The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

mahakumbh
Bath of a lifetime
55 days, 6 crore devotees, it’s the largest of all human gatherings, the holiest of all Hindu rituals, the biggest administrative challenge. It is the Mahakumbh that comes every 12 years. The Tribune walks the banks of the Ganges to breathe in the spiritual air.
By Aditi Tandon

TENT CITY: Most land in the Mahakumbh being under the Defence Ministry, permanent structures cannot be set up, therefore the tents for pilgrims as well as sadhus. As much as Rs 1,160 crore is being spent on organising the fair.

Faith calls: A devotee prays before taking a dip in the holy Ganges in Allahabad ahead of the Mahakumbh, which begins on Monday. Reuters

10,000: Personnel of the ITBP, CRPF and state police on duty.

305 lakh: Pilgrims expected to take the holy dip on February 10 (Mauni Amavasya).

Spiritual high: A Naga sadhu at the Mahakumbh.

FOR 55 days starting Monday, the ancient city of Prayag will transform into a country of its own as millions converge on its shores to witness the mother of all spectacles, the Mahakumbh. More people than the population of the UK is expected to visit the riverside ‘pitcher festival’ that culminates this year on March 10, the last of six days scheduled for the ritual bath in the Ganges where it joins the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

As mythology goes, the holy dip can bring salvation and freedom from the cycle of birth and death as the Ganges washes away one's sins. No wonder, seers, agnostics, ascetics and pilgrims alike flock Allahabad in hordes to witness the once-in-12-years event that astrologers declare as the Mahakumbh.

The announcement follows a perfect alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Earth and the Moon, and marks the best time of the Hindu calendar. Its rarity justifies the surge of humanity to the temple town of Allahabad, where a whole new country dotted with makeshift tents has come up to accommodate 10 lakh people who have arrived ahead of the first ritual bath on January 14, the day of Makar Sankranti.

Simply put, Allahabad is these days housing a Bahrain within its perimeter! The size of this temporary settlement in the heart of Allahabad (also called Prayag) will swell as days get more propitious. For the February 10 (Mauni Amavasya) bath, the most auspicious of all, the district administration is expecting 305 lakh pilgrims for the holy dip; 110 lakh will bathe on January 14, the first “shahi snan”; 53 lakh on January 27 (Paush Poornima); 193 lakh on Basant Panchami (Feb 15); 165 lakh on Maghi Poornima (Feb 25); and 50 lakh on March 10 (Shivaratri).

Prayag and the myth

The world’s largest human gatherings happen at “Kumbhs”, which fall once every 12 years in four Hindu pilgrimages — Allahabad, Ujjain, Nasik and Haridwar. By this order, Kumbh falls once every three years at one of these locations.

But Jagatguru Saroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwarka Peeth, one of the four seats of Sanatan Hindu religion established by Adi Shankaracharya, explains, “All Kumbhs are occasions to celebrate spiritual wisdom with saints and seers from all walks of life. Although bathing at the sangam of Ganga and Yamuna is purifying at all times, the effect multiplies manifold during the Mahakumbh, which dissolves all dissent into one unifying ocean of humanity.”

The festival which the Guinness Book of World Records describes as the “largest gathering of humans in the world for a single purpose” rests on rich mythological history involving a battle between Gods and demons for control of the universe. The story goes that following the churning of the ocean and discovery of nectar in the holy pot (kumbh), Gods ran around the earth for 12 days (12 human years) to save the pot from the demons. In the process, they spilled nectar on Allahabad, Ujjain, Haridwar and Nasik, the present day locations of Kumbh fairs.

Prayag, the top pilgrimage, however, is the permanent host of Mahakumbh, which happened last in 2001. It then witnessed 5 crore people. The other Kumbhs in between, like the 2010 Kumbh of Haridwar, were actually “Ardha Kumbhs”.

For the 2013 Mahakumbh, which has become rare with the Ganges flowing westward, Allahabad is expecting 20 per cent rise in visitation over 2001. “We expect more than 6 crore pilgrims over 55 days. Our challenges include proper allotment of land to Akharas, Hindu religious orders, which set up tents in the Kumbh area to hold congregations; providing facilities to inhabitants and securing everyone, especially on the days of ritual baths,” Devesh Chaturvedi, Divisional Commissioner of Allahabad says.

The fair has been set up on an area of 20 sq km, double of 2001. This makes Kumbh district the most densely populated area in the world as 50,000 people share 1 sq km of the tent city. Singapore has a density of 7,200 people per sq km.

The tent country

Preparing for the largest human congregation in the world requires marvels at both administrative and engineering fronts. “Mela Act” of Uttar Pradesh contains some advice for administrators on how to manage the Mahakumbh.

By practice, the state government notifies from within Allahabad division a full district called the “Mela Shetra (fair area)”. This district then gets its own District Magistrate (Mela Adhikari), who allots land to visitors to set up camps.

The Mahakumbh has 13 sectors connected by 18 pontoon bridges to enable pilgrims to cross the river and reach the banks for baths. A whopping 350 km of pipes have been laid to supply water to camps and another 250 km of smaller pipes; 160 km of metal plates have been laid within the tent city where sands from the river banks fill roads. One can often spot vehicles stuck in the sand.

A budget of Rs 1,160 crore has gone into arranging the fair; Rs 800 crore of this has come from the Planning Commission. “Business that develops around the Mahakumbh is roughly five times the investment made. Tourism, service sector, labour market, everything improves,” says Chaturvedi.

But arranging the Mahakumbh on the whole is a massive challenge, most land there being defence, where permanent structures are prohibited.

“Each tent has then to be supplied food, water, milk and power. It’s a huge administrative challenge, the biggest in my life,” the Commissioner adds.

Interestingly, no one in the Mela Administration knows how many tents have been erected. Hazarding a guess, Allahabad IG Alok Sharma says, “If you put all tents of the Mela site in a row, you can bridge the gap between Allahabad and Kanpur.” The two cities are 200 km apart!

The mess of land

There’s more to the Mahakumbh than the fabled presence of Hindu holy men, including the ash-smeared, half-naked Naga sadhus, who represent the soldiers of the Hindu faith. Traditionally, the Mahakumbh has been dominated by sadhus organised into 13 Hindu orders. Called Akharas, these orders follow rigid disciplines and are led by supreme leaders such as Swami Awadheshanand who heads the Juna Akhara. For these leaders, Mahakumbh is an occasion to display religious following and they will go to great lengths to guard their turf.

No wonder, the 2013 Kumbh has been all about allegations of corruption in the allotment of land to Akharas, with less popular sadhus accusing the Samajwadi Party-led state government of favouring their own religious leaders. Dandi Swamis, a group of Hindu spiritual leaders, have long been fasting at the Mela against faulty allotments.

One Juna Akhara leader from Patiala, Sri Panchanand, has issued an ultimatum to the Mela Administration to “stop commercialising Mahakumbh” or be prepared to witness self-immolations.

In another case, a well known disciple of Dwarka peeth Shankaracharya has gone missing from his camp following protests against retrieval of land earlier allotted to him. Swami Paripoornanand has not been traced since December 24. Days before he disappeared he had threatened to take “jal samadhi” (water grave) if his land was not returned to him. The police has no clue to where he went.

Several saints are this time objecting to the so called ‘VVIP culture’, questioning the allotment of huge chunks of land to sadhus like Asaram and Ramdev. “How is a saint from a faraway place less important than Ramdev? But VIPs are being openly favoured. We will offer sacrifices if we are not heard,” Panchanand Maharaj says, guarded by 12 Punjab Police personnel. “I am on the hit list of Muslim and Sikh terrorist outfits,” he explains.

Chaturvedi says, “The matter is being monitored. So far as land allotment goes, we cannot judge the merit of sadhus. We must remember that land is limited and applicants many.” Around 5,000 organisations have applied, and only 200 have been granted land.

Among those struggling for a good piece (one nearer to the Sangam) is Brahmacharini Devi, a sanyasin from Kolkata, who had petitioned the administration for an independent camp for women sanyasins. More than 50,000 women sanyasins are visiting the Mahakumbh this time.

Star dust

The Allahabad police estimates the arrival of 500 foreign pilgrims. Also rumoured to visit is top Hollywood actor Catherine Zeta Jones. In the 2001 Mahakumbh, pop star Madonna had showed up.

To accommodate the VVIPs, the UP Tourism Development Corporation has set up 10 Maharaja Swiss cottages, specially fabricated in Oman. Fitted with imported furniture, the cottages cost Rs 12,000 a night, a contrast from the humble abode of Naga Sadhus, who use bamboos to set up residential spaces, sometimes as small as 40 by 60 sq feet, as against VIP sadhus who have 200 by 200 sq feet, or even more.

Challenges

The biggest fear is the flow of pilgrims on the days of ritual baths. “Stampede remains our biggest concern. The strategy is to segregate people in time and space and constructing as many bathing ghats as possible,” RK Rathore, SSP, Kumbh Mela area, said. The city has 30 ghats by now.

Close to 10,000 personnel of the ITBP, CRPF and state police are guarding Kumbh, with one policeman deployed for every 60 square metre. For the first time, 87 CCTVs have been installed and UP has sought the Centre's help in getting 30 sniffer dogs. The Mela district is being manned by 30 police stations.

Stampedes have hit Kumbhs in 1954, and again in 1986, when 60 died in Haridwar. “The problem with securing Allahabad is its 60-70 km perimeter. We are following a seven-tier checking system,” Allahabad IG Alok Sharma explains.

The administration is working overtime to prevent open defecation too. For the first time, 40,000 seats have been constructed in community toilets in the tented area. “Keeping the area free of flies, mosquitoes and open defecation is a challenge,” admits Dr Suresh Dwivedi.

But open defecation is still preferred. Ram Vati, a labourer-pilgrim from Rajasthan, says, “I am not comfortable using the community toilet.” To clean the surroundings, 10,500 sweepers have employed. Each sector has been provided a medical officer, and a 100-bed hospital has been set up, with 83 ambulances.

In another first, the use of polythene and soap has been banned on the Ganges, and 40 boats have been hired to clear it of garbage. Under instruction from the PMO, the UP Government is monitoring the level of pollution in the Ganges and preventing tanneries from discharging effluents into it. “The reports are positive by far,” the UP Pollution Control Board says, adding that 500 treatment plants are in operation.

It’s not without reason that they say, “One dip in the Sangam during Mahakumbh equals 10 million dips in the Ganges at less propitious times.”

The effort certainly looks worth the fruit. That’s perhaps what makes Mahakumbh the mother of world festivals, both on the scale of vastness and reward.