What is "tapovan"

Tapovan ( Sanskrit) comes from the two root words tapas - meaning pain or suffering, and by extension religious mortification and austerity, and more generally spiritual practice, and vana, meaning forest or thicket. Tapovan then translates as forest of austerities or spiritual practice.

Traditionally in India, any place where someone has engaged in serious spiritual retreat may become known as a tapovan, even if there is no forest. As well as particular caves and other hermitages where sages and sadhus have dwelt, there are some places, such as the western bank of the northern Ganges river around Rishikesh, that have been so used by hermits that the whole area has become known as a tapovan.