History:
The sixth god belonging to ‘Vishnu’, Parshuram, set Brahmaputra free from Brahmakunda crushing the mountains surrounding it with his axe after getting free of sin of killing his mother by bathing in it. The Brahmaputra is son of Brahma who was confined in that kunda after birth. When Parshuram realized the water Brahmaputra sweeps away all the sin from human, he wanted to extend Brahmaputra into the plane land so that all the human can use it.
So he started digging the land to lead Brahmaputra towards the North, and he stopped at a place in Narayanganj out of tiredness. This place was thus named ‘Langol Band’. Langol is a type of axe which is used to dig land for cultivation. So the place became a place of pilgrimage of the hindu.
 |
 |
 |
Parshuram was ordered by his father Jamdogni to visit all the holy places on earth. So he ordered Brahmaputra to wait there for him until he returns from his pilgrimage. Brahmaputra fell in love with river Laksma, and started flowing with it. Parshuram returned and saw Brahmaputra gone. He got angry and cursed Brahmaputra that his water will turn unholy. Brahmaputra appealed for forgiveness. But said words by a god cannot be returned. So Parshuram declared that Brahmaputra water will turn holy in only one day in a year, which is the 8th day from full moon of Bangla month ‘Chaitra’ (which was March 24th in 2010). So on that day the hindu around the world comes to Langol Band to take bath in it and get rid of all the sin.
The place is also famous because the body-ash of the Citah of the great Mahatma Gandhi was floated from a ghat which is now called ‘Mahatma Gandhi Shashan Ghat’ there.
 |
 |
Kings of Nepal, and Swami Vivekanand took bath in Rajghat.
The Place and The festival, ‘Snan’:
Langol Band has 14 ghats (landind-stages of a river), 10 Mandirs, and 5 Ashroms (hermitage). There is a mandir called ‘Gandhi Memorial Mandir’ here. Most of the ghats and mandirs are broken badly and seized illegally by influential local people. So the place is losing its culture and attraction. Snan is the bath taken yearly on the holy day of Brahmaputra. In all other days the river here are not used for bathing and remains filled over with water hyacinth. On the day of Snan, the river along the ghats are cleaned.
 |
Famous people and hermits visit the place on the day of Snan. Besides the main practice of Snan, a lot of other religious activities take place here. Different Pujas (worships) are accomplished during Snan, mostly targeted to Shiva. Parshuram is not worshipped by the hindu because of a curse though he is a god and had great contribution for mankind in the myth. A several day long fair takes place around the day of Snan.
Here is the album of the festival. Check it out…
Thats relly an interesting post. Thanks for working hard to manage all the information regarding the festival.