PRAYAGRAJ, India — On Monday, the northern city of Prayagraj welcomed millions of Hindu devotees, mystics, and holy individuals to kick off the Maha Kumbh festival, praised as the largest religious gathering globally.
Over the next six weeks, Hindu pilgrims are set to congregate at the confluence of three revered rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the legendary Saraswati. Here, participants will engage in intricate rituals, aspiring to embark on a spiritual journey towards the ultimate goal of Hindu philosophy: liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
Here’s some essential information about the festival:
This gathering is particularly significant as it occurs at the intersection of three sacred rivers. In Hinduism, rivers hold immense veneration, with the Ganges and Yamuna being the most esteemed. Many believe that bathing in their waters can absolve them of past sins and halt the cycle of reincarnation, especially during auspicious moments. Key auspicious days arise every 12 years during the Maha Kumbh Mela, also known as the pitcher festival.
The tradition of this festival, which involves ritual baths taken by holy men known as sadhus, has roots dating back to at least the medieval period. According to belief, the mythical Saraswati river once flowed through Prayagraj, joining the Ganges and the Yamuna.
Daily bathing occurs, but on particularly significant dates, ash-covered monks rush into the rivers at the break of dawn. Numerous pilgrims stay for the entire duration of the festival, practicing austerity, distributing alms, and partaking in daily sunrise baths.
“Here, we find tranquility and attain freedom from the cycles of life and death,” shared pilgrim Bhagwat Prasad Tiwari.
The festival has historical connections to a Hindu tale where the deity Vishnu retrieved a golden pitcher that held the nectar of immortality from demons. It is believed that drops of this nectar fell in Prayagraj, along with three other cities: Nasik, Ujjain, and Haridwar, which are all sites of the Kumbh festival enduring through the ages.
The Kumbh festival rotates among these four locations approximately every three years, determined by astrology. This year’s event is anticipated to be the grandest yet, following a smaller version held in 2019 that attracted 240 million visitors, with roughly 50 million bathing on the peak day.
At least 400 million attendees are expected over the next 45 days in Prayagraj, dwarfing last year’s influx of 2 million pilgrims to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina during the Hajj pilgrimage. This major gathering poses a significant challenge for Indian authorities aiming to showcase the Hindu religion, tourism, and efficient crowd management.
A vast area along the rivers has been transformed into a large tent city featuring over 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 restrooms. This tent city, segmented into 25 sections and covering 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), also provides housing, roadways, electricity, water supplies, communication systems, and 11 hospitals. The walls are adorned with murals illustrating tales from Hindu scriptures.
Additionally, Indian Railways has launched over 90 special trains to accommodate nearly 3,300 trips throughout the festival alongside regular train services.
Security is another key focus, with around 50,000 personnel deployed to ensure order and manage crowds, reflecting a 50% increase since 2019. More than 2,500 surveillance cameras, some equipped with AI capabilities, will relay crowd activity to four central control rooms, enabling quick deployment to prevent overcrowding and chaos.
The festival also bears political significance, as previous leaders have utilized its prominence to strengthen their ties with the predominantly Hindu population, which comprises nearly 80% of India’s 1.4 billion citizens. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the festival has been leveraged to promote a narrative of Hindu nationalism. Modi’s governance promotes a view that Indian civilization is deeply intertwined with Hinduism, although some critics argue that this fosters a sense of Hindu superiority.
Uttar Pradesh, led by Adityanath, a prominent Hindu monk and a fierce politician in Modi’s party, has allocated over $765 million for this year’s festival. The event is being used to enhance the images of both Adityanath and Modi, with numerous billboards and posters throughout the city featuring their likeness along with messages praising their government initiatives.
While the festival aims to further bolster the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s support among Hindu cultural symbols, it has not been without controversies. Modi’s government previously renamed the city from Allahabad to Prayagraj amid a nationwide policy of changing Muslim-associated names to Hindu ones in advance of the 2019 festival and the subsequent election victory for his party. In 2021, despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, officials hesitated to cancel the festival in Haridwar due to concerns over backlash from religious leaders in this Hindu-majority nation.
