World\’s biggest gathering of Hindu faith on banks of Ganges

They come together in a riotous burst of spirituality and colour once every 12 years - the ash-smeared ascetics, the fearsome Naga seers, the devout and the frankly curious. And they did so this year too when the banks of the Ganges in northern India\’s Haridwar town rocked to the spirit of the world\’s largest gathering of Hindu devotees and other seekers at the Maha Kumbh Mela.

Fasting, feasting and ceremonial bathing, millions of pilgrims, cutting across colour, creed, race and social divides, converged upon the little temple town known as the gateway to the abode of Lord Shiva from Jan 14 onwards.

The fair was spread across 130 km around Haridwar, with pilgrims being housed in 72 mega tent townships. In Haridwar, the tents - offering every category of comfort - spread across the undulating plain like a giant shroud. The town resembled a sprawling camp ready for war.

The Naga sadhus with dreadlocks who came down from their icy retreats in the Himalayas to saffron clad itinerants, NRIs, thousands of foreigners and devotees from the all over the country… all jostled for space in the river at Brahma Kund, the main bathing enclave along the embanked stretch of the Ganga at Har ki Pauri, to carry home a drop of immortality and purity.

The Maha Kumbh Mela traces its origin to the mythical battle between the gods and demons (devas and asuras) over the pot (kumbh) of \”nectar of immortality scripted in the Vedas.\”

Pilgrims believe that when the churning of the oceans threw up the pot of nectar of immortality, the gods had to safeguard it from the demons. Lord Vishnu\’s carrier Garuda, the king of eagles, flew away with the elixir. Four drops spilled at Hardwar, Prayag, Ujjain and Nashik - where the Kumbh Mela is held to this day. It marks the triumph of good over evil and the beginning of a prosperous cycle in the world,\” seer Radheshyam Maharaj, a member of the Juna Akhada sect, told IANS.

He said the \”Maha Kumbh Mela recurred every 12 years in each of the four venues when Jupiter entered the sign of Aquarius and the sun entered Aries\”. The Kumbh Mela, a smaller version of the gathering, is celebrated every four years in each of these four locations.

One of the important bathing days on Jan 15 coincided with an annular solar eclipse this year- for the first time since 1914.

The Maha Kumbh Mela is about the dymanics of numbers - telling an essentially Indian story. Officials refuse to cite specific figures about the number of pilgrims, but it runs into several millions.

For this visiting correspondent, the fair was like a microcosm bringing the world to a riverbank. Even those who didn\’t happen to be Hindus.

Asma Khan, 30, an ethnic Indian Muslim from Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India, and her husband, Ananda, an astrologer from the US, merged with the throng of devotees that overran the concrete banks as they went down the steps into the river.

A light evening mist was settling over the gushing waters of the narrow embanked stretch of the river at Har Ki Pauri - home to shrines of Lord Shiva, Ganga Maiyya and a pantheon of Hindu deities hemmed into a chicken-neck of elevated space.

\”We want to bathe in the river, pray to Lord Shiva and Devi ma for redemption so that they open up our souls,\” the couple chorused.

\”I always wanted to visit the Kumbh Mela and my husband, a Shiva devotee, insisted that we camp in India for four months during the Maha Kumbh,\” Asma, who arrived at Haridwar with her husband from Iowa in the US on Jan 13, told IANS.

Her faith did not stand in the way, for the couple fitted into the crowd of NRIs and foreigners who made it to Haridwar this year.

Feb 12 was Mahashivratri, when Lord Shiva married goddess Parvati, according to Hindu mythology. It was also the day of the first \’shahi snan (royal bath)\’ when ascetics belonging to seven \’akhadas\’ (sects) owing allegiance to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu took their first ritual dip in the river.

The mendicants, who had been camping outside the city of Haridwar, arrived on Jan 30 in a procession known as the Peshwai.

\”The procession should not be confused with the royal bath. It is the day when the seers enter the Mahakumbh venue in a ritual march,\” Anand Vardhan, in-charge of the fair, said.

The procession, which resembled a cavalcade, ferried the seers in a spiritual hierarchy.

While the leaders of the spiritual sects rode on elephants, the warrior sadhus galloped on horses. The foot soldiers, or the defenders of faith, marched with lances, sticks and swords to the sound of drums, conch shells and devotional hymns. The devotees lining either side of the approach road to Har ki Pauri showered flowers on them.

The most powerful of the sects is the Juna Akhada, an order owing allegiance to the holy trinity or the deity Dattareya. It comprises thousands of Naga seers.

\”According to traditional beliefs members of the Juna Akhada are the first to bathe on the day of Shahi Snans,\” Vardhan said.

Faith on the banks played out in glorious technicolour. It was euphoria for the \”devoted\”, awe for the \”first-timers\” and business for the scores of tour operators, hawkers and priests.

\”India is a land where people from the west seek peace and spirituality and the Maha Kumbh Mela should showcase the essence of Indian spirituality,\” Rishikesh-based seer Swami Chidanand Swarasati said. The Naga seers, on their part, campaigned for a cleaner Ganga and a litter-free Himalayas.