{"id":9525,"date":"2025-01-13T14:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T09:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=9525"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T09:42:18","slug":"india-opens-giant-hindu-festival-for-400m-pilgrims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/asia\/india-opens-giant-hindu-festival-for-400m-pilgrims\/","title":{"rendered":"India opens giant Hindu festival for 400m pilgrims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters on Monday as the Kumbh Mela festival opened, with organisers expecting 400 million people<\/a> \u2014 the largest gathering<\/a> of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing \u2014 and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions \u2014 is held at the site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the cool pre-dawn gloom, pilgrims surged forward to begin bathing in the waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
Devotees rest on the river bank on the day they take a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers with the mythical, invisible Saraswati river during the \u201cMaha Kumbh Mela\u201d, or the Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India on January 13, 2025. \u2014 Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel great joy,\u201d said Surmila Devi, 45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s like bathing in nectar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesswoman Reena Rai\u2019s voice quivered with excitement as she spoke about the \u201creligious reasons\u201d that brought her to join the sprawling tents, packed along the river banks in the north Indian city of Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a Hindu, this is an unmissable occasion,\u201d said the 38-year-old, who travelled around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Madhya Pradesh state to take part in the festival, which runs from Monday until February 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saffron-robed monks and naked ash-smeared ascetics roamed the crowds offering blessings to devotees, many of whom had walked for weeks to reach the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massive congregation is also an occasion for India\u2019s Hindu nationalist government to burnish its credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a \u201cdivine occasion\u201d, that brings together \u201ccountless people in a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk and Uttar Pradesh\u2019s chief minister, welcomed devotees to \u201cexperience unity in diversity\u201d at the \u201cworld\u2019s largest spiritual and cultural gathering\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Scale of preparations\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Organisers say the scale of the Kumbh Mela is that of a temporary country \u2014 with numbers expected to total around the combined populations of the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome 350 to 400m devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,\u201d festival spokesperson Vivek Chaturvedi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
Hindu pilgrims take a dip in the sacred waters of Sangam, the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati riversduring the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 13, 2025. Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India began bathing in sacred waters on January 13, as the Kumbh Mela festival opened, with organisers expecting 400 million people \u2013 the largest gathering of humanity. \u2014 AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hindu monks carried huge flags of their respective sects, while tractors turned into chariots for life-size idols of Hindu gods rolled by behind them accompanied by elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrims exulted in the beat of drums and honking horns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organising authorities are calling it the great or \u201cMaha\u201d Kumbh Mela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018One with god\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The riverside in Prayagraj has turned into a vast sea of tents \u2014 some luxury, others simple tarpaulins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaishree Ben Shahtilal took three days to reach the holy site, journeying with her neighbours from Gujarat state in a convoy of 11 buses over three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have great faith in god,\u201d she said. \u201cI have waited for so long to bathe in the holy river.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
A woman devotee prays while taking a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers with the mythical, invisible Saraswati river during the \u201cMaha Kumbh Mela\u201d, or the Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India, January 13, 2025. \u2014 Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another 68,000 LED light poles have been erected for a gathering so large that its bright lights can be seen from space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last celebration at the site, the \u201cardh\u201d or half Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted<\/a> 240 million pilgrims, according to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That compares to an estimated 1.8 million Muslims who take part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian police said they were \u201cconducting relentless day-and-night patrols to ensure top-notch security\u201d for the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities and the police have also set up a network of \u201clost and found\u201d centres and an accompanying phone app to help pilgrims lost in the immense crowd \u201cto reunite with their families\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India is the world\u2019s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, and so is used to large crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"
Hindu pilgrims wait in a queue outside a temple to offer prayers after taking a holy dip in the sacred waters of Sangam, the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers, during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 13, 2025. \u2014 AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) overnight, but pilgrims said their faith meant their baths were not chilly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you are in the water, you don\u2019t even feel cold,\u201d said 56-year-old devotee Chandrakant Nagve Patel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like I was one with god.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hindus believe bathing there during the Kumbh helps cleanse sins and brings salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\u201d, said Savita Venkat, a teacher from the southern city of Bengaluru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government employee Bhawani Baneree, who had come from the western state of Maharashtra, said the \u201cvibrant atmosphere\u201d had made his long journey worthwhile. \u201cEverything is so beautiful\u201d, he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters on Monday as the Kumbh Mela festival opened, with organisers expecting 400 million people \u2014 the largest gathering of humanity. The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing \u2014 and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions \u2014 is held at the site where the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,84,396],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-india","category-latest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}