KUMBH MELA

The Kumbh Mela is a Hindu pilgrimage in which more than 100 million devotees gather to immerse themselves in the waters of a sacred river. It takes place in rotation every three years, at one of four locations believed to be where drops of the water of immortality fell from a pitcher contested by gods and demons: Nashik, on the Godavari River; Ujjain, on the Shipra; Haridwar, on the Ganges; and Allahabad, at the confluence of the sacred rivers Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati. Its name also derives from the legend of the struggle for possession of the vessel containing Amrita: Kumbh means pot or pitcher, while Mela means festival or fair. This is a ceremony with extraordinarily ancient origins (the earliest written account, by the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, dates back to 600 AD), which continues to attract an extraordinary number of participants to this day. At the most recent edition, held between January and February of that year, approximately 120 million people travelled to Allahabad, earning the Kumbh Mela the title of the largest religious gathering on the planet. Many pilgrims, travelling from far away, camp for days in enormous tents set up for the occasion by 6,000 religious organisations. A temporary city covering 32 square kilometres thus comes into being, complete with countless dormitories, temples and communal kitchens, as well as several hospitals and dozens of police stations. An uninterrupted, dense stream of people flows along the streets. Devotees of all ages walk carrying in bags and bundles everything they need to live there, at the Kumbh Mela, for days or even weeks. They move slowly and solemnly towards the place where they will finally be able to bathe in the sacred waters. The central ritual is, in fact, the sacred bath. Hindus believe that by immersing themselves in the river on auspicious days, determined by complex astrological calculations, both they and their ancestors can be absolved of their sins. The pilgrimage therefore offers a path towards a higher spiritual state, ultimately providing the extraordinary opportunity to break free from the eternal cycle of reincarnation. The main event is Mauni Amavasya, the ritual bath of the mystical Naga Babas — the most prominent figures of the Kumbh Mela, who are granted the honour of leading the procession of purifying ablutions. These warrior ascetics, armed with Shiva's tridents, naked and smeared with ash, stride forcefully towards the river at first light, proudly displaying the results of extreme practices of physical self-mortification. Some keep one arm raised for years, until it becomes little more than a withered, insensitive branch; others never sit down, their feet becoming deformed under the constant weight of their bodies; some remain permanently silent, while others subject their own genitals to such extreme forms of torture that they eventually lose the ability to achieve an erection. All this is done to accelerate the process of enlightenment. Likewise, their habitual use of a mixture of tobacco and hashish helps them, as they say, to "lift the veil of Illusion" and live in a constant state of intoxication. To my eyes, from the most extraordinary holy man to the humblest devotee, from the almost Dante-esque spectacle of the whole scene to every single poetic and raw detail, the Kumbh Mela was, as Mark Twain described it in 1895, "an experience beyond all imagination."