Millions of Hindu devotees gather in UP's Prayagraj as world's largest pilgrimage Maha Kumbh Mela begins today

Over the next six weeks starting today, a whopping 400 million people are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited people from all over the world to attend the festival, recognized by UNESCO in 2017 as an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”

The Uttar Pradesh govenment has been promoting the event not just as a religious gathering but as a cultural spectacle that in the past has attracted both Bollywood and Hollywood stars.

Around 160,000 tents, 150,000 toilets and a 776-mile (1,249-kilometer) drinking water pipeline have been installed at a temporary tent city covering 4,000 hectares, roughly the size of 7,500 football fields.

As per traditions, devotees bathe in the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of three holy rivers – the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – to purify their sins and take another step closer to “spiritual liberation.”

The Kumbh draws upon Hindu mythology and the legend of demons and gods fighting over a pitcher containing the elixir of immortality. During the fight, four drops from the pitcher fell on Earth, in Prayagraj, Nashik, Haridwar and Ujjain, which host the festival in rotation.

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The festival is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to mark every revolution Brihaspati (Jupiter) completes.

Kumbh is mainly held at four riverside pilgrimage sites, namely: Prayagraj (Ganges-Yamuna-Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra).

The other rejuvenated Kumbh Mela is celebrated at Bansberia Tribeni Sangam in West Bengal at the confluence of Hooghly and Saraswati rivers, which dates back thousands of years but was stopped 700 years ago. However, this Kumbh Mela has been reopened since 2022.

The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass gatherings of monks, and entertainment.

The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to prāyaścitta (atonement, penance, restorative action) for past mistakes and that it cleanses them of their sins.

During the Last Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013, dozens of people were killed and injured in a crowd crush at a railway station as pilgrims gathered in the city.

This year, officials have put safety measures in place to protect visitors, including a security ring with checkpoints around the city staffed by more than 1,000 police officers.