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INDIA-RELIGION-CULTURE-KUMBH
55 million devotees for busiest days of Hindu megafestival
ALLAHABAD, India, Feb 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Some 55 million Hindu devotees
plunged into holy waters to cleanse their sins and seek salvation over the
busiest days of the world’s largest religious gathering, officials said
Tuesday.
The gigantic crowds thronged the confluence of three rivers, one of them
mythical, in northern India over Sunday and Monday.
The Mauni Amavasya — or new moon day — on Monday, is the most auspicious
day of the 48-day Kumbh Mela festival.
Numbers were bigger than expected and now over 120 million people have
visited the Kumbh since it began in mid-January, more than were expected for
the entire festival running until March 4.
“We are not throwing random figures about the number of visitors to the
Kumbh. Our calculations are based on observation from drone cameras and
helicopters,” Rajeev Rai, a senior official, told AFP. Hindus believe
bathing at the meeting point of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical
Saraswati at the festival — home to a vast tent city bigger than Manhattan –
– brings salvation.
According to Hindu mythology, gods and demons fought a war over a sacred
pitcher, or Kumbh, containing the nectar of immortality. A few drops fell to
earth at four different locations — one being Allahabad.
The historic city was recently renamed Prayagraj by the local state’s
Hindu nationalist government but is still widely known as Allahabad, the name
it was given by Muslim rulers hundreds of years ago. The festival has one
more major bathing day on February 10.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1820 hrs