jenny b

Many people hear I went to the Kumbh Mela and look aghast. The respect I get from them implies both doubt of my sanity and amazement that I survived untrampled. Fair enough. Though the Kumbh Mela is one of the most ancient and important Hindu festivals, and many millions of pilgrims attend (and survive) the event each year it is held, it does have a history of mishaps (this year included). Its reputation is revered though slightly feared.

The getting there was a bit crazy (overnight train to Delhi, followed by an epic 6 turned 18-hour bus ride) and the being there was a bit overwhelming, though wholly mystifying. I don’t think I fully comprehended what we were undertaking until the early morning hours of that bus ride, as we sat in a complete stand-still of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Vehicles of all kinds, filled to the brim with faithful pilgrims determined to take a sacred dip in the Mother Ganga. I’ve never seen anything like it – the entire experience – and I left reeling from the thought that I could not imagine an event in the “West,” let alone anywhere else in the world, that would draw that number of people and amount of dedication.

I warn you now: this is a long one. The Kumbh Mela is an event of epic proportions. I took nearly 400 photos in those two days (many of which were ‘anonymous’ shots from the hip – literally). You may just want to take a (guilt-free) scan through the following sixty-some-odd shots I thought best depicted the scene. However, if you’re interested in details of the event’s history and some of my impressions and experiences, then read on. Either way, enjoy!

Thought to be the world’s largest religious gathering, this celestial, months-long event is rich in mythology, astrology, and history. And like all things in India, it’s a bit complicated.

The primary festival is held once in four different locations along the Ganges, every 12 years. As the sun was in Aries, this year’s event was held in Haridwar, a religiously-significant city that lies in the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh. Most reports suggest that 50 million devotees descended upon Haridwar over the course of the Kumbh’s three months. There were reportedly between 10 and 15 million people while we were there. Every 144 years, following 12 of the primary Kumbhs, an even larger event is held: 2001′s ‘mega’ event in Allahabad reported 100 million in attendance – that’s equal to 1/3 of the U.S. population or 30 times the number of people who make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. (There is also another, smaller, Kumbh that is held in only two of the locations, every six years… like I said, complicated). All this timing has to do with planetary alignment and a special combination of zodiacal positions of Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The rest is… mythology. And deep, pure faith.

According to Vedic Mythology, an elixir of immortality, ‘Amrita,’ was spilled onto twelve places during a scuffle of gods and demons; eight of which are in heaven, the other four on earth, along the Ganges - and these are the four locations where the festival is celebrated. The actual spot thought to have been doused with ‘Amrita’ in Haridwar is what is now called ‘Brahma Kund’ at the Har-Ki-Pauri bathing ghat – considered the most auspicious ghat for a dip in the city.

Written record of the event first appears in mid-600 BC by a Chinese traveler, however it’s observance dates back many centuries to India’s ancient Vedic period and appears in a number of India’s ancient texts including the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana, the Mahabharata, and the Ramayana.

The Kumbh Mela is open to all and is caste and creed-free. Devotees from all branches of Hinduism come together for the sacred event; those from the more militant Hindu orders and the infamous mendicant Nagas (naked spiritual men) as well as “everyday” men, women and children. Of course, the event also attracts media from around the world as well as a multitude of tourists all eager to see the enormous event in action.

Though Arjun is Indian (raised both in New York and Delhi) neither he, or anyone in his family is at all religious. Even still, he anticipated the sacredness of the opportunity to take a holy dip in the Ganga during this special event and was timidly-anxious to find the right spot. After wandering around through the crowds the first night, we found a nice (uniquely) quiet ghat near our hotel for his sin-absolving plunge.

The following day, after a good night’s rest, Arjun, Louise (our newest fellow Seva volunteer friend from England/France), and I headed out into the masses to get a better sense of the scene. We wanted to make our way to the main bathing ghat, Har-Ki-Paurti, and it was not difficult to determine the way. A tremendous mass of people were all going in and coming from the same direction, so we just hopped in and held our hats!

We three were in awe of the sheer number of people moving like animals along the road, in fact we often felt just like we were being herded; and a few times the thought of getting trampled, if things went badly for some reason, did not seem at all far fetched.

For the most part, I was in complete awe of the entire spectacle. From the first night’s bottlenecked roads packed with pilgrims to the day’s main streets of Haridwar jam-packed with people of all ages, most loaded with their meager belongings. I knew that some of these people had been traveling days, weeks, even months with the sole mission of getting here. Fulfilling an extraordinary ritual of bathing in their sacred river at this precise time. Honestly, I feel completely inept at adequately describing the magnitude of this experience. Thus, I’ll let Mark Twain’s words in 1895 give it a shot (thanks wikipedia):

It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvelous to our kind of people, the cold whites.

The Kumbh Mela is full of religious activities: discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and the poor, and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardized. The real draw for the event, however, is in the ritual bath in the most holy of rivers at the most sacred of times. To bathe in the Mother Ganga during the Kumbh Mela is to wash a lifetime of sins, find salvation, and to demonstrate your utmost faith and devotion.

It is also believed that at the time of Kumbh Mela, the water of the Ganga is positively charged with healing effects and enhanced by electromagnetic radiations of the Sun, Moon and Jupiter. Every year, teams of astrologers gather to determine the most auspicious moment for the bathing to begin.

Throughout the day we saw make-shift camps and a multitude of people taking refuge in the shade. The day was outrageously hot, somewhere in the range of 100 degrees, and the sun was relentlessly intense. For the most part though the pilgrims were on the move, headed to the ultimate of ultimate destinations.

The most sacred bathing ghat in Haridwar is the Har-Ki-Pauri Ghat. It is said to have been constructed in the 6th Century AD by King Vikramaditya in honor of his brother who had meditated there. It is also the point where the Ganges spills from the Himalayas into the plains and is said to be christened by Lord Vishnu’s footprint (which is imprinted on a stone kept in a highly visited temple). It is considered the most powerful place to bathe in the river and where we and most of the masses were headed.

Once we finally made it to Har-Ki-Pauri Ghat we were exhausted and hungry, as well as daunted by the realization that we were really only half-way through our day’s journey. We stopped for a delicious and cheap lunch of Chola Bhatura (yummy chick pea masala with fried bread) and began the long trek back to our hotel. We were not surprised to see that many others remained on the same trek.

I had come to the Kumbh Mela saying that I had little interest in getting into the river, well-known to have dubious water quality. However, after reeling in the energy of the day and sweltering in a 6-hour walking tour of the event, a dip in the Ganga seemed a fitting end to the day. And I chuckled at the idea that perhaps I would be washed of all of my cow-eating sins. The chilly, fast-moving water was wonderfully refreshing and, finally, I felt as I had fully experienced the Kumbh.

If you haven’t had enough, this website has some great photos and videos of past Kumbh Mela events and CBS was here this year to do a story on the event; the clip can be seen here.