On January 13, 2025, the festival of Maha Kumbh Mela (Great Pitcher Festival) commenced at the holy city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, India. It’s the world’s largest gathering of people — an estimated 400 million people are expected to congregate in Prayagraj between January 13 and February 26 when it ends. The festival is so large that it can be seen from space.
During the festival, pilgrims bathe in the waters of the Ganges River to purify themselves of sin. Processions of holy men and monks have come from all over India, often on elephants, horses, and camels. Devotees include politicians, spiritual leaders, and people from outside of India, such as Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. The festival also features markets, food stalls, spiritual events and lectures, musical performances, movie screenings, and book releases.
In addition to hosting the Kumbh Mela, Prayagraj is also considered holy because it is at the confluence of the Ganges, Jamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers — known as the triveni sangam — and is the site where the Hindu creator deity Brahma performed the first sacrifice after creating the world. The name of the city itself signifies this, as it is derived from the Sanskrit elements pra (first) and yajña (sacrifice).
Kumbh Melas have a long history in India. A festival similar to the Kumbh Mela was described in the 7th century CE by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, although the modern form dates to the 19th century. The Kumbh Mela takes place every three years, rotating between the four holy cities of Haridwar, Ujjain, Nashik, and Prayagraj. Each city thus holds the festival once every 12 years. The Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj is considered the most significant of the four.
The word kumbh in Kumbh Mela refers to a pot or pitcher from a famous story in Hinduism, samudra manthana, or the churning of the ocean. In the story, the devas (gods) and asuras (demons) worked together to gain immortality by churning the ocean to obtain amrit, or the nectar of immortality, which was subsequently placed in a pitcher. However, the gods sought to keep the amrit all to themselves, leading to a fight for the pitcher, during which the god Vishnu whisked the pitcher away. During this process, four drops of the nectar fell at Haridwar, Ujjain, Nashik, and Prayagraj.
This year’s Kumbh Mela is especially significant because the alignment of stars and planets is said to be the same as it was during the initial spill. Hence it is a Great (Maha) Kumbh Mela. This is the first time in 144 years that the planets have aligned in this manner.
For believers, the highlight of the Kumbh Mela is the amrit snan, which are especially auspicious times to bathe in the Ganges, due to the alignment of planetary forces. There are three amrit snan dates during the festival: January 14, January 29, and February 3. The festival will be particularly crowded on those days.
Given the Maha Kumbh Mela’s size, significance, and connection with Hinduism, the state of Uttar Pradesh and central governments — both run by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — have invested a lot in the success of the festival, both materially and spiritually. Many in the BJP see the festival as a way of shoring up the enthusiasm of their base. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the festival on February 5. Preparations are estimated to have cost $800 million, with the state building a temporary campsite, constructing bathrooms, and investing in security and drones. Moreover, the government wishes to prevent the all-too-common occurrence at religious events of stampedes, which have been known to kill hundreds of people. For example, a stampede in July 2024 killed 121 people in the town of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
From the spiritual — and even an experiential perspective — perhaps nobody put it better than the popular guru Sadhguru, who summed up why this year’s festival is so big and well-attended: “You must experience this. Being born in India, you can’t miss an event that happens once in 144 years. I’m sure you won’t be here for the next one. So make it happen this time.”