India to host the largest religious event in the world

[rug]

Millions attend Hindu festival



A Sadhu, or a Hindu holy man, performs morning prayers on the banks of the river Ganges ahead of the Kumbh Mela. Photo: Ahmad Masood/Reuters

7:12pm, Sun 13 Jan 2013
by ITV News Editor Arti Lukha

January 14th sees the start of the Maha Kumbh Mela - a mass Hindu pilgrimage - the biggest religious event in the world. Nothing else compares to the scale of this ancient Hindu Festival. The Mela happens every 12 years and in 2001 more than 40 million people attended on the main bathing day, breaking the world record for the largest human gathering in one place. Try to imagine the entire population of England outside London descending on the capital for a day; effectively that's what it means for the city of Allahabad.

After visiting the Kumbh Mela in 1895 Mark Twain wrote: "It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvellous to our kind of people, the cold whites."

What is the Kumbh Mela?

The Maha Kumbh Mela occurs every 12 years and is considered to be the most auspicious mela. It always happens in Allahabad a city in northern India at the confluence of the rivers Yamuna, Ganges and the ancient Saraswati. According to legend, the Lord Vishnu was carrying a Kumbh (pot) of Amrita (nectar), when a scuffle broke out between the gods, and four drops were spilled. They fell to earth at the four river locations Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain and signifies a place of spiritual enlightenment. The event is commemorated every three years by the Kumbh Mela but this particular Mela is held once every twelve years and is regarded the greatest and holiest of all.

What happens at the Kumbh Mela?

The main ritual is bathing in the holy river water. Hindus believe that submerging themselves in the sacred waters will absolve them and their ancestors of sin. The vast floodplains and river banks adjacent to the confluence are overrun by pilgrims, with tents organised in almost military fashion by the local authorities and the police. The mela is especially renowned for the presence of an extraordinary array of mystics - enticed from remote hideaways in forests, mountains and caves.

http://www.itv.com/news/2013-01-13/india-to-host-the-largest-religious-event-in-the-world/

[dimbear]

1. As a public service, I remind the curious that folk are rather often trampled to death at this,

and that the fatality count is sometimes in the hundreds.

[cbayer]

2. I think many more are killed at soccer games

As for this event -

1954 - 800 killed
2003 - 39
2010 - 10

Hardly often, but religion is bad.

[dimbear]

3. Maha in Hindi means big or grand or mighty. The big event happens at 12 year

intervals. I have merely repeated the warning given by the state of Uttar Pradesh as a public service.

[cbayer]

4. Ah, dimbear, I think I know you well enough to know that

you are doing much more than repeating a warning.

[cleanhippie]

5. Project much?