HistoriCity | Mahakumbh: Tracing the legacy of India’s grandest religious gathering

Even 1,400 years ago, way back in the 7th century, when Yuan Chwang, a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and traveller, attended a similar river festival at Prayag, he found it to be majestic and described arrangements that would appear similar to present times. King Harshavardhan of Kanyakubja (Kannauj) was the reigning monarch of most of north and central India at the time, having established control over Gujarat and Bengal. Chwang’s account is perhaps the oldest eye-witness account of the festival at Prayag which was considered extremely sacred because of the confluence of the two rivers and the crescent shape of the land. During Harsha’s 30-year rule, the river festival was held quinquennially or every five years. As Harsha had converted to Mahayana Buddhism he labelled the festival ‘Mahamokhsa Parishad’ where ‘daan’ or charity was the biggest showstopper.

When Chwang and Harsa reached Prayag, they were greeted by over 500,000 people who belonged to various Hindu sects, Jains, the poor, orphans, and others from various parts of India.

Chwang’s memoirs provide a vivid description of the festival which was conducted within an area of 7-8 km in circuit. The arrangements for the solemn ceremony were completed before the arrival of the royal cortege. A great square space was marked off by a bamboo hedge 1,000 paces on each side, and in the middle “many scores of thatched buildings” were erected to deposit all the treasures (intended for distribution) to wit, gold, silver, fine pearls, red glass, and other valuables. The less costly articles such as silk and cotton garments, the gold and silver money, were placed in several hundred store-houses constructed by the side of the above. Outside this quadrangle were pavilions for refreshments, and there were also constructed “some hundred or so long buildings in which some thousand people might sit down for rest”, Chwang recalled in his memoirs.

Besides Harsha’s royal tent which was pitched on the north bank, 18 other kings had come to attend the ‘Mahamoksha Parishad’. On the west of the confluence was the camp of Dhruvabhata, the Valabhi (Gujarat) king who had been subjugated by Harsha. King Shashanka of Assam was camped south of the Yamuna and between these two camps were the ordinary alms receivers.

While the confluence was a holy spot, the ceremonies centred on the image of the Buddha, which was set up in a shrine. On the first day of the festival, flowers, various precious clothes and other articles were offered. On the second and third days, images of Aditya (the sun) and Shiva were worshipped with similar devotion. However, as Buddhism was the state religion, its adherents were given more alms than other sects.

Chwang’s memoirs recall that “to each of the selected ten thousand of the religious community” (Buddhist monks probably) were given one hundred pieces of gold, one pearl, one cotton garment, various drinks and meats, flowers, and perfumes. During the next twenty days, the Brahmans received generous gifts.

After these two communities came the Jains and other sects finally followed by other mendicants, the poor, orphans, and other destitute. King Harsha understood very well the importance of projecting and legitimising power through religious patronage and charity.

By the end of the 75-day festival, Harsha gave away virtually his entire treasury. As a Buddhist King, Harsa wanted to emulate Buddha’s actions and showcase his piety. After his coffers had emptied out, writes Chwang, “in imitation of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama at the hour of his great renunciation, Harsa freely and without stint gave away his gems and goods, his clothing and necklaces, earrings and bracelets, chaplets, neck-jewel, and bright head-jewel…all being given away, he [Harsa] begged from his sister [Rajya Sri] an ordinary second-hand garment, and having put it on the paid worship to the Buddhas of the ten regions”.

Magha mela to Mahakumbh

The annual Magh Mela at Prayag is branded as the Mahakumbh Mela every 12 years. River melas, a form of water worship integral to many ancient religions, including Hinduism, are held at various confluences of rivers across the length and breadth of the Indian continent. However, the Magh Mela at Prayag was branded as the Kumbh Mela for the first time after the 1857 rebellion by the community of local river priests known as Prayagwaals, who modelled it on the original Kumbh Mela held at Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

Kama McLean writes in her seminal work on the Prayag Kumbh Mela: “While the tradition of an annual Magh Mela is very old, and is attested to in several historical accounts, a complete absence of any record or any other evidence of a quinquennial ‘Kumbh’ festival suggests that it is a relatively recent phenomenon in Allahabad…the Kumbh genre of festivals was adapted from Haridwar, where it was a recognised and celebrated tradition, and that this was carried out primarily by Allahabad’s pilgrimage priests, who saw the disjuncture created by the change of power after the rebellion as an opportunity to establish, through the institution of a religious festival, an arena of sovereignty, as had been guaranteed by Queen Victoria’s Proclamation after the 1857 rebellion.”

The Vedas, Puranas, the Mahabharata, and the Ramayana have been cited as sources of the mythical origins of the Kumbh. Most of these accounts are centred on the conflict between gods and demons over the nectar (amrit) produced by the churning of the ocean (sagar manthan) of milk.

When sage Dhanvantari was carrying the nectar in a jar or kumbh across the country, he spilt some of it at four places: Haridwar, Prayag, Ujjain, and Nasik. The other tradition is that Adi Shankaracharya initiated this tradition of periodic festivals at river confluences.

RB Bhattacharya contends in the Kumbhaparvan, “the Puranic legend has been forcefully grafted on the Kumbha fair in order to show Puranic authority for it. Though the incident of amrita manthan [churning the nectar] has been stated in several Puranic works, ‘the fall of amrita in four places’ has not been stated in any of them.”

Be that as it may, the symbolism and significance of holy rivers and their expiatory powers in Hinduism cannot be overemphasized. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister had wanted his ashes immersed in the Ganga at Prayag and declared in his Will, “I have had an attachment for the Ganga and Yamuna ever since my childhood, and as I get older this connection strengthens. ... The Ganga is a symbol of India's age‐long culture and civilisation, changeless, always flowing, but always the Ganga. ... Of course, I have abandoned the old-fashioned traditions, and I want to break the chains which constrain India and oppress innumerable people which prevent the development of their minds and bodies. But even though I want all of these things, I cannot completely separate myself from these old traditions. It is a great source of pride to me that this magnificent succession of heritage is ours, and will always be uniquely ours, and I know very well that I, like all of us, am a part of this chain, which will never, ever be broken, because this chain has gone on since the beginning of India's eternal history. I could never break this chain, because I see such unbounded worth in it, and it gives me inspiration, courage and spirit.”

HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal