Tens of thousands of Hindus seeking absolution for their sins have immersed themselves this Monday in icy waters in the confluence of sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna with the mythical Sarasvati River, which appears in ancient scriptures.
Celebrated every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela or Great Jar Festival, As the religious event in the city of Prayagraj, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, is called, it attracts more than 400 million visitors over six weeks, both Indians and tourists.
Until 40,000 police officers They are on duty to ensure safety and help manage crowds, while surveillance cameras equipped with artificial intelligence ensure continuous surveillance. “It is our festival,” said Hazari ascetic Lala Mishra, who immersed himself before dawn, a time considered auspicious. “It is the only festival for hermits and monks, and we desperately look forward to it.”
Authorities hope Monday’s first ritual bath will attract more than 2.5 million visitors. Amid public warnings to walk in line without stopping anywhere, scores of protesters headed to bathing stalls to wait for sunrise at the confluence of the three sacred rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical, invisible Saraswati.
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as a “divine occasion” to bring together “countless numbers of people in a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture.” Organized every twelve years, this year’s edition will last until February 26.
Unprecedented logistics deployment
The last religious celebrations organized in 2019 in that city, formerly known as Allahabad, gathered 240 million faithful, according to the government. For comparison, the great annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca brought together 1.8 million believers in 2024.
Even for the most populous country in the world with 1.4 billion inhabitants, relatively accustomed to the logistics of massive celebrations, hosting the equivalent of the population of the United States and Canada is a major challenge. The organizers installed 150,000 bathrooms, 68,000 streetlights and a tent city on an area equivalent to two thirds of the New York island of Manhattan.
A crowd mainly from India but also from abroad already took their positions over the weekend. Jaishree ben Shahtilal took a three-day bus trip to arrive from the western state of Gujarat. “I have been waiting to bathe in the sacred river for a long time,” said the woman who made the journey with her neighbors. To emphasize her “Hindu culture,” Sonali Bandhyopadhya did not hesitate to travel from Nevada, in the western United States. Despite the rain, bathers began to occupy the banks of the rivers on Sunday between the drum beatingentourages of elephants and tractors loaded with statues of Hindu deities.
In the middle of the waters, monks dressed in orange robes and ascetics with their bodies blackened by ashes They distributed blessings left and right. The most impatient devotees did not wait for the official start of the celebrations at dawn on Monday to immerse themselves in the cold sacred waters.
“Once you’re in the water, you don’t feel the cold anymore,” said Chandrakant Nagve Patel, 56. “It’s like I’m one with God,” he added. Hindus believe that immersing themselves in these waters during the Kumbh Mela cleanses sins and brings salvation. The festival is based on a mythological battle between gods and demons to control a jar with the nectar of immortality. Hundreds of boats They are prepared for those who are not satisfied with bathing on the shore, but who want to go to the exact point of the supposed confluence between the three rivers, the two real and the third mythical.
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