M A I N   N E W S

Mahakumbh on, lakhs take dip

KUMBHNAGAR, Jan 9 (IANS) — Cupping water in their palms, standing in waist-deep river water, shivering, dancing and chanting prayers, tens of thousands of Hindus began the Mahakumbh Mela, literally the great fair of the urn, today.

The fair began at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The fair happens every 12 years, in rotation at four venues. It has been billed as the greatest human congregation on earth, with an estimated 25 to 70 million people expected at this year’s fair.

Mercury dipped to bone-chilling levels as the auspicious hour to begin the great bath at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati approached.

The bathing began at around 2 a.m. today and the early hours saw only a few devotees trudging down the roads, snaking for around 3 km, from the huge tented mini-town “Kumbhnagar” to the riverbanks.

But from around 3.30 a.m., the crowd began to swell until the riverbank became a haze of red, green, blue and dozens of other colours, all shining under the glare of numerous lampposts and little clay oil lamps, lit and floated by the devotees to honour the memory of their ancestors.

A strip of the confluence, the shallowest areas near the banks, was cordoned by bamboo sticks for bathing and devotees were continuously advised against venturing beyond the cordon. “The Ganga has a high current and the Yamuna is deep,” warned the blaring loudspeakers around the riverbanks.

The devotees strip, and even while shivering severely due to the bitter cold, they smile, laugh, yell “Glory to the Kumbh, glory to Ganga — the mother river,” and plunge right in.

Hundreds of saffron-clad ascetics, some with just a strip of clothing around their loins, also came for the bath, with the devotees often bowing to them and making way for them.

But Tuesday did not see the grand sight of ascetics coming on elephants and Arabian steeds, many of them naked and covered with ash — sights traditionally associated with the Kumbh. This was because Tuesday was not one of the main or “royal” bathing days, which fall on January 14, 24, 29.

As morning dawned, the crowd covered riverbanks at the confluence, around half a mile long, like a human carpet. As they got out of the river the devotees quickly dried and donned their clothes, heading straight for the “pandas” — Hindu religious middlemen — on the banks. The pandas put streaks and dots of vermilion on their forehead and chanted prayers to the memory of the ancestors of the devotees.

“Come here, quick, do not be irreligious. Pay heed to the sentiments of your forefathers,” called out the pandas.

The banks were also full of foreigners, most of them taking photographs and shooting video films. But some foreigners, with long, thick matted hair (though blonde) in the style of the Hindu hermits, stripped off nude, spread the green clay of the banks and jumped right in for a dip.

All around, boats carrying the police and other officials urged the devotees not to crowd the riverbanks and take care not to venture into deep water.

Official estimates say around 5 million people will bathe at the confluence on Tuesday.