More than 10 million people have taken a holy bath at the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela (also known as Mahakumbh) – described as humanity’s biggest gathering – in northern India’s Prayagraj city on Monday.
The event – held once every 12 years – starts on Monday and over the next six weeks, the devout will bathe at Sangam – the confluence of India’s most sacred Ganges river with the Yamuna river and the mythical Saraswati.
Hindus believe that taking a dip in the sacred river will cleanse them of sins, purify their soul and liberate them from the cycle of birth and death – as the ultimate goal of Hinduism is salvation.
About 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend the 45-day spectacle, which is so large it can be seen from space.
Authorities said that on Monday, until noon local time, 10 million people had taken a bath. On Tuesday, numbers are expected to exceed 20 million, and the spectacle will be special as it will see ash-smeared naked Hindu holy men with matted dreadlocks, known as Naga sadhus, take a dip at dawn.
But authorities are racing against time to get the city ready to host millions who will continue to pour in throughout the festival.
To accommodate the pilgrims and tourists, a vast tent city, sread over 4,000 hectares, has been set up on the banks of the river.
But on Sunday, just hours before proceedings were due to begin, many parts of the sprawling grounds in Prayagraj still appeared to be a work in progress.
Some of the camps set up by saints and other worshippers had no water and intermittent power supplies.
Thousands of toilet cubicles were still yet to be set up and many already installed were unusable because of missing water connections.
Administration official Vivek Chaturvedi told the BBC that organisers were hampered by the fact that this year the monsoon waters took longer to recede which narrowed the window for construction activities.
But, he insisted, “preparations are almost complete and all systems will be in place to welcome the visitors”.
“We have laid 650km (403 miles) of temporary roads and set up tens of thousands of tents and toilets. More than 100,000 people, including over 40,000 police and security officials, are working round-the-clock to make it a success,” Mr Chaturvedi said.
Source: BBC