ESSENCE OF KUMBH MELA
DISCOVER KUMBH DISCOVER INDIA & DISCOVER YOURSELF
Festivals in sacred sites of India, called melas are a vital part of the pilgrimage traditions of Hinduism. Celebrating a mythological event in the life of a deity or an auspicious astrological period, the melas attract enormous numbers of pilgrims from all over the world.
The greatest of these, is a riverside festival held four times every twelve years, rotating between Allahabad at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers; Nasik on the Godavari River; Ujjain on the Shipra River and Haridwar on the Ganges River. Bathing in these rivers during the Kumbha Mela is considered an endeavor of great merit, cleansing both body and soul. The Allahabad and Haridwar festivals are routinely attended by five million or more pilgrims (13 million visited Allahabad in 1977, 18 million in 1989, and nearly 24 million in 2001) thus the Kumbha Mela is the largest and oldest religious gathering in the world.
THE ORIGIN AND TIMING OF THE FESTIVAL
There are two traditions for this, one that stems from ancient texts known as the Puranas, and the other that connects it with astrological considerations. According to the Puranic epics, the gods and demons had churned the milky ocean at the beginning of time in order to gather various divine treasures including a jar containing amrita, the nectar of immortality. As the jar emerged from the ocean the gods and demons began a terrific battle for its possession. For twelve days and twelve nights (equivalent to twelve human years) the gods and demons fought in the sky for the possession of the potion of immortality.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE KUMBH MELA
During the battle, which according to some legends the gods won by trickery, four drops of the precious potion fell to earth. These places became the sites of the four Kumbha Mela festivals. The astrological tradition (ascribed to a lost Puranic text and not traceable in existing editions) seems to derive from a very ancient festival called the Kumbha Parva (Mela), which occurred at Hardwar every twelfth year when Jupiter was in Aquarius and the sun entered Aries. At some later time the term ‘Kumbh’ was prefixed to the melas held at Nasik, Ujjain, Haridwar and Prayagraj (the earlier name of Allahabad), and these four sites became identified with the four mythical locations of the immortality potion.
HAPPENING OF KUMBH MELA
As per ancient scriptures of sanatan dharma, based on planetary positions the Kumbh Mela happens at various places.
It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites
The Normal Kumbh Mela
It is held every 3rd year.
The Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela
It is held every 6th year.
The Purna (complete) Kumbh Mela
It takes place every 12th year, at 4 places Prayagraj (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik.
The Maha Kumbh Mela
It takes place every 144th year (after 12 ‘Purna Kumbh Mela’).
BATH SIGNIFICANCE AS PER THE HINDU DEVOUT
The fact that hundreds of millions of people (coming from the most ancient and sophisticated philosophical and metaphysical system on earth) have for thousands of years believed this to be true suggests that an awesome power is indeed present at the Kumbha Mela sites.
In the case of those who give up their bodies after purifying themselves at Prayaga by bathing at the confluence of these two rivers – Ganga and Yamuna – the two wives of the ocean, there is no bondage of another body in a future birth and this liberation is achieved even without philosophical knowledge.