take me to the river, the kumbh mela, Prayagraj, India

 

 

When demons and gods still walked the earth Hindu mythology tells of a battle for the nectar of life, which was produced from the churning of the milk ocean and placed into a pot (kumbh). The coveted kumbh was spirited over India by the physician of the gods, who, en route to paradise stopped to rest in four places. Allahabad is the most auspicious of these because of the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers at the Sangam.

 

There is a mela (fair) here every year, a half or ardh mela every six years, a full or kumbh mela every twelve years and a maha kumbh mela every one hundred and forty four years. On these occasions the banks of the river are turned into a religious fairground or hypermarket as millions of pilgrims come to bathe in the sacred rivers and wash away their sins.

 

I first attended the ardh mela of 2007 which on its busiest day had an estimated 20 million pilgrims present. Then I attended the maha kumbh mela of 2013 which lasted a marathon 55 days and attracted a guesstimated 30 - 40 million people on Mauni Amavasya, the main bathing day, and 100-120 million people across the length of the festival. However, both of these festivals were eclipsed by the greatest festival to date -  the maha kumbh mela of 2025. With an estimated 440 million attendees over the length of the festival and 75 million pilgrims attending on Mauni Amavasya to bathe in the rivers. No matter the number of pilgrims attending the mela, it is without doubt both the biggest temporary (or even permanent) city on the earth and the largest single congregation of people on the planet, making this the largest ever gathering of humankind.