India’s Maha Kumbh Mela festival gets under way for first time in 144 years

The world’s largest religious gathering kicked off on Monday as millions of Hindu devotees gathered on the banks of Ganges in India to mark the beginning of the Maha Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela pilgrimage takes place every 12 years and is widely seen as the “festival of festivals” in the Hindu religious calendar in India, attended by a vibrant mix of sadhus or holy men, ascetics, pilgrims and tourists. This year’s celebration is particularly significant as the Maha or grand Kumbh Mela only takes places every 144 years, marking the 12th Kumbh Mela and a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter. More than 400 million people, the biggest crowd in its history, are expected to attend this year’s festivities, which will be held over 45 days in Prayagraj in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Prayagraj is considered particularly holy to Hindus because it is home to Triveni Sangam, the sacred confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers. Over the course of the gathering, there are several shahi san, holy bathing days when the devotees immerse themselves in the waters in the belief it will purify the soul. The exact origin of the Kumbh Mela is debated among historians, but Hindus believe it goes back to the legend of Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean, described in ancient scriptures as when Lord Vishnu spilled drops of the elixir of immortality from his kumbh, or urn, at four spots on Earth – believed to be the Indian cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. Each of these sacred locations has hosted the Kumbh Mela on a rotational basis for centuries, but the Prayagraj event is considered the most important and spectacular. In the buildup to the festival, which will continue till 26 February, fervent colourful processions have marked the arrival of the 13 akharas, the ancient monastic sects of warrior sadhus who travel from across the country to participate in the spectacle. There has historically been fierce competition and bloodshed between the akharas, whose members have fought violently on many occasions and died in their thousands over who gets to take part in the holy bathing ritual first. The scale and grandeur of this year’s festivities is expected to exceed all previous iterations, in a nod to the Kumbh Mela’s religious but also political significance. This is seen to have become more overt under the current Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government, which rules in the centre of the country and in Uttar Pradesh. The festival is viewed by many as a potent – and politically advantageous – symbol of Hindu unity and power, and this year’s celebrations are expected to be the most expensive on record, backed by vast state resources and a huge PR campaign. According to reports, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the hardline Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, and his BJP state government have spent more than 70bn rupees (£670m) on infrastructure and sanitation projects for the Maha Kumbh Mela, while the faces of Adityanath and the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, have been splashed on promotional material for the festival nationwide. The festivities are also said to be among the most polarised in memory. Muslim vendors said the authorities had barred them from setting up stalls for the first time, and Muslim taxi drivers said they had explicitly been told they were not allowed to take custom from Hindu pilgrims. Mahant Durganand Brahmachari, one of the festival’s most senior priests, described the Kumbh Mela as “a great convergence of humans, gods and our sacred rivers” and condemned attempts to sow religious divisions. “What bothers me this time is how some people are trying to polarise the atmosphere on communal lines,” he said. “There has to be peaceful coexistence and hate should have no place. We see some people are trying to create Hindu-Muslim tensions.” There has also been a concerted effort to bring in digital innovations in an effort to help solve some of the age-old problems of the chaotic festivities. The Kumbh Mela mobile app will help pilgrims navigate the 15-square mile (40-square kilometre) maze of temples, bathing spots, food stalls, medical tents and missing persons booths, while an AI-powered chatbot that functions in 11 languages will help to answer any logistical and spiritual questions over WhatsApp. To solve the perennial problem of pilgrims getting lost and separated, each one will be given a radio frequency wristband to help locate those who go missing. Thousands of underwater and aerial drones will be deployed to help monitor security and movement, and a light show involving more than 2,000 drones will illuminate the skies with tales from Hindu mythology. With additional reporting by Aakash Hassan