Kumbh Mela, a congregation of devout people at a sacred site forms a vital part of the pilgrimage tradition of Hinduism.
Celebrating a mythological event in the life of a d~ity or an auspicious astrological period, the melas attract enormous numbers of pilgrims from all over the country. The greatest of these, the Kumbha Mela, is a riverside festival held four times eVery twelve years, rotating from Allahabad at the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, to Nasik on the Godavari, to Ujjain on the Sipra, and to Haridwar on the Ganges.
Bathing in these rivers during the Kumbha Mela is considered an endeavour of great merit, cleansing both body and spirit. The Allahabad and Haridwar festivals are routinely attended by millions of devotees to have a credit of the largest religious gathering in the world. It may also be the oldest.
Two traditions are prevalent regarding the origin and schedule of the festival: one that stems from ancient texts known as the Puranas, and the other that connects it with astrological considerations. According to the Puranic epic, the gods and demons had churned the milky ocean at the beginning of time in order to gather various divine treasures including a jar containing a potion of immortality. As the jar emerged from the ocean the gods and demons began a terrific battle for its possession. During the battle, which according to some legends the gods won by trickery, four drops of the precious potion fell on to the earth.
These places became the sites of the four Kumbha Mela festivals. The astrological tradition (ascribed to a lost Puranic text and not traceable in extant editions) seems to stem from a very ancient festival called the Kumbha Parva, which occurred at Haridwar every twelfth year when Jupiter was in Aquarius and the sun entered Aries. At some later time the term 'Kumbha was prefixed to the melas held at Nasik, Ujjain and Prayaga (the earlier name of Allahabad), and these four sites became identified with the four mythical locations of the immortality potion. In theory the Kumbha Mela festivals are supposed to occur every three years, rotating among the four cities". In practice the four-city cycle may actually take eleven or thirteen years because of the difficulties and controversies in calculating the astrological conjunctions. Furthermore, the interval between the Kumbha Mela at Nasik and that at Ujjain is not of three years.
they are celebrated the same year or only a year apart. T deviation in practice is intriguing and cannot be fully explair by either astrological or mythological means. The followi chart gives the astrological periods of the four melas, and 1 years of their most recent and near future occurrences.
Haridwar.. when Jupiter is in Aquaril1s and the Sun is in Aries during the Hindu month of Chaitra (March-April); 1986, 1998, 2010, 2021.
Allahabad.. when Jupiter is in Aries or Taurus, and the Sun and Moon are in Capricorn, during the Hindu month of Mag (January-February); 1989, 2001, 2012, 2024.
Nasik.. when Jupiter and the Sun are in Leo in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (August-September) 1980, 1992, 2003, 2015.
Ujjain.. when Jupiter is in Leo and the Sun is in Aries or when Jupiter, the Sun, and the Moon are in Libra dming t Hindu month of Vaisakha (April-May) 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016.