MUMBAI, INDIA — Even for the world’s most-populous nation, the scale of a Hindu religious festival being held in India’s northern city of Prayagraj since mid-January is staggering. Surpassing previous numbers, the Maha Kumbh Mela that wraps up Wednesday has drawn more than half a billion devotees in the last six weeks, according to officials.
The government of Uttar Pradesh, where the festival is being held, claims that this year’s event is the largest congregation in human history for a religious, cultural and social event.
Those who have taken a holy dip in waters that Hindus believe cleanses them of their sins and helps attain salvation include ordinary devotees from all walks of life, billionaires, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, politicians and Bollywood stars. Others went to simply witness the mesmerizing panorama of the religious spectacle that unfolds along the confluence of two rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, where Hindus believe a third, mythical river also exists.
Among the first rush of pilgrims to attend the Kumbh Mela when it began last month was Deepinderr Singh Bindra, a resident of Gurugram in North India. “It was the accumulation of my spiritual journey following my visit to several Hindu pilgrim sites in the last few years,” he said. He took an early morning dip on three consecutive days and “found it a surreal, deeply satisfying experience.”
The pull of the Maha or great Kumbh Mela, which is held every 12 years, became even greater for many devotees because this year’s event was considered special — it coincided with an alignment of the planets and stars that occurs once in 144 years.
The festival was marred by a stampede on Jan. 29 that killed 30 pilgrims who were trampled amid the rush to take part in the bathing on a day considered particularly auspicious.
That tragedy, however, failed to dampen the fervor as millions continued to pour into the vast temporary tented township that covers a stretch of 4,000 hectares, or 40 square kilometers, along the banks of the river. The tented township includes roads, hospitals, toilets and free community kitchens run by volunteers. A platform made of sandbags stretches along the Ganges riverbank for devotees to take part in the ritual immersion.
But for many like Mumbai resident Nikhil Shirodkar, joining the festival was not just about the dip in the river but a once-in-a-lifetime experience that offered a chance for a connection with age-old Hindu traditions.
“I went more as a spiritual seeker and not with the belief that the dip cleanses one’s sins,” he said.
He spent three days sleeping on the floor like an ascetic and helping serve meals to people.
“It was an eye opener. Everybody was reaching out to each other. On the roadside some would be serving tea, others biscuits, to the pilgrims who kept pouring in. It had an impact on my outlook,” Shirodkar said.
Others, especially overseas visitors, were drawn to it by a sense of curiosity. Twenty-one-year-old Lucinda Pernell, who had come from Australia to India to attend a yoga camp, decided to attend after learning from her photographer friend about the festival’s immense scale.
“It was overwhelming because there were just so many people, which a Westerner like me has never seen. But I found it amazing. It was a kind of organized chaos, but what I will take back with me is that people respected each other. There was a sense of belief,” she said, recalling the experience.
On one of the days that she was there, considered an especially auspicious day, an estimated 35 million took a dip in the waters in Prayagraj — that’s more people than the population of Australia.
She visited the camp for Naga sadhus, the ash-smeared, often naked Hindu ascetics, who armed with tridents lead the religious spectacle. It’s one of the most dramatic sights of the festival.
At this year’s festival, the sacred coexisted with high technology, as underwater drones and artificial intelligence systems were used to monitor the crowds and improve safety.
The Kumbh Mela also reflected the growing synergy between religion and politics since Prime Minister Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata party came to power 10 years ago, according to political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. Giant billboards of Modi stood high at the festival site.
“The open, publicized participation of top political leaders at a religious festival is not something you witnessed in the past,” he said, pointing out that lines between religion and the state have been increasingly blurred. Besides Modi, who took a dip in the river, the Uttar Pradesh state government, led by a Hindu monk, held a Cabinet meeting at the site of the festival.
Reasserting a Hindu cultural identity has been part of the BJP’s agenda. Under the rule of the country’s erstwhile Mughal rulers, the city where it took place was earlier known as Allahabad. It was renamed Prayagraj in 2018 by the BJP state government in a bid to restore its identity as a Hindu pilgrimage center.
Mukhopadhyay also pointed out that the elaborate facilities built for the festival at a cost of over $8 billion, included upscale accommodations, airport and railway expansions and new roads. “With facilities like air-conditioned tents and roads, the rich and upper middle classes no longer had to trek for miles as devotees did in earlier days. So for many of them, attending the Kumbh transitioned from a purely religious pilgrimage into a social talking point,” he said.
Questions have been raised about the water in which the devotees immerse themselves. A report by the federal government’s Central Pollution Control Board earlier this month said that there were high levels of contamination in a key bathing place. But the Uttar Pradesh state government rejected the report, saying authorities were continuously monitoring water in the rivers to maintain its quality.
At last count provided by the state government, 550 million had attended the festival. With five more days to go until it culminates on Wednesday, which is considered another auspicious day, those numbers will rise.
Among those who plan to travel to Prayagraj on that day is Bindra, the resident of Gurugram. “I will be going again to take another dip,” he said. “It is a calling for me.”
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