[98], Numerous sites and fairs have been locally referred to be their Kumbh Melas. [70], The Kumbh melas of the past, albeit with different regional names, attracted large attendance and have been religiously significant to the Hindus for centuries. [25] The festival is observed over many days, with the day of Amavasya attracting the largest number on a single day. [87], During World War II, the colonial government banned the Kumbh Mela to conserve scarce supplies of fuel. Hindu Family in River Ganges Hinduism Religion Pilgrimage KS2 Create your own Hindu Family in River Ganges Hinduism Religion Pilgrimage KS2 themed poster, display banner, bunting, display lettering, labels, Tolsby frame, story board, colouring sheet, card, bookmark, wordmat and many other classroom essentials in Twinkl Create using this, and thousands of other handcrafted illustrations. Kumbh Mela and The Sadhus,(English, Paperback, Badri Narain and Kedar Narain) Pilgrims Publishings, India. Others believe the Ganges offers actual salvation. [96], For the 2019 Allahabad Kumbh Mela, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the Ardh Kumbh Mela (organised every 6 years) will simply be known as "Kumbh Mela", and the Kumbh Mela (organised every 12 years) will be known as "Maha Kumbh Mela" ("Great Kumbh Mela"). Monier Monier Williams (Updated 2006), Sanskrit English Dictionary with Etymology. The River Ganges is important in its own right. [75] The British officials in co-operation with the native police also made attempts to improve the infrastructure, movement of pilgrims to avoid a stampede, detect sickness, and the sanitary conditions at the Melas. [36][37], This Hindu legend describes the creation of a "pot of amrita (nectar of immortality)" after the forces of good and evil churn the ocean of creation. This word too is found in the Rigveda and other ancient Hindu texts. [7][8], The festival is traditionally credited to the 8th-century Hindu philosopher and saint Adi Shankara, as a part of his efforts to start major Hindu gatherings for philosophical discussions and debates along with Hindu monasteries across the Indian subcontinent. [108], Other activities at the mela include religious discussions (pravachan), devotional singing (kirtan), and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardised (shastrartha). He goes to a saint, who advises him to go on a pilgrimage to Prayag and bathe in river Ganges as a means of penance. [61] The Kumbh Melas have been one of their recruitment and initiation venues, as well as the place to trade. To die here is to escape the cycle of reincarnation and achieve instant salvation.” So not only do people immerse themselves with hopes of erasing their bad deeds, but families bring loved ones on the edge of death because to die at the Ganges River is to achieve immediate salvation, whatever they believe that to be. [109] The pilgrimage is also recommended in Hindu texts to those who have made mistakes or sinned, repent their errors and as a means of prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for these mistakes. [61] By the 18th-century, many of these had organised into one of thirteen akharas (warrior ascetic bands, monastic militia), of which ten were related to Hinduism and three related to Sikhism. If someone died before making it to the river, then family members will take their ashes to the Ganges as soon as possible. Many then proceed to visit old Hindu temples near the site. [93] In 2013, 120 million pilgrims attended the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad. Hindu scriptures dating back two thousand years attest to ancient irrigation systems along the riverbanks. Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, Dr. Krishna Gopal, Phal S. Girota, 2003. 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. On 28 April 2010, BBC reported an audio and a video report on Kumbh Mela, titled "Kumbh Mela 'greatest show on earth. The Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh lists the following melas: an annual mela and a Kumbh Mela every 12 years at Haridwar; a mela held at Trimbak when Jupiter enters Leo (that is, once in 12 years); and an annual mela held at Prayag in Magh. [46], There are other references to Prayaga and river-side festivals in ancient Indian texts, including at the places where present-day Kumbh Melas are held, but the exact age of the Kumbh Mela is uncertain. [101], The Kumbh mela attracts tens of millions of pilgrims. You never know how God may use that prayer in the future. At night the river banks and camps illuminated with oil lamps, fireworks burst over the river, and innumerable floating lamps set by the pilgrims drifted downstream of the river. Thousands take holy dip in river Ganges to mark Hindu festival - YouTube. Since Jupiter's orbit completes in 11.86 years, a calendar year adjustment appears in approximately 8 cycles. Seven have belonged to the Shaivism tradition, three to Vaishnavism, two to Udasis (founded by Guru Nanak's son) and one to Nirmalas. [6] As early as one thousand years before Christ, people who would eventually be known as Hindus viewed the Ganges as a birthplace of the divine. The relative years vary between the four sites, but the cycle repeats about every 12 years. Going on pilgrimage is a sacred duty for many faiths. The right to be naga, or naked, is considered a sign of separation from the material world. Indian authorities had to manage 250 million festivalgoers. Historically the Kumbh Melas were also major commercial events, initiation of new recruits to the akharas, prayers and community singing, spiritual discussions, education and a spectacle. [15][16] Other places where the Magha-Mela or Makar-Mela bathing pilgrimage and fairs have been called Kumbh Mela include Kurukshetra,[17][18] Sonipat,[19] and Panauti (Nepal). [84], The Kumbh Mela continued to play an important role in the independence movement through 1947, as a place where the native people and politicians periodically gathered in large numbers. In 1964, the Vishva Hindu Parishad was founded at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela. [56] The latter Akbar-era Persian text calls Prayag (spells it Priyag) the "king of shrines" for the Hindus, and mentions that it is considered particularly holy in the Hindu month of Magha. Historically, the river has been a generous source of agricultural and economic opportunities for India’s various ruling parties. Rachel Cohen is a content editor for imb.org. [6], Maha Kumbh at Allahabad is the largest in the world, the attendance and scale of preparation of which keeps rising with each successive celebration. [103] In the case of Prayag in particular, the festival site is predominantly submerged during the monsoon months. In 2016, an estimated 5.9 million people visited. [86], The historical and modern estimates of attendance vary greatly between sources. Therefore, approximately once a century, the Kumbh mela returns to a site after 11 years. Hindus wade in waist-deep, scoop water in their hands or in a bowl, then pour it back out into the river while saying a mantra or a prayer to a god. The river is worshipped by Hindus as the goddess Ganga, and all along its course Hindus bathe in its waters. [55] An early account of the Haridwar Kumbh Mela was published by Captain Thomas Hardwicke in 1796 CE. [74], Prior to 1838, the British officials collected taxes but provided no infrastructure or services to the pilgrims. Ganges River, Hindi Ganga great river of the plains of the northern Indian subcontinent. [62][65][66] At the 1760 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, a clash broke out between Shaivite Gosains and Vaishnavite Bairagis (ascetics), resulting in hundreds of deaths. Waves of people continued to arrive throughout Monday night to bathe in the Ganges river, considered sacred by Hindus. Between 1892 and 1908, in an era of major famines, cholera and plague epidemics in British India, the pilgrimage dropped to between 300,000 and 400,000. [52] In contrast, Ariel Glucklich – a scholar of Hinduism and Anthropology of Religion, the Xuanzang memoir includes, somewhat derisively, the reputation of Prayag as a place where people (Hindus) once committed superstitious devotional suicide to liberate their souls, and how a Brahmin of an earlier era successfully put an end to this practice. Two major groups that participate in the Kumbh Mela include the Sadhus (Hindu holy men) and pilgrims. Instead, the cloudy water inside the bottle is believed to provide far more than hydration—healing, blessing, even salvation. Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred river. The Hindu god Shiva is often depicted with the River Ganges flowing from the top of his head. churning of the ocean) found in the Vedic texts. If you’re within a reasonable distance of the Ganges River in India, that question probably isn’t intended to satisfy a parched tongue. Many pilgrims practice partial (one meal a day) or full vrata (day-long fasting), some abstain from elaborate meals. “I didn’t feel a thing.”. According to Baranwal et al., their 13-day field study of the 2013 Kumbh mela found that "the Mela committee and all other agencies involved in Mela management successfully supervised the event and made it convenient, efficient and safe,"[103] an assessment shared by the US-based Center for Disease Control for the Nasik Kumbh mela. [78], Several stampedes have occurred at the Kumbh Melas. Along with priests, soldiers, and religious mendicants, the fair had horse traders from Bukhara, Kabul, Turkistan as well as Arabs and Persians. When the man surfaced and made his way to shore, my friend asked, “Did it work?” accurately guessing the man came to achieve something. [71][72] This changed particularly after 1857. After an 1820 stampede at Haridwar killed 485 people, the Company government took extensive infrastructure projects, including the construction of new ghats and road widening, to prevent further stampedes. [61] These monastic groups traditionally credit the Kumbh mela to the 8th-century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara, as a part of his efforts to start monastic institutions (matha),[63] and major Hindu gatherings for philosophical discussions and debates. With every new authority—the Mauryans, the Mughals, the British, and now Indians—industries dependent on the Ganges were developed to provide a wellspring of economical and practical well-being. Varanasi is considered India’s most holy city for that very reason. Hindu pilgrims descended on the banks of the Ganges river Thursday, shrugging off Covid-19 risks for the start of the Kumbh Mela, a religious festival that regularly attracts millions. [30][35] Thus, Kumbh Mela means an "assembly, meet, union" around "water or nectar of immortality". This and other details such as the names of temples and bathing pools suggest that Xuanzang presented Hindu practices at Prayag in the 7th-century, from his Buddhist perspective and perhaps to "amuse his audience back in China", states Glucklich. [120] Amrita Kumbher Sandhane, a 1982 Bengali feature film directed by Dilip Roy, also documents the Kumbh Mela. Jupiter in Aries, Sun and Moon in Capricorn; Jupiter in Leo and Sun in Aries; or Jupiter, Sun, and Moon in Libra on Kartik Amavasya, 3 Sikh akharas: Bara Panchayati Udasins, Chota Panchayati Udasins, and Nirmal, The Purna Kumbh Mela (sometimes just called. [92] Another estimate states that about 30 million attended the 2001 Kumbh mela on the busiest mauni amavasya day alone. [55] Manuscripts related to Hindu ascetics and warrior-monks – akharas fighting the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire era – mention bathing pilgrimage and a large periodic assembly of Hindus at religious festivals associated with bathing, gift-giving, commerce and organisation. From time immemorial it has been the holy river of Hinduism. [80] The various Kumbh melas, in the 19th- and 20th-century witnessed sporadic stampedes, each tragedy leading to changes in how the flow of pilgrims to and from the river and ghats was managed.