Millions take their bath here

The Kumbh Mela in India is a matchless congregation of devout Hindus and it has no peer anywhere else in the world. It is the largest gathering of people for a religious purpose and the largest gathering on the banks of the river.

As if this is not enough, it also is the largest gathering of people taking bath in a river and then going to a temple to pray. The Kumbh melas of Allahabad and Nasik are world famous and they draw millions of visitors.

The Kumbh in Allahabad this time is expecting anywhere between 80 million to 90 million devotees. Generally the Kumbh is held every third year in rotation at one of the four pre-designated places of  Haridwar, Allahabad or Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain.

Thus the Kumbh Mela comes to one of  the four places every twelfth year. Another Kumbh is the Ardh  or half  Kumbh Mela which is held at only two places- Haridwar and Allahabad, every sixth year.

The Purna Kumbh mela is held only at Allahabad every 12 years and the Maha Kumbh, again at Allahabad, every 144 years.

The rivers at these four places are: the Ganges or Ganga in Haridwar, the confluence or Triveni Sangama of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati at Allahabad, the Godavari at Nasik and the Shipra at Ujjain.

Though there is no scientific method of ascertaining the exact number of pilgrims, estimates of the number of pilgrims, including sadhus, heads of mathas and people bathing on the most auspicious day may vary; approximately 30 million people bathed on one day alone- February 10, 2013. You see, that day was Amavaysa and Hindus consider a dip in the river on that day to be holy.

The first written record about the Kumbh is in the writings of Huang Tsang during the reign of Harshavardhana. He visited Indian between 629 AD and 645 AD. However, the Puranas date the Kumbh to the Samudra Manthana episode and records of such bathing events are mentioned in Bhagavatha Purana, Vishnu Purana, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The temporary tented city, that comes up adjacent to the river, is also the largest in the world and it is fully occupied from January to mid March 2013.

Over a lakh workers in Allahabad built 165 kms of roads, 18 bridges, provided thousands of fresh water connections, toilets, 200,000 electrical connections. The tent city can accommodate a minimum of  2 million pilgrims.

Make no mistake. The manmade tent city is a fully functional city with its own court house, police station and even administration. The roads in the tented city are lined with nationalized banks, post offices, mobile service providers, hotels, restaurants, bus and railway reservation counters, gas agencies, radio station.

Of course you cannot except nationalized banks to function from tents. Can you?

These banks operate from plywood structures. The court house has a judge posted who decided on offences committed in the mela area. He hands out punishment and the culprits are promptly whisked away by the anxiously waiting police.  

A district collector, superintendent of police, senior medical officer, chief engineer and a high-level group headed by a minister takes care of the Kumbh arrangements. There are 30 police stations with thousands of policemen in attendance.

The tent city has plumbers, electricians, builders, securitymen, divers, boatmen and even people specially designated to clear garbage. No wonder, it is the largest city on the world in terns of population density.   

The township has 156 km of steel-plated roads, 18 pontoon bridges, 980 km of electricity wires, 550 km of water pipelines and apart from all this a budget of Rs.1,200 crore. The electrical wires  connect 22,000 streetlights and provide 140,000 free connections to the akhadas and establishments of sadhus and matha. Of course the State Government  foots the Rs.4 crore electricity bill for the duration of the Kumbh.

One more thing. With millions wandering in and around the tent city, there cannot be any black out, power failure or even grid failure. The lights are turned on with clockwise precision every day and they will remain so till the end of the Kumbh. The power  system was so designed that the lines carried no more than 50 per cent of their capacity. Each of the 22,000 street light cluster was given a source to draw power from two different devices. In case, one of the power lines broke or did not function, the clusters had am  automatic three-second switch-time. The points were then connected to giant generators, and every second light cluster was run round-the-clock on these generators so that the mela would be lit even if there was a national grid failure.

There are 18 giant pontoon bridges to accommodate the teeming millions and so far the bridges have held and there has not been any major mishap. A total of 1,537 pontoons were needed for the bridges to be put into place. This also has to be the place with the largest number of toilets on earth-a mindboggling 35,000.
The total area of the Mela premises is 50.83 square kilometers and this is more than 200 times the area of Vatican City, which is considered to be the world’s smallest country
A temporary metropolis, conjured out of thin air, it will be dismantled after 55 days. And till it is dismantled, it will remain the world’s biggest City. Hats off to the people who made it happen. It shows India, if it want, can get going and even a State like Uttar Pradesh can show the way. Right.

Jumping from the tree of immortality

Nature has always played a major role in Hindu religion and even philosophy. Whether it is the solar system or the five elements, Hinduism has given them all a very prominent place.
Hindus not only worship many animals but also trees and plants. The banyan tree, coconut tree and  Tulasi plant are all examples of the high regard we have for all things that belong to nature.
One of the most respected trees in India is the Akshayavat tree in Allahabad. It is a banyan tree, which is supposed to be indestructible.
This tree is today located within the beautiful fort of Allahabad which was built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar.
The tree is a very ancient one and it is mentioned in almost all our religious texts.  It has a hallowed history. The tree is so important mythologically that hundreds of people over several centuries have jumped from it into the Ganga beneath to attain immortality.
The tree is above the Patalapuri Temple in the fort and it stands on a niche of a depression or a tunnel which is supposed to lead to Triveni Sangam. Our religious texts say that the tree is so divine that if a mortal jumps from it, he attains immortality.
The tree is, therefore, also known as the tree of immortality. Today, one has to take the permission of the Camp Commandant of the fort to enter the area as it is under the jurisdiction of the Army.
Long long ago, a Rishi, Markendaya, asked Narayana to show his divine power, Narayana flooded the whole world and only this Banyan tree survived the swirling waters. Rama took shelter under this tree along with Lakshmana and Seetha.
Another story associated with this tree is that Rishi Shuka gave a discourse on Geethe to Parikshit under this tree.
Rama is supposed to have given Pinda daan  near the Patalpuri temple for his forefathers. Besides, the Triveni Sangam which is just a few kms away is the sacred confluence of three rivers-Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi.
The Chinese traveller Huen Tsang, visited Allahabad in 644 AD which then was called Prayag and he has given a graphic account of the city.
Huen Tsang says the tree was surrounded by human bones. This is a reference to people jumping from a tree in Prayag. The British historian, General Cunnigham, identifies this tree with the Akshayavat.
One the Jain Thirthankaras, Rishaba, also meditated beneath this tree. Trees at  Gaya and Varanasi are also worshipped as Akshayavat. The Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya is believed to be an offshoot of the tree at Allahabad.
Tibetans say Gautam Buddha visited Prayag and he planted a seed of the Akshayavat near Mount Kailash. There are several ancient texts which refer to this tree.
Apart from the Akshayavat, our texts also refer to coconut trees as Kalpavriksha and several other sacred trees. The sacred grove near temples is another special feature of our religion.