Jal - Kumbh - Mahakumbh 2025

Feb. 24, 2025  https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18LorSq1cn/

"जल में कुम्भ, कुम्भ में जल है, बाहर भीतर पानी। फूटा कुम्भ जल जलहिं समाना, यह तथ्य कथो ग्यानी।।"

As I reflect on the Maha Kumbh around the holy waters of Prayagraj, I am glad to recall Kabirdas ji, thus. As water in the kumbh gets one with the water of the ocean, when the pot shatters, so may the breaking of this frame lead us to the unity of our limited self to the Ultimate Self, the param atman.

I have been in and about Uttar Pradesh (UP) from 1980 till 1990. Thereafter, occasional visits, and for the last two years back again on a full-time assignment. My earlier stint was in the western part of U.P with Haridwar being just about 50 kilometers away.  At least I had moved around Haridwar, taken a dip in the waters of Ganges there and gone around Rishikesh, and stood in the in its chilling waters. In those times, it was not easy to stand in those waters for a minute at a stretch. 

This time it is in the Eastern (central) part with Ayodhya, Benares and Prayag within 400 kilometer radius.  In my earlier days, it never occurred to me that I should go to the Kumbh mela ever. Never felt the need or interest in that. It appears that as I have grown older I have deliberately cultivated a habit to grow more curious, and to enquire about the things, people and places I do not know. 

Given freedom and free time, I would have spent at least 2 full days at the place exploring and meeting various people associated with this ancient tradition. I must admit that all these years, it never  occurred to me why the name 'kumbh mela' was given. Only this year did I get to know about the very interesting story about the legendary churning for amrit (elixir) guaranteeing the coveted immortality and eternal youth.  In the churning of the cosmic ocean (kshir sagar), there emerged Dhanwantari, the physician for the Devas, holding the amrt kumbh (the pot of the elixir).  Guided by Brhaspati (Jupiter), the guru of the Devas, they snatched this away deceiving their asura partners in the cosmic cooperative venture, and Indra, their King was in possession of it. In the ensuing fierce fight, the swift and mighty Garuda intervened to secure it for the Devas; however, in his flight with the great Kumbh (pot) the amrt was spilt and drops fell at Haridwar, Prayagraj, Ujjain and Nashik.  It is believed that the rivers in all these locations (Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Shipra and Godavari) having had amrit mixed in their waters have the special quality than can clean people and make them immortal (amar - amrit). What a beautiful backdrop to reemphasize the life-sustaining quality of these rivers (as well as that of every  other river)! 

The celebration of this possibility of cleansing and rejuvenation is celebrated every twelve years - the rotation cycle of Jupiter, which falls in the month of Kumbh (Aquarius - January-February), with the aligning of the planet and the sun occurring every three years in these spots one after the other. Thus every 3 years, a Kumbh Mela will be held in one of these Kumbh sthaan (locations). 

Now being just 300 odd kilometers away from this maha kumbh, and annually getting older, I deemed this perhaps my last chance to have a glimpse of this great happening and hence decided to have a feel of it. I inspired my colleagues - staff and priests; though some of them showed interest, and spoke big things about going to Kumbh, finally on the reckoning day (Feb. 23rd Sunday), there was no one but me to go. I thought of the frenzied and milling crowds, fighting to get into the bus and likely stampede where I could very well be finished. However, still decided to go without having to spare a working day. 

After the usual evening prayers and dinner, I was dropped at the Sitapur bus station. I could not find a bus to Lucknow or Prayagraj.  A car wallah invited the Baba (Only when people address me in those terms 'baba, chacha' etc. I realise that I am a senior citizen; otherwise, I still act like a young man with all its immaturity and energy) to join the share-trip (back) to Lucknow.   He would charge just the bus rates.  Though the seating was not comfortable and I was disturbed by a persistent cough, I was happy that it reached in less than 2 hours and the driver pointed out from where I could get a Prayagraj bus - just about 200 metres away, there was a bus calling passengers towards Prayagraj.  I am seated there by 11 pm. The bus leaves around 11.20 pm. I got a seat with space to spare for my bag too. Blessed sleep, till early morning 4.30, I could be free from all worries. In between woke up to witness the snarl which appeared to be the beginning of the end stretch when we were 90 kms away. But almost an hour or so, the block is cleared, and the bus started moving smoothly. By 5 am, we were about 15 kilometres away from Prayagraj and then began the tiring stretch of almost 5 hours to cover the distance, thanks to the crowding, and Indianly indisciplined vehicles on the road, both in thousands. I would not drink water or any other, lest I had to answer the calls of nature.  At around 9 am, the bus, full of pilgrims, was at the parking area in the Ganga ghat!  I would have loved to have a place to keep my bag safe, and move around and return and fetch it again.  I was in utter confusion. Where to go, which is the place to go and what are the things that one should not miss etc. Almost totally clueless. 

However, we see hundreds of people getting out of the buses or their own vehicle, calmly getting set and start walking in some direction. I could see some incomplete bridge on the one side. Having had some idea regarding the availability of 'bike-transport', I approach a biker who was in the vicinity.  He wanted to know where I wanted to go, which I myself was not clear. Finally, we arrived at some conclusions: 1. Ganga ghat, about a kilometer away, he would drop me for Rs. 100.00 2. Sangam Ghat, which is the place to be, about 15 kilometers away, he would drop me for Rs. 800.00. I didn't go around to compare with other competitors in this regard. There were not many to choose from at that point.  We started off, initially with Ganga ghat and then stretched it to Sangam ghat. Only late did I realise that both were in the same direction. I settled for Rs. 600.00 knowing very well that it was a very exploitative price that he was asking from me.  However, he managed it well, and guiding me across and along the calmly flowing, and apparently clean Ganga (no swift current, no turbulence - mid-course its stretch, Ganga here is mellowed and mature), he dropped me at Lakshmi Dwar and told that now one has to walk. I ask him his name - he does not respond promptly, then muttered 'Guddu'. Perhaps, he was a non-hindu, and perhaps, he felt hesitant to tell his real name, lest some people may be put off regarding the presence of a non-Hindu in the Hindu holy place. 

I could see the crowds moving in both directions.  Though there were thousands of them continuously moving towards the river and from it, there wasn't much of noise, or frenzied religious utterances, or blaring mike announcements.  It was a big mela with no matching scale of noise pollution.  It was more of a religious family time.  Most of the people appeared to be in groups, usually with their families, mostly as joint families or families in the neighbourhood (assuming from the numbers) and also as nuclear families.   From the track from Ganga Ghat to Sangam Ghat, it is some 3000 steps to the ghat, where one can do the ritual immersion - the snan. Though all were meant to cover that stretch on foot, there was always an odd someone either by a motorbike or even by car, trying to cover the maximum distance on wheels, rather than on foot. I didn't find people extremely bothered by the prospect of having to cover some 12 to 15 kilometers on foot. (This distance is vague, and often transmitted orally. I hardly found any indicator regarding the actual distance from one point to another.  The Google map shows the distance as 16.3 kilometres from the Bus Parking area to the Sangam Ghat.)

In spite of the general indiscipline common to South Asians, especially Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (that is my feeling, perhaps, I am wrong), this vast crowd did maintain some sort of discipline.  I don't think Yogi or any other government or system can take any credit of it, though they do - it is the typical Indian passivity and habit of living with the bare minimum comfort even otherwise that make the crowd accommodative.  The almost 30-foot wide pathway to the ghat had people keeping to their left in either direction, with a clumsy bamboo barricade in some places to indicate the left and right parts of the walkway.  However, most of them, walking in a relaxed pace, would not have others who would like to move fast in their mind. So for me, it was difficult to negotiate that and to move ahead.  Sometimes, as we do on the roads on dotted lines, one had to step to the other side and get back to your side to move ahead. 

Your stroll ends with a blocked paltoon bridge (pontoon bridge - a temporary bridge built on concrete blocks, chains and steel or wooden planks to walk over.  There are said to be 30 of them across the waters in the Kumbh area, spanning 4000 plus hectares.) There are a couple of police personnel on sentry, but hardly anyone providing any direction. Then, there is a scattered crowd more on the right-hand side. The waters are hidden by them. The flowing water (still Ganga, I believe) is marked with a barricade, some 30 feet from the shore, and the people are expected to do their dip or bath within that area.  The water is generally waist-deep or chest-deep, never beyond that. It is flowing in the right-hand direction (probably south).  The shore is strewn with flowers, chiefly of marigold, and the disposable plastic-coated leaf-plates, but not really looking quite forbidding or ugly. 

On the shore some 15 metres away from the waters, there are rows of small-time vendors - dozens of them - men, women and children - selling items for the ritual dip - typical flowers.   The devotees usually have some tarpan to do, and they make use of these items, doing prayers for their ancestors. Then take a dip. But preliminary to that is the purchase of a plastic sheet about 2m x 2 m, which is available for less than Rs. 100. You spread that on the wet shore and then that is your entitlement for the time being. The sheet protects your stuff from getting soiled and wet. You keep all your things there, and while some of the group members do the dip, the rest of the remain on this guarding it - though it is assumed that being on a pilgrimage people would not steal -(but kaun jane, there may be people coming specifically with the intent of stealing as well).   Being alone, I was in difficulty. How to leave my belongings and go for a dip? I see a group of young men, discarding their sheet and about to leave, I manage to get it, as they are no longer in need of it, and thus reducing one more plastic sheet on the Holy land. Then I see a group of senior men looking around for a 'plot', and I offer them my sheet, and request them to have an eye on my bag, as I take the dip. I take the dip, though not fully free from the worry regarding my baggage. Get a picture taken.  The water is cool - didn't find it any that dirty, definitely far cleaner than the waters of our backwaters in Keralam.  

There are some vendors who would do designs on your forehead with vermillion after you have done the snan. They consider this more as an act of devotion than a business, though people generously givee Rs. 5.00 or more for any such writing. And most of the devotees get Jai Shriram or similar slogans written on their forehead. There are a few get their head shaved as well, though it is more of an exception. I too get 'Om Shanti' written on my forehead - something which can have the least dispute regarding faith. 

As a 'mela', it is a good time for many locals who appeared to earn something from vending various goods and the bikers, e-rickshaws and such other services, and food vendors - some of them indeed exploiting the pilgrims, while others earning by rendering these services to the pilgrims. Religious articles are some of the takeaways, while most of the pilgrims would seek to carry Ganga Jal, and bottles or cans for the same are also in great demand. That way the government claim of the boost to the economy may indeed be true. 

Then I trace my steps back to the Sangam road. I am eager to see the 'sangam' but feel 'not this time'. Want to see Ganga and Jamuna together, but the crowd appears forbidding for any such explorations. I extend my hand to a biker - Oh it's a (civil) policeman. I was hesitant, but he is willing to take me to the city for a pay.  We settle for Rs. 300.00.  The ride is easier than the ride till the snan ghat. He drops me somewhere near the famous St. Joseph's school of Allahabad and I discover for myself the seminary on the same campus.  The school exhibits posters welcoming the pilgrims, and is said to have done voluntary ann daan etc. on the occasion. Without having to be forced to do such things, such gestures are indeed signs of a healthy India - I hope these are not done under duress. 

A couple of hours for visiting the famed Anand Bhavan of Nehru family, I return, catching a bus to Lucknow and then to Sitapur, with the eager determination to revisit the Prayagraj once again to explore the city, and to salute the sangam and be in company of the great rivers! 

I observe and overhear people in the bus and in small groups praising Yogi for this great organisation.  In fact, I felt people have been fed with propaganda and have learnt to relish that as that panders to their basic clannish feelings of being Hindus (that is, in this case. It could apply to any religious groups, in similar situations). There were indeed some booths where police/NCC personnel were seen to be supporting people, there were some toilet facilities erect around the sangam areas, which I didn't dare to explore, there was indeed annadaan for the pilgrims, there were ample buses from different parts of UP to Prayagraj at affordable rates. However, I felt there could have been much better volunteer support to guide the pilgrims, much better provisions for commuting from the bus to the sangams/ghats.  The claim of 40 crores to 65 crores participants was the height of hype I felt. That would mean more than a third of the country's population has turned up at Prayagraj.  I did just one test case - in the college assembly, with majority upper caste Hindus, I asked those who visited Prayagraj to raise their hands. Not even a 10th of those gathered raised their hands. I think the situation would be more or less same with anywhere; and when it comes to the South of India, still much less. 

While I admire the sangam, the great festival, and perhaps agree that it might indeed be the greatest religious or secular gathering in the world though there is doubt regarding the Mecca pilgrimage being a great contender. Mecca pilgrimage having greater restrictions, regarding both access and duration, the Kumbh claim may be true. But it could be realistically put - and in my rough estimate, it may be 15 to 20 crores, which itself is a great number. For someone used to have travelled in suburban trains of Mumbai and experienced the crowds at Santacruz, Malad, Andheri etc. this crowd is much less intimidating and more easily manageable and I never felt it as overwhelming, again, never denying the fact that it is indeed a mega crowd. 

While I have only goodwill towards such gatherings, and am of the opinion that such occasions should be utilised to instill greater civic sense and care of the rivers and waters (SDG 6), and promote dialogue among various faiths (SDG 16), I sincerely feel that what has been a people's fest has now been coopted or hijacked by the state with clear political agenda based on Hindu aggrandizement thanks to the present governments at the centre and the state. They have maximally utilised it for their political advantage. I hope this will not be considered anti-India, rather than a forthright observation.