Huge crowds of Hindu pilgrims bathed in holy waters in India on Monday as the Kumbh Mela festival began, with organizers expecting 400 million people – humanity’s largest such gathering.
The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing—and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions—is held at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and legendary Saraswati rivers.
In the cool pre-dawn gloom, the pilgrims stepped forward to begin bathing in the water.
“I feel very happy. It’s like bathing in nectar for me,” said 45-year-old Surmila Devi.
Businesswoman Reena Roy’s voice trembled with excitement as she spoke of the “religious reasons” that brought her to join the tents spread along the banks of a river in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.
“As a Hindu, this is an unforgettable occasion,” said the 38-year-old, who traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Madhya Pradesh state to take part in the fair, which runs from Monday to February 26.
Saffron-robed monks and bare ash-clad ascetics wandered through the crowd offering blessings to devotees, many of whom had walked for weeks to reach the site.
The mass gathering is also an opportunity for India’s Hindu nationalist government to burnish its credentials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “divine occasion”, which “brings together countless people at the holy confluence of faith, devotion and culture”.
Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, welcomed devotees to “experience unity in diversity” at the “world’s largest spiritual and cultural gathering”.
‘Scale of Preparations’
Organizers say the scale of the Kumbh Mela is that of a temporary country — expected to be around the population of the United States and Canada combined.
“Around 350 to 400 million devotees are expected to visit the fair, so you can imagine the scale of the preparations,” said fair spokesperson Vivek Chaturvedi.
Hindu monks carried huge flags of their respective sects, while tractors were transformed into chariots for lifelike idols of Hindu deities backed by elephants.
The pilgrims cheered to the beating of drums and blowing of horns.
The festival has its roots in Hindu mythology, a battle between gods and demons for control of a pitcher containing nectar.
The administrative authorities are calling it the Great or “Maha” Kumbh Mela.
‘One with God’
The riverbanks at Prayagraj have been transformed into a vast sea of tents — some luxury, some simple tarpaulins.
It took three days for Jeshri Ben Shahtilal to reach the holy site, traveling with her neighbors in a convoy of 11 buses over three days from the state of Gujarat.
“I have great faith in God,” he said. “I have waited so long to bathe in the holy river.”
About 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed 50,000 people simultaneously.
Another 68,000 LED light poles have been installed for the gathering so that its bright lights can be seen from space.
The last celebration at the site, the “Ardha” or Adha Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted 240 million pilgrims, according to the government.
This compares with an estimated 1.8 million Muslims who participate in the annual Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Indian police said they were “patrolling tirelessly day and night to ensure high-level security” for the event.
Authorities and police have set up a network of “lost and found” centers, along with a phone app, to help pilgrims lost in the huge crowds “reunite with their families”.
India is the world’s most populous country, with a population of 1.4 billion, and is thus accustomed to large crowds.
Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) overnight, but pilgrims said their faith meant their baths were not cold.
“Once you are in the water, you don’t even feel cold,” said 56-year-old devotee Chandrakant Nagvi Patel. “I felt as if I was one with God.”
Hindus believe that bathing there during Kumbh helps cleanse sins and attain salvation.
Civil servant Bhavani Baneri, who came from the western state of Maharashtra, said the “vibrant environment” made her long commute worthwhile.
“Everything is so beautiful”, she said.