Millions of Hindu devotees are bathing in holy waters as the largest worldwide religious gathering is now underway in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Along the riverbanks in the city of Prayagraj.
The festival is renamed every 12 years with the prefix “Maha,” which means great, as it’s the largest of the Kumbh Mela events, held every three years in one of four cities.
In Prayagraj, followers will take a sacred bath in the Triveni Sangam, the meeting point of three holy rivers – the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – in order to purify their sins and move another step closer to “spiritual liberation.”
The cities, which host the festival on a rotating schedule.
As a key moment at the beginning of the festival.
Indian Prime Minister and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi, has invited everyone worldwide to the festival, which was identified by UNESCO in 2017 as an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”
Federal authorities are promoting the event not only as a spiritual gathering but also as a cultural spectacle that has previously attracted big names from Bollywood and Hollywood.
said millions of people had already taken a “dip in the sacred waters of Kumbh Mela ‘s religious bathing site”
The city, previously known as Allahabad, was renamed Prayagraj by Adityanath in 2018. This decision supposedly aimed to acknowledge the city’s reputation as a spiritual hub for Hindu devotees.
Renaming Allahabad to its original name, Prayagraj, as chosen by earlier rulers, was a significant step in keeping with Modi’s aim to gradually transform India from a secular, pluralistic society into a country driven by Hinduism.
This year’s festival has required years of planning and millions of dollars to build facilities to accommodate the large number of visitors that Prayagraj, a city with a usual population of 6 million people, is expecting.
Approximately 160,000 tents, along with 150,000 portable toilets, and a 776-mile water pipeline have been put in place at a temporary campsite occupying around 4,000 hectares, roughly equivalent to the area of 7,500 standard American football fields.
There was a deadly crush at a railway station where pilgrims were gathering in the city. Unfortunately, incidents like this are not rare at religious gatherings in India, often pointing out that crowd control and safety precautions are not adequate.
This year, officials claim additional safety precautions have been implemented in Prayagraj to protect visitors, including a security cordon with check points around the city manned by over 1,000 police officers.
The central government plans to install a system powered by artificial intelligence that will be dispersed throughout the city and monitored by hundreds of experts at key locations.
Drones will offer surveillance from above and for the first time, underwater drones with a diving range of up to 100 meters will be deployed on a 24/7 basis, the government explained.
A large number of pilgrims are expected to travel to the area by train, so authorities have added 3,000 special trains and 13,100 train services to accommodate them.
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The festival will conclude on February 26.
