiner,
1995; Ellison & Levin, 1998; Levin & Chatters, 1998;
Lewis, 1998). It also shows that religiosity is a good pre-
dictor of satisfaction with life. The possible reason for this
positive association, according to Idler and George (1998),
is the enjoyment of attending services, the existence of
clergy, social support, motivation for positive health-related
behaviour and positive attribution. Ellison (1991) explains
that strong religious attachment may make people more
optimistic and, therefore, one perceives negative or threat-
ening events as opportunities for future growth.
Age has been found to be significantly correlated with
religiosity and satisfaction towards life, but not with hap-
piness. Further regression analysis shows that age signifi-
cantly predicts satisfaction with life, along with religiosity
and happiness, but does not predict happiness. It indicates
that with increasing age, individuals become engaged more
in religious activities and attain satisfaction with life. When
individuals, particularly in the Indian context, feel that their
major life responsibilities (i.e. occupation, family, raising
children) are fulfilled they search for a new goal, such as
attaining salvation in life, which they believe can be
attained through religion and becoming engaged in reli-
gious activities. Ramamurti (1989) found that among the
elderly, belief in ‘karma’ and rebirth were significant pre-
dictors of satisfaction with life. This makes them realize
that they have fulfilled their major life duties and this
becomes a source of satisfaction towards life.
No significant difference between religiosity of males
and females was observed in this study, which was con-
sidered as obvious by most researchers. We also did not
find gender differences in relationships between religios-
ity, happiness and between religiosity and life satisfaction.
This result confirms the previous result of Lewis et al.
(1997) and explains that gender has no effect on these
© 2009 The Authors
© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd with the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association
Saurabh Maheshwari and Purnima Singh
relationships. One plausible explanation could be related
to the age of the sample. Our sample consisted of elderly
people. It is possible that, at this age, most people, irre-
spective of gender, start renouncing worldly myths, and
are free from family responsibilities. They, therefore, start
focusing on the other world. Indians believe in ‘Punar-
janam’ or rebirth. Most people, irrespective of gender
around this age start thinking about the other world and
hence become religious. Hence, no gender differences
could be found.
The presents study attempted to examine the relationship
of religiosity on psychological well-being (happiness and
satisfaction with life) in the case of religious pilgrims.
Pilgrims seek happiness and religious blessings and sepa-
rate themselves from everyday worldly concerns. They
spend time in the presence of God in a place of special
significance and meaning, which gives them the desired
happiness and satisfaction.
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