Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus gather at the Sangam, meeting place, of the rivers Ganges,Yamuna and mythical Sarasvati, at Prayag where bathing for purification from
sin is considered especially auspicious. The festival is billed as the
"biggest gathering on Earth"; in 2001 more than 40 million gathered
on the busiest of its 55 days.
The next
Kumbh will be held at Ujjain (MP) on the bank of river Shipra in 2016. The Kumbh at Ujjain is also
called "Simhastha".
The Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela is celebrated every
six years at Haridwar and Allahabad, the Purna (complete) Kumbh takes place every
twelve years, at four places
Allahabad,Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik.The Mela alternates between
Nasik, Allahabad, Ujjain and Haridwar every three years.According
to the Mela Administration's estimates, around 70 million people participated
in the 45-day Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, in 2007.The last
"Kumbh Mela " held in 2010 in Haridwar estimated by the authorities
to attract between 30 and 70 million people. The
current Maha Kumbh Mela began on 14 January, 2013 at Allahabad (Prayag). According to expectations more than
100 million people will attend the 2013 Kumbha mela.
The
major event of the festival is ritual bathing at the banks of the
river in whichever town it is being held that is, Ganga in Haridwar, Godavari in Nasik,
Kshipra in Ujjain and Sangam (confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and
mythical Saraswati) in Prayag (Allahabad). Nasik has registered maximum visitor to 75
million. Other activities include religious discussions, devotional singing,
mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies where
doctrines are debated and standardized. Kumbh Mela is the most sacred of all
the pilgrimages.
Thousands
of holy men and women attend, and the auspiciousness of the festival is in part
attributable to this. The sadhus are seen clad in saffron sheets with ashes and
powder dabbed on their skin as per the requirements of ancient traditions.
Some, called naga sanyasis, may not wear any clothes even in severe
winter.
After visiting the Kumbh Mela of 1895, Mark
Twain wrote:
” It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can
make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail
enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure
the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in
fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of
it is beyond imagination, marvelous to our kind of people, the cold whites.”
The
literal meaning of Kumbh is a pitcher, but its elemental meaning is something
else. Even as a symbol of pitcher, Kumbh is synonymous with holy activities as
in daily life a pitcher (or kalash) is an integral part of all sacred
activities in Hindu culture, and this pitcher is a symbol of Kumbh.
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