KUMBH MELA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 9

KUMBH MELA

STUPENDOUS BRAHMIN FESTIVAL HELD EVERY TWELVE YEARS SEETHING HUMANITY AT ALLAHABAD January and, February of 1930 wffl. again witness the magnificent and stupendous religious Brahmin Festival of Kumbh Mela, to be held at Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and. Jumna. Already there have been references in the cablegrams to this great gathering, to which will flock millions —pilgrims, devotees, sightseers, and others —from all parts of . Hindustan. Kumbh Mela may safely and correctly be described as the greatest concourse of people assembled at any one time in. any single city of the world, the numbers computed being in the vicinity of four to five millions. It may be thought strange that this great Brahmin Festival should occur at a place bearing a Moslem name, owing to the great antipathy existing between the two creeds. The ancient and “thrice holy” Brahmin city of Prayag (City of Sacrifice) was renamed Allahabad (City of Allah) by the Mogul Emperor, Akbar the Great (1542-1605), after the erection of his palace there had been completed. It is here the waters of the sacred Mai Gunga (Ganges)' meet with those of the less sacred. Jumna. Both these great waterways have their source in the Himalaya mountains. The Jumna issues at Tehri, five miles from the hot springs of Jumnotri. The Ganges source is an ice cave at Gungotri, 10,000 feet above sea level, and it is at first known as the Bhagirathl. The name Gunga is not bestowed until the waters of the tributary Alaknanda are absorbed at Deo Prayag. Four hundred miles north of Allahabad another lesser sacred stream, the Sarawasti, becomes lost in the sands of Sirhind. It is claimed by the Brahmin priests that this Sarawasti, travelling subterraneously, also junctions with the Ganges at Allahabad. This is merely conjectutre, yet it is for that reason Prayag is “thrice holy.” When the Festival Occurs. Each year, at the full of the moon, in the Indian month of Magh (corresponding without January and February), the lesser Brahmin festival of Magh Mela is held. Every twelfth year, when the astrological configuration of the lunar and stellar constellations is in a certain position, the Grand Festival of Kumbh Mela occurs. This particular position of the moon and stars is considered as extremly favourable to religious ceremonial, forgiveness of sin and body purification owing to a' divine influence on the sacred waters. To this “Mela” (festival) millions of pilgrims, and others, journey hundreds of miles, from even the most remote corners of India. Every mode of transport is used; motor-cars, railways, horse or bul-lock-drawn vehicles. Hundreds of thousands, too poor to afford conveyance of any sort, undertake and perform long and hazardous journeys on foot Doing Penance. Distinctly apart from these are thousands of devotees to “Pooja” (pennance), the true “Pilgrims” whose final object is that of achieving sanctity. So intense is their ardour and zeal that neither circumstance, danger, nor distance deters them. They may be met with on the highways at their slow and painful peregrinations months before either the “Magh” or “Kumbh Mela;” distance of travel regulating the time of setting forth. Every single foot of the “pilgrimage” is njeasured by their prostrated bodies. They travel in smaller or larger parties for the sake of protectiveness, carrying neither food, money, clothing nor weapons of any description. They depend entirely for their wants on the never-failing charity of the East towards religionists. Many must die of disease, fatigue and exposure by the way; others succumb to the attack of predatory animals; yet, these pilgrimages continue every year. When “Pooja” has been determined upon and the time to start arrived, the intending Pilgrim proceeds to a temple and prays for a successful issue to his undertaking, receives Priestly sanction and blessing, and returns to his home. Discarding all clothing—save the scantiest of loin-cloths—he stands upright, for a few devotional seconds, at the entrance door of his home. Then he prostrates himself to earth, reaches out with his ri-ht hand to its furthest scope and makes a mark in the dust. Then, arising, he walks up to this mark, and repeats the action. The whole distance, however great, must be negotiated in this “ When the “Me]a” is oyer and he has received forgiveness of sin and punneation of the body, he returns to his village bearing two vessels of specially blessed Ganges water for. distribution / amongst his co-religionists. There •ire now prescribed rules set down as to the method of the return journey-

Seething Humanity.

With the arrival of the multitudes Allahabad is filled to overflowing; the "serais” (native inns) and maidans (spaces) glutted with a tide of bickering and seething humanity inundating the citv and surrounding areas. Before Bn tish rule was established in India !t was every one for himself and fheresulting state of chaos can be imagined, 10-daj the “Raj” (Government) attempts to provide protection; an army of police endeavour—not too successfully—to preserve law and order, almost an impossibility amongst congested and fanatical millions. There are caste prejudices to be coped with, the eternal riots between Hindu and Moslem. It is a plethora, a pandemonium of disorder, noise and vice; the day and night filled with the clamour of restless millions. , x • > i The scene at the oatbmg ghats is kaleidescopic. overwhelming in its utter intensity. Multitudes performing their ablution's, an endless chain of jostling, cursiiw humanity in and out of tlie sacred waters. On ‘the banks are swarms of priests completely engrossed in the sale of “tikkas,” the hall-mark of purification painted upon the forehead. Hindu princes, resplendent in jewellery, escorted by gorgeously caparisoned retainers, move to and fro through the crowd. Military and police uniforms, civilian dress of 'many nationalities lend colour and diversity to the pageant. Members of the world’s oldest profession shamelessly flaunt their flaming orange regalia; seminude devotees, obscenely filthy beggars rub shoulders together in one heterogeneous palpitanjt mass. The din is overpowering. Couch shells blare in raucous discord; dholaks (drums) thud monotonously; there is the incessant thrumming of the “sitars” of Nautch girls (dancers), and the attendant musicians. The endless chant of “Ram, Ram, Sita Ram” of the devout intermingles with the lugubrious whine of beggars soliciting alms, blessing the givers or lewdly cursing i those who refuse. .. “Kumbh Mela” is the common meeting ground of arrogant wealth and abject poverty; of religious fervour and blatant vice. No pen can adequately describe the scene; it must be seen to even remotely comprehend.