Kumbha Mela

Main article: World Festival Calendar

Kumbha Mela is a religious ablution festival in India, which is celebrated four times over 12 years in four places, so that every city in Kumbha is held every twelve years.

Where the Kumbh Mela is held

The venue of the festival changes between four pilgrimage sites on four holy rivers:

• at Haridwar on the Ganges River,
• in Ujjain on Shipra,
• in Nashik on Godavari and
• in Prayag (modern Prayagraj) at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

The celebration in each place is based on a certain set of astrological positions of the Sun, Moon and Jupiter, and the most sacred time comes at the moment when these positions completely coincide. In particular, the Kumbha Mela in Prayag attracts millions of pilgrims.

In addition, every 144 years Prayag hosts the Great Kumbh Mela Festival, most recently in 2001.

Kumbha Mela lasts several weeks and is one of the largest festivals in the world. More than 200 million people visited it in 2019, including 50 million on the festival's most auspicious day.

Why pilgrims gather for swimming

The foundation myth of Kumbh Mela, which is attributed to the Puranas (collections of myths and legends), tells of how gods and demons fought for a pot (kumbh) with an amrite, an elixir of immortality obtained from their joint whipping of the milk ocean. During the struggle, drops of elixir fell on the four earthly sites of Kumbh Mela, and it is believed that at the climax of each of them, the rivers again turn into this original nectar, giving pilgrims the opportunity to swim in the essences of purity, favorability and immortality.

The origin of the festival and its name

Tradition attributes the origin of Kumbh Mela to the 18th-century philosopher Shankara, who established regular meetings of ascetic scholars for discussion.

At the same time, there is no historical literary evidence of mass pilgrimages called "Kumbha Mela" until the 19th century. There is sufficient evidence in historical manuscripts and inscriptions of the annual Magha Mel in India - with occasional large gatherings after 6 or 12 years - when pilgrims gathered in huge numbers and where one of the rituals involved immersion in a river or sacred reservoir.

According to Kama Maclean, the socio-political events of the colonial era and the reaction to Orientalism led to the renaming of the ancient Magha Mela to the modern Kumbha Mela, especially after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

The term "Kumbha" comes from the mythical vessel with the elixir that the gods fought for in the Puran myths, but it is also the Hindi name for the Aquarius zodiac sign, which contains Jupiter on the date of the Mela in Haridwar.

Kumbha mela in Prayagraj

The city of Prayagraj (until 2018 Allahabad) is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Delhi is 612 km away and Mumbai is 1,502 km away.

For many centuries, the city was called Prayag, but in 1573, the Mughal king Akbar built a magnificent fortress at the confluence of three rivers and renamed the city Allahabad, the "city of Allah."

The word "prayag" is usually called the place where grandiose sacrifices are held. There are fourteen prayags on the Ganges, and Prayag-raj, "king of all holy places" - is considered the most significant of them.

An ancient sacred manuscript called "Brahma Samhita" tells how the god Brahma sought a place to conduct a great yagya (sacrifice). He opted for terrain surrounded by the waters of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati. Subsequently, this place began to be called Prayag. The "Mahabharata" (Vana-parva) states: "The area located between Ganges and Yamuna is considered the middle of the Earth. Prayag is a holy and fertile place, the most fertile area on Earth. Prayag is a madhya, the central of the five Vedis - the sacrificial altars of the Earth. The rest of the Vedis are Kurukshetra, Gaya, Viraja and Pushkara. "

Similar statements are also found in the Brahma Purana, Skanda Purana and Markandea Purana. The "Maha Bharata" states that Prayag is considered the most revered holy place in the universe. The god Brahma claimed: "Prayagasya to the right-hander to the popes nashianti tatkshanam" - "In Prayag, man gets rid of all sins." Prayag is also known as "Tirtharaj Prayag," which means "the holiest of all holy places."

In the "Vayu Purana," Prayag is compared to the nose of the personified Vedas, and the "Varaha Purana" describes it as follows: "In Prayag is Triveni (the confluence of the three rivers), where Lord Shiva, bearing the names Sulatanka and Someshvara, lives. Gentlemen Vishnu are called Venumadhava there and it is there that Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati merge together. Having washed in this holy place, a person goes to heaven, and the one who dies there leaves the material world for ever. Prayag is the king of all tirths and he is very dear to Lord Vishnu. "

Prayag is the birthplace of Soma, Varuna and Prajapati. In addition, at one time he was the abode of the great wise men of Mooney. Bharadwaja and Durvasa.

Every year in January-February, the annual Magh Mela festival is also held in Prayagraj, which attracts smaller but still significant crowds, and once every six years the Magh Mela is called Ardha Kumbha Mela (half of Kumbha Mela).

In Prayagraj, a favorable place for swimming is in triveni or sangam, at the confluence the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

Famous pilgrims

Krishna and his followers are believed to have visited Prayag, multiplying his holiness. In Treta-south, Ramachandra, along with Lakshman and Sitadevi, lived repeatedly in the Bharadwaja Muni ashram near the confluence of three rivers. Prayag was the first city Rama visited, embarking on a fourteen-year journey.

Who participates in the festival

Participants in Kumbh Mela are members of all walks of religious life in Hinduism, ranging from sadhus (holy people) who remain naked or observe the most severe physical discipline all year round, to hermits who leave their privacy only for these pilgrimages, and even silk-clad teachers using the latest technology.

Religious organizations represented range from social welfare societies to political lobbyists. Huge crowds of students, friends and spectators join individual ascetics and organizations.

The Naga Akhada, militant ascetic orders whose members previously earned a living as mercenary soldiers and traders, often claim the holiest places at the most favorable moment of each Kumbh Mela. Although the Indian government is currently enforcing the established bathing order, history is indicative of bloody disputes between groups vying for primacy.

History of the festival

19th century: Opposition between pilgrims and British colonizers over Sangam space

British colonial administration of religious holidays, or (Melami), was conjugate with duality. Melas were large, potentially dangerous congregations of devout Hindus, holy people, and Brahmin clergymen, which the British felt needed to be carefully monitored. Nevertheless, they believed that the local population would not tolerate their intervention, especially in matters related to religion. If this restriction were broken, British dominance would be in jeopardy. State intervention in the conduct of chalk in the 19th century is a history of experimental interaction, fluctuating benevolence ^[1]

In Allahabad (modern Prayagraj), one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in Hindu geography, triveni (or Sangam - the confluence of three rivers, namely the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati) occupied the same place as the most strategically important node British military power in North India in the 19th century - Fort Allahabad.

Sangam (Ganges and Yamuna Mergers) and British Fort Location Map 1906, Kama McLean, 2003

These two claims to the same space serve as an excellent example of the confrontation between the ancient religious claims of Hindus and the need to ensure the safety of the colonizer on hostile and alien lands. They were forced to coexist, but for the British it was not easy coexistence of conflicting interests.

Following the example of Mughal rulers, the British were often forced to sacrifice the safety and integrity of Fort Allahabad to receive crowds of pilgrims and holy men, not only outside but also inside its walls. It was more problematic than it might seem at first glance. While the pilgrim was perceived as a typical villager in India, superstitious but easily influenced, British administrators suspected that "the mechanism of intrigue and subversion in India was a holy man" and that their gatherings during the pilgrimage provided opportunities for incitement that could undermine their power.

Other important participants in the mela were Brahmins or Pandits, known as Pragwals, who held services for pilgrims in trivia and whom the British disrespected.

In determining where administrative restrictions should be imposed, British officials did not cooperate with obvious religious elites such as the Sadhu (holy people) and the Pragwals, but listened to the opinions and approvals of ordinary pilgrims. In this scenario, the pilgrim, a simple, most likely prosperous villager who went to the chalk as a sign of faith, had more power than those whom he revered - the sadhus and Brahmins. This "pilgrim as a subject" and, much later, in the 20th century, "pilgrim as a citizen" is a distinctive feature of chalk management, showing who the British considered their target audience.

1796: Sadhu sects fight for Kumbha - the right to control the proceeds of the fair

Before the arrival of the British East India Company, Kumbh - a quasi-religious combination of trade and fighting - was under the control of the Akhars, or sects of the Sadhu, and Kumbh Mela was a meeting place for the Sadhu. The character of Kumbha reflected the role of sadhus at the time: as is well known, sadhus were shrewd traders and skilled warriors. Thomas Hardwick, who came to the Haridwar Fair in 1796 to buy cattle, witnessed a battle between the Achars fighting for the right to be the first to bathe in the river and control Kumbha. James Lochtefeld suggested that much was at stake as the Akhars "not only led the police, resolved disputes and administered justice, but also collected lucrative taxes on pilgrims, animals and goods" brought into the fair.

From the story of Hardwick, Lochtefeld concluded that "the right of the Sanyasins to manage this fair stemmed solely from their ability to gain power over it."

It seems that the fair in Allahabad was held on the same principle as in Haridwar, and the same ahars claimed primacy.

Notes