Mahakumbh 2013

Jan 26, 2013.

I shall be highlighting some prominent pictures and happenings going all along 55 days on the Mega Festival of Holy Snans at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Please follow me day to day and enjoy!

Allahabad Kumbh 2013 is going to be the largest assembly of human on earth. The festival has been held on the banks of the Ganges for thousands of years. It is at its largest once every 12 years when it attracts tens of millions of people.

People have started gathering with their belongings on the banks of river Ganges this year too to celebrate auspicious Mahakumbh. More than 100 million people are expected to join at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad which has two physical rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the third invisible or mythic Saraswati River. The site is in Prayag, India. The Dip ceremony will last for 55 days in all terminating 25th Feb on Maghiana Purnima Snan.

Auspicious bathing dates for 2013 Kumbhmela, Allahabad are:

27th Jan 2013 Paush Purnima
06th Feb 2013 Ekadashi Snan
10th Feb 2013 Mauni Amavasya Snan
15th Feb 2013 Basant Panchami Snan
17th Feb 2013 Rath Saptami Snan
18th Feb 2013 Bhisma Ekadashi Snan
25th Feb 2013 Maghi Purnima Snan


Being a sacred place for Hindus, a dip here is said to washe away all of one's sins and freeone from the cycle of rebirth.

My dad late Sh Vasdev Singh, as a rationing inspector with the Govt of Punjab, was deputed to help in the services being provided for Kumbh in 1954 where he was also trained to give vaccinations. He brought the vaccination kit back home to show us the kids. We will excitingly run away at the inkling of showing us the needle, while he continued to narrate some awesome virtual stories mostly fake though to keep us involved in him.

FAITHFUL TRUST SCIENCE AND NOT A SUPERSTITION

The mega Hindu religious fair Kumbh 2013 is proving to be quite a revelation for a group of researchers and surveyors from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This group has conducted a survey on a cross-section of sample size of 5000 pilgrims to measure public understanding of science, scientific attitudes, knowledge, myths and superstitions. The group feels that Indians don't believe in ghosts anymore and superstitions have reduced across the board, a reflection of changing India. Also, Indians have higher knowledge quotient on agriculture than westerners or Chinese. The survey also establishes that Indians have less knowledge on topics like nuclear technology and biotechnology.

Juna Akhara sect members catch a ride with their tutor. They were to attend rituals to become Naga after renouncing everything. these naked holy man will have no worldly ties after that

A foreigner engrossed in meditation in the midst of Holy Dip.



Feb10, 2013.

Unfortunately on this day, at least 36 people were killed and scores of others injured tonight in a stampede at Allahabad railway station teeming with thousands of pilgrims returning after a holy dip at the 'Maha Kumbh' in Allahabad.

This reminds me that my Dad would have offered similar services in 1954 on his deputation to the festival.

About 30 million pilgrims flocking to various ghats at Sangam for a rendezvous with the confluence on Mauni Amavasya Snan Feb 10, 2013.

A day after the stampede tragedy.

Harvard doctors give Kumbh facilities thumbs up

Postal cover on Basant Snan by Indian Government.

Naga Sadhus in a procession after holy bath.




THE WATER IS DIRTY, BUT NO BODY IS SICK.

As per Central Pollution Control Board, a governmental Organization, the health profile of the world’s largest crowd is surprisingly ordinary. A handful of people wrote in response to an earlier post of mine that pilgrims don’t drink Ganges water, they only use it to perform puja, ritual offerings to the gods. Puja is definitely an important use of the river water, but they also drink it—as confirmed by the head of medicine and sanitation for the Kumbh 2013

Upper respiratory tract infections and asthma still dominate the list, due to the cold and high levels of particulate matter in the air. The flow of gastro-intestinal infections remains steady but low, and the incidence of more serious waterborne diseases such as typhoid negligible. One of the more persistent problems has been holy men presenting with urinary infections due to enlarged prostate glands (four or five a day), and slightly less frequently, with fatty livers or cirrhosis—a reflection of their relatively advanced average age, penchant for smoking ganja and general lifestyle. Two people have suffered heart attacks while bathing in the icy Ganges, there have been two fires—one of which injured 20 people, some of them badly—and two babies have been born, that the doctors know of.

Two third of the festival is over, let us wait till March 10 till it ultimately terminates and makes way for next Mega Event after another twelve years.

Infrastructure being laid with local tools.

15 Pontoon bridges facilitate easy mass movements.


This Kumbh Mela drew massive crowds of devotees, ascetics and foreign tourists and it is estimated that about 120 millions are expected to wash away their sins, while 60 millions attended in 2001.

The festival involved crowd management of gigantic proportions and despite all the precautions in place was hit by a tragedy when a railway bridge at Allahabad Station collapsed due to stampede. Usually the pilgrims from all over the world felt uplifted and amazed by the scale of the event.

There was a huge tent city sprawled over 5000 acres to house the pilgrims. There were five electrical sub-stations and tens of thousands of street lights to provide this amazingly improvised city a yellow glow. There ware police stations, mobile field hospitals, shops and cafes and 35000 makeshift toilets.

A temple priest was quoted as saying, "People from all walks of life participate in the festival but there is one thing common among all of them- they have a desire to lead a pure life." The power of Kumbh Mela is the power of Humanity , he endorsed further.

The pilgrims filled their plastic bottles with 'Ganga Jal' for religious ceremonies and departed for respective homes.