Kumbha Mela

[dasa]

 

early kumbha mela history

 

Mark Twain was not the first Westerner to witness the Kumbha Mela. The Kumbha Mela had for many centuries attracted the curiosity of foreign travelers. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of King Chandra Gupta, visited Kumbha Mela for seventy-five days in the fourth century B.C. Later, Hieun Tsiang of China toured India in the seventh century A.D. and mentioned Kumbha Mela in his diary. He gave an eyewitness report that during the Hindu month of Magha (January-February), half a million people had gathered on the banks of the Ganges at Allahabad to observe a great celebration. "The pilgrims," writes Hieun Tsiang, "assembled along with their Emperor, Maharaja Harshavardhana, his ministers, scholars, philosophers, and sages." He also reports that the emperor distributed enormous quantities of gold, silver, and jewels in charity to the pilgrims.

 

Dominated by Buddhism, Jainism, and Islamism in the eighth century, India's ancient spiritual traditions were on the verge of extinction. In an effort to revitalize the ancient traditions, a saint and religious reformer named Shankara popularized the Kumbha Mela as a meeting place for the spiritually inclined. His efforts proved successful, making Kumbha Mela the largest spiritual gathering in the world.

 

 

Jayendra Saraswati Swami of Sankara Sect

 

Shankara emphasized the importance of associating with saintly persons while at the Kumbha Mela. Shankara placed more importance on hearing transcendental knowledge with faith and attention from self-realized persons, darshan, than he did on taking a holy bath in the Ganges. According to Shankara, the darshan of saintly persons, who are themselves the personification of truth and purity, can enable one to easily achieve the ultimate stage of self-realization-whereas a holy bath in the Ganges only removes the impediment of bad karma. Thus, both hearing spiritual topics from saints and bathing in the Ganges are still the two main focuses of the people at Kumbha Mela.

 

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by dasa (edited 04-16-2002).]

[dasa]

the holy ganges bath at the sangam

 

Besides the ganges, there are two other sacred rivers located at Allahabad—the yamuna and the saraswati. The yamuna, like the ganges, has its earthly origin in the himalayas. The saraswati, however, is a mystical river which has no physical form. It is believed that the saraswati exists only on the ethereal or spiritual plane and is invisible to the human eye. This holy river is mentioned repeatedly in India's sacred texts like the Mababharata and is said to be present at Allahabad where it joins the yamuna and the ganges. This confluence of India's three most sacred rivers is called the sangam.

 

The highlight for most pilgrims during a Kumbha Mela festival is the observance of a holy bath at the sangam. A holy bath in either of the sacred rivers has purifying effects, but where the three rivers meet, the purification is said to increase one hundred times. It is further believed that when one takes a sacred bath at the sangam during the Kumbha Mela, the potency of the holy water is increased one thousand times. For this reason, Indians believe that the Kumbha Mela is the most auspicious place in the universe to take a holy bath. Armed with this faith, pilgrims attend Kumbha Mela and bathe in the Ganges in a mood of solemn reverence.

 

The American poet Mark Twain expressed his wonder at the faith of the pilgrims at the Kumbha Mela when he wrote in More Tramps Abroad (1895): "These pilgrims had come from all over India: some of them had been months on the way, plodding patiently along in the heat and dust, worn and poor, hungry, but supported and sustained by an unwavering faith and belief. It is wonderful, that the power of faith like that can make multitude upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining."