A peek into the history of Kumbha
Kumbha is the largest
religious congregation in the world, held every 12 years by rotation in one of
the four cities of India; namely Haridwar, Allahabad or Prayag, Nasik and
Ujjain. Kumbha which is held once in 144 years in Prayag or Allahabad is
called the Maha Kumbh.
The Origin
According to the
legend, gods and asuras during the churning of the ocean or Samudra
Manthan found a pot of divine nectar believed to provide
immortality to the drinker. The gods made a divine carrier carry away the pot
to prevent asuras from laying hands on it. During the chase, a few drops
of amrita fell on Haridwar, Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain which are the
present-day sites of the Kumbh Mela. The puranas or other ancient texts however
do not have a mention of kumbha mela.
The available texts and the historical records
fail to give an exact picture on the age of Kumbha. Earliest mention is the one in Haridwar followed by Prayag and
Nasik Trimbakeshwar. The mela at Haridwar appears to be the first to be called
Kumbha as it is held when Jupiter enters the zodiac sign of Kumbha or Aquarius.
The other earliest reference to Kumbh Mela is found in
Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh in 1695 CE and Chahar Gulshan in
1759 CE which describes only Haridwar's fair as Kumbha, though there is a
mention of similar fairs being held in Allahabad and Nashik.
The Magh Mela of
Allahabad is probably the oldest among the four fairs kinding mention in
several Puranas. However, its transition onto Kumbha and the 12-year
cycle probably dates back to the mid-19th century. The first British reference
to the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad occurs in an 1868 report, which mentions the
need for increased pilgrimage and sanitation controls at the "Coomb Fair"
to be held in January 1870. So in all probability the local community in order
to increase the importance of their Tirth adopted the Kumbha tradition of
Haridwar with their pre-existing melas.
Kumbha in Ujjain
Kumbha in Ujjain is
supposed to have started in the eighteenth century by the then Maratha ruler
Renkoji Shinde of the Scindia dynasty of Gwalior. Renkoji invited ascetics from
Nashik to visit a festival Panchkroshi Yatra held by the local community in
Ujjain in the month of Vaishakha. As per ancient traditions, a sequential
viewing of all 84 Mahadev temples in and around Ujjain is conducted as part of
this yatra. Ujjain is home to one of the twelve Jyotirlingas in the
form of Mahakal - the Lord of all Times, it is a place where according to
the legend few drops of divine amrita had fallen and one of the Saptapuris, the
seven holy cities of India that grant Moksha or liberation from the cycle of
birth and death. Realizing the immense religious significance of Ujjain, the
sages accepted Renkoji's invitation. As the Panchkroshi Yatra
conveniently fell at the end of Nashik Kumbha, a large number of ascetics
started visiting the festival in Ujjain too. This drew ordinary people to the
fair as well, increasing its popularity over the time, which probably
ultimately led to naming the festival as Simhastha kumbha.The kumbha in
Ujjain starts on the full moon day of Hindu month of Chaitra when Jupiter
enters the sun sign of Leo or the Simha constellation of zodiac,
hence the name Simhastha. The mela continues till the next full moon
day of the following month of Vaishakha. Though, the exact date of renaming
cannot be traced but as per the records of the British government, it must be
somewhere in the late nineteenth century. Earlier the Scindias organized kumbha
in Ujjain, however in later years its organization and management slowly
changed hands.
Until the East
India Company took over the management and administration of Kumbha, the
Melas were managed by the dominant akhadas of that time. These sadhus
collected taxes, carried out policing and judicial duties. They also
participated in trade and were heavily militarized. These melas have had
a history of sectarian politics and a long record of clashes between different
participating sects. The bone of contention many times among other reasons was
the right to be the first to take a dip in the holy river during shahi
snan days. Being organizers some akhadas asserted their first right to
shahi snan. This demand gained importance because over the years the
sequence in which each Akhada was allowed to enter the waters came to be
associated with the rank or status their sect enjoyed among all akhadas. These
and many other interests led to violent clashes between different sects of
sadhus.
The 1760’s Haridwar
Kumbha resulted in hundreds of death due to clashes between Shaivite Gosains
and Vaishnavite Bairagis. A copperplate inscription of the
Maratha Peshwa claims that twelve thousand ascetics died in a clash
at the 1789 Nashik Kumbha. The 1796 Kumbha in Haridwar saw Shaivites
attacking and injuring the Udasis for erecting a camp without their
permission. The retaliatory response of the Khalsa Sikhs
accompanying the Udasis led to many sadhus getting killed from both sides.
The East India Company after this incident severely limited the trader-warrior
role of the sadhus who were reduced to the status of mere pilgrims. Different
measures initiated by the administration in later editions of kumbha led to
significantly reduce clashes between different sects of sadhus.
Highlights of Kumbha
Aarti every evening is
one of the major highlights of Kumbha. Scores of people gather to witness this
beautiful spectacle where priests perform Aarti of the river accompanied
by the chant of sholkas. Besides the religious significance, historically
the Kumbh Melas were also major commercial events. A large
number of people of different religions visited the mela. British civil servant
Robert Montgomery Martin describes the 1858 Haridwar Kumbha mela as
a congregation of Hindu pilgrims as well as visitors like priests, soldiers,
merchants, including horse traders coming over from Bukhara, Kabul, Turkistan,
Arabia and Persia. He records the visit of several Hindu and Sikh rulers
and Muslim Nawabs visiting the fair as well as some Christian missionaries
preaching at the Mela.
Peshwai Procession
One of the highlights
of Kumbha Mela even today is the Peshwai Procession , which marks the arrival
of the people belonging to a particular akhadas or sect in a grand procession.
Each procession sees the chief of the Akhadas mounted atop a beautifully
decorated vahan led by his group of disciples dancing to the sound of manjiras,
dhols and singing hymns in the praise if the lord. The air is
filled with frequent full throated chants of Har Har Mahadev. The path towards
the bathing ghats is jam packed with lakhs of people thronging the route to
witness the grand procession move towards the ghats of Khipra. The
order of entering the waters is fixed, the Juna’s are the first, followed by
the Niranjani then Mahanirvani and then the other akhadas follow. The holy dip
starts at an opportune time at sunrise, people offer ablutions to the
Sun god, pray for atonement for their sins and grant of Moksha from the
cycle of life and death. The pilgrims then make way for the darshan of the
Mahakal, the Kshetradhipati of Ujjain. There are atleast three to
four auspicious days for shahi snan during the month when people in lakhs take
part in these rituals.
Another important
aspect of Kumbha is the Darshan of the holy men. The pilgrims seek instructions
or advice in spirituality from these holy men and leave a token Dakshina at
their feet. Darshan is important to the experience of the Kumbh as it is here
that the general public gets to see and interact with the ascetics who normally
live in their ashrams or in the high altitudes of the Himalayas.
Naga Sadhus
Naga sadhus are the
other very famous participants of kumbha. The Nagas call themselves Shaiv
Panthis and are the warrior sadhus, carrying a weapon as they lead the
procession for Shahisnan. Naga meaning naked is a sign of separation or sanyas
from the material world. These ash smeared sadhus remain completely naked
even while living in the extremely low temperatures of the Himalayas. The other
sadhus wear loose cotton robe of saffron or white colour, smear ash on their
bodies and adorn themselves with Rudraksha Mala and garland of flowers. The
kumbha is also frequented by the Hat Yogis, who subject themselves to
years of hard penance and yoga to achieve unique control over breathing and the
other parts of their bodies. Hat yog is a way of physical purification of body
to prepare it for higher meditation. Each Hat Yogi displays some unique power
or characteristics they have mastered as a result of years of sadhana.
Preparations for Kumbha
Being a mega event,
kumbha requires participation of various governmental and nongovernmental
organizations to make it a success. A city within a city is created for lakhs
of visiting pilgrims. Facilities like tents for accommodation, water for
drinking and daily use, stalls for food, medicines, traffic control and
management, maintaining hygiene and garbage disposal, policing and law and
order, building infrastructure to handle a rush of more than 1 crore pilgrims
visiting kumbha over the one month period is a major challenge. Crowd
management is essentially the most function of the government machinery as
various editions of kumbha have seen many mishaps due to presence of sheer
number of pilgrims on the days of the shahisnan. Incidents of death due to
stampede, overcrowding or collapse of the connecting bridges, unhygienic living
conditions in the camps, spread of diseases like cholera, diahorrea, typhoid
etc have over shadowed government’s efforts to provide a safe and successful
kumbha. Inspite of the numerous difficulties, kumbha attracts large numbers of
pilgrims in each of its editions.
The faith of the
people attending the kumbha can be summed effectively in the words of Mark
Twain who after visiting the 1895 kumbha wrote “It is wonderful, the power of a
faith like that, that can make multitudes 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. It is
done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what
the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvelous to our kind
of people, the cold whites.”
Complied and Written by - Vandana
Muley
The writer is a Travel
Writer, Blogger and Publicist and can be contacted on muley_vandana@yahoo.com
