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In this lucid and enlightening account, Nityananda Misra takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through the modern Kumbha Mela, the largest pilgrimage and the biggest festival in the world attended by crores of people. The book details the origin and symbolism of the Kumbha Mela, its dates and venues, and its awe-inspiring organization that has been called a wonder of modern-day management. It provides a personal close-up view of the visitors at the largest human gathering on earth-the sadhus, the kalpavasis, the tirthayatris, and members of new-age Hindu movements. The author sheds considerable light on the cultural aspects (literature, arts, and music) of the Kumbha and argues how the mela is perhaps the most diverse and inclusive human gathering and how the tradition is immortal, as if made so by the nectar of immortality which is believed to have spilled on the sites of the Kumbha Mela. Throughout the book, the author shows how diverse participants come and work together at the Kumbha Mela following the spirit of samgacchadhvam (“come together”)-a spirit that permeates the mela in his view. The author captures his personal experience too in Prayaga, Nashik, and Ujjain, leaving an anecdotal touch to the narrative. The final chapter presents an overview of the upcoming Ardha Kumbha Mela in Prayaga in 2019.

The first modern translation of one of the world's earliest ethnographies

Today the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, is a major Hindu religious pilgrimage and the largest religious gathering in the world. In 2001, according to the government of Uttar Pradesh, 30 million pilgrims were drawn to the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna on the most auspicious day for bathing. In an impressive feat of organization and administration, the first mela of the new millennium was managed to the overwhelming satisfaction of most, with an impressive health and safety record. The loudest complaint had to do with the intrusive presence of the media. Journalists, largely representing foreign media outlets, had swarmed to the mela, intent on broadcasting to a global audience sensational images of naked (or wet-sari-clad) Indians taking part in "ancient" religious rituals. Resistance to foreign interference with the mela has roots that go back 200 years. The British colonial state and the colonized had different ideas about what the Kumbh Mela represented: for the former, it was a potentially dangerous gathering that demanded tight regulation and control, but for the latter it was a sacred sphere in which foreign domination and interference were intolerable. In this book Kama Maclean examines this tension and the manner in which it was negotiated by each side. She asks why and how the colonial state tried to manipulate the mela and, more important, how the mela changed as Indians responded to the colonial power. In recent years many scholars have emphasized the extent to which the Kumbh Mela has been monopolized by the Hindu nationalist movement. Maclean seeks to situate the history of the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad within a much broader context. She explores the role of a pilgrimage fair like the Kumbh Mela in disseminating ideas, particularly political ones like nationalism and ideas about social reform. Kama Maclean tells the mesmerizing and important story of the Kumbh Mela with exciting detail as well as careful scholarly attention, illuminating for the reader the full scope of the event's historical and socio-political context.