Kumbh mela

Kumbh Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik, and Ujjain. 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 feedings of monks or the poor, and entertainment spectacle. The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes, and that it cleanses them of their sins.

History

The exact age of the festival is uncertain. According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu dropped drops of Amrita (the drink of immortality) at four places, while transporting it in a kumbha (pot). These four places are identified as the present-day sites of the Kumbh Mela. The name "Kumbh Mela" literally means "kumbha fair". It is known as "Kumbh" in Hindi (कुम्भ) and in Sanskrit and some other Indian languages, it is more often known by its original name, "Kumbha".

Rituals

The primary event of the festival is a ritual bath at the banks of the rivers in each town. Other activities include religious discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardized. Some of these activities are organized by the Akhadas and others by the ashrams. Kumbh Mela is the most sacred of all the pilgrimages. Thousands of holy men and women (monks, saints, sadhus) attend, and the auspiciousness of the festival is in part attributable to this.

Significance

The festival is the largest peaceful gathering of pilgrims on earth. The Mela is a major event for the Hindu religious as it is considered to be a culturally significant symbol of Hindu religion. The festival is one of the means by which Hindus express their devotion to God, and the holiness of the event is encapsulated in the belief that those who bathe in the sacred waters during the Kumbh are eternally blessed by the divine. All these factors make Kumbh Mela an important event in the spiritual landscape of India.

See Also

• Hindu Pilgrimage Sites in India
• Hindu Festivals
• Ritual purification