India: The giant Hindu pilgrimage of the Kumbh Mela begins

Let’s go for the greatest pilgrimage of all time! Mass ritual bathing began on Monday in Prayagraj, in northern India, for the Hindu mega-festival of the Kumbh Mela where some 400 million people are expected.

Before dawn, the first clusters of pilgrims plunged into the cold waters of the confluence of the sacred rivers of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Sarasvati to, as required by Hindu tradition, wash away their sins.

“This is an unmissable opportunity for a Hindu,” summed up Reena Rai, a 38-year-old entrepreneur from the central state of Madhya Pradesh, a thousand kilometers away.

240 million people in 2019

Organized every twelve years, this meeting promises to be one for all records this year – from January 13 to February 26. The last religious celebrations held at the same location in 2019 brought together 240 million faithful, according to the government.

For comparison, the great annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (Saudi Arabia) only brought together 1.8 million faithful in 2024. Even for the most populous country in the world, with its 1.4 billion inhabitants accustomed to the logistics of mass celebrations, welcoming the equivalent of the American and Canadian populations combined was a Herculean task.

Organizers have installed 150,000 toilets, 68,000 street lights and a tent city that covers an area equivalent to two-thirds of the New York peninsula of Manhattan. A compact crowd of pilgrims from all over India and beyond took up residence there over the weekend.

Processions

Despite the rain, bathers began to flock along the banks of the rivers on Sunday, to the sound of drums and amid processions of elephants and tractors loaded with statues of gods or goddesses.

In their midst, the monks entirely adorned in orange – the color of Hinduism – and the ascetics with their bodies blackened with ashes distributed blessings with all their might. As for the most impatient devotees, they did not wait for the festivities to kick off, Monday before sunrise, to immerse themselves.

Chandrakant Nagve Patel, 56, threw off the plastic bags that protected him from the rain to take a dip in the cold waters. “Once you’re in the water, you don’t even feel the cold anymore,” he said bravado. “It’s like I’m one with God.”

“Everything is so beautiful”

In addition to washing away sins, baths taken at the confluence of sacred rivers during the Kumbh Mela also allow one to free oneself from the cycle of rebirth and reincarnation. Hundreds of boats are ready to welcome those who are not satisfied with immersion on the banks by taking them in the middle of the water to the Sangam, the exact point of confluence of the three rivers.

The Indian police deployed large numbers of troops to ensure, according to a spokesperson, “maximum security” for the pilgrims. Everywhere, the alleys of the ephemeral town that grew up in Prayagraj (the former Allahabad) were adorned with posters glorifying the ultranationalist Hindu Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was announced on site.

Coming from the state of Maharashtra (west), Bhawani Baneree, a civil servant, did not regret having made the trip. The atmosphere is “very lively”, he rejoiced, “everything is so beautiful”. In 2017, the Kumbh Mela was declared an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO, which described it as the “largest peaceful gathering of pilgrims in the world”.

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