Kumbha Mela

Sacred site festivals in India, called melas, are a vital part of the pilgrimage tradition 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 country. The greatest of these, the Kumbha Mela, 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 Sipra River; and Hardwar on the Ganges River. Bathing in these rivers during the Kumbha Mela is considered an endeavor of great merit, cleansing both body and spirit. The Allahabad and Hardwar 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 religious gathering in the world. It is also one of the oldest.

Two traditions are in circulation regarding the origin and timing of the festival: one that stems from ancient texts known as the Puranas and the other that connects it with astrological considerations. According to the Puranic epic, the gods and demons churned the Milky Ocean at the beginning of time 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. The gods and demons fought in the sky to possess the immortality potion for twelve days and twelve nights (equivalent to twelve human years). 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, which occurred at Hardwar every twelfth year when Jupiter was in Aquarius, and the sun entered Aries. At some later time, the term 'Kumbha' was prefixed to the melas held at Nasik, Ujjain, and Prayaga (the earlier name of Allahabad), and these four sites became identified with the four mythical locations of the immortality potion. In theory, the Kumbha Mela festivals are supposed to occur every three years, rotating between the four cities. In practice, the four-city cycle may take eleven or thirteen years, and this is because of the difficulties and controversies in calculating the astrological conjunctions. Furthermore, the interval between the Kumbha Mela at Nasik and that at Ujjain is not three years; they are celebrated the same year or only a year apart. This deviation in practice is intriguing and cannot be fully explained by either astrological or mythological means. The following chart gives the astrological periods of the four melas and the years of their most recent and future occurrences:

Hardwar.....when Jupiter is in Aquarius and the Sun is in Aries during the Hindu month of Caitra (March-April); 1986, 1998, 2010, 2021.

Allahabad.....when Jupiter is in Aries or Taurus and the Sun and Moon are in Capricorn during the Hindu month of Magha (January-February); 1989, 2001, 2012, 2024.

Nasik.....when Jupiter and the Sun are in Leo in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (August-September); 1980, 1992, 2003, 2015.

Ujjain.....when Jupiter is in Leo and the Sun is in Aries, or when Jupiter, the Sun, and the Moon are in Libra during the Hindu month of Vaisakha (April-May); 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016.

The antiquity of the Kumbha Mela is shrouded in mystery. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsuan Tsang visited an Allahabad festival in the 7th century AD while in the company of King Harsavardhana. Tradition associates the 9th-century philosopher Sankaracharaya with the organization of the Kumbha Mela at Prayaga (Allahabad). Shankaracharya had established four monasteries in the north, south, east, and west of India and had called upon yogis, sadhus, and sages to meet at these sites to exchange philosophical views. Great distances separated these sites in the four cardinal directions; however, the more centrally located site of Prayaga became the meeting place of choice. Indologists speculate that during the 9th to 12th centuries, other monks and religious reformers perpetuated this periodic assemblage of sadhus and householders at sacred places on the banks of holy rivers to create an environment of mutual understanding amongst different religious sects. Additionally, the festival allowed householders to benefit from associating with the ordinarily reclusive sages and forest yogis. What was originally a regional festival at Prayaga thus became the preeminent pan-Indian pilgrimage site.

While many millions of Indians, male and female, young and old, layperson, and monk, visit the Allahabad Kumbha Mela, the festival is traditionally known as the mela of ascetics and sadhus. At the most auspicious hour on the most auspicious day of the month-long festival, many naked holy men from various sects will immerse themselves in the river for a ceremonial bath. After bathing the sadhus, millions of other people attempt to enter the river. For a devout Hindu, to bathe at the Kumbha Mela sites (especially Allahabad and Hardwar) at this auspicious time is considered an opportunity of immeasurable significance. This great religious fervor of so many people focused on so small an area of land and water has frequently resulted in hundreds of pilgrims being trampled to death as the masses surge towards the river banks. During the 1954 Kumbha at Allahabad, over 500 pilgrims were killed. The Indian government has taken measures to address this problem, yet little can be done when such a large number of pilgrims are involved.

Furthermore, it is important to note that many Hindus consider the Kumbha Mela sites to be the most favored places at which to die, and ritual suicide, though discouraged by the government, is still practiced. Westerners are bewildered, even shocked, by this matter and frequently make judgments without understanding the mythological, religious, and cultural reasons behind the behavior. While it is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss the subject in detail, it is interesting to focus on the origin myth of the Kumbha Mela festival. Four drops of a nectar or potion of immortality were supposed to have fallen to earth at these sites. At particular astrological periods, the four sites are believed to function as portals into immortality and everlasting union with god. How did such myths arise, and what is the message encoded encoded in them? Perhaps some energy, some mysterious spirit or power, manifests at these places and times that somehow assists human beings to experience spiritual immortality and divinity more fully. The fact that hundreds of millions of people (coming from the most ancient and sophisticated philosophical and metaphysical system on earth) have believed this to be true for thousands of years suggests that awesome power exists 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.
—Raghuvamsa 13-58

For additional information:

• List of India Sacred Sites