Mahakumbh 2025 coverage in Foreign Media.

About 400 million Hindu pilgrims from around the globe are expected to bathe in and around the Ganges in the religion’s biggest display of unity.

New York Times | Prayagraj Sangam | Jan 14, 2025:: Tens of millions of Hindus are convening this week in what is expected to be the world’s largest human gathering, where a staggering number of devotees, tourists, politicians and celebrities take sacred dips at the convergence of two holy rivers in India.

The religious festival, called the Maha Kumbh Mela, happens every 12 years on the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj. Officials this year expect up to 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — to visit the site in Uttar Pradesh State over the next six weeks.

A major display of Hinduism, the event has recently become an important political event with the rise of Hindu nationalism, backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing political party. It is also a massive logistical undertaking for government officials working to prevent incidents like stampedes and the spread of diseases.

What is the Maha Kumbh Mela?

The Maha Kumbh Mela, or “great festival of the sacred pitcher,” is the world’s largest religious ceremony. Based on a Hindu legend in which demons and gods fight over a pitcher carrying the nectar of immortality, the centuries-old ceremony centers on a series of holy baths, which Hindus say purify their sins.

The holy baths are preceded by processions involving people singing and dancing in vibrant attire, in ornately decorated chariots and wielding ceremonial spears, tridents and swords. To participate, people travel from all over India and the world to the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, a sacred site that is also said to be the end point of a mythical third river, the Saraswati.

The timing of the festival, which this year ends on Feb. 26, is based on the astrological alignment of the sun, the moon and the planet Jupiter, which takes around 12 years to orbit the sun. Smaller versions of the festival happen in one of three other Indian cities — Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain — roughly every three years.

How big is the festival?

The scale of the Maha Kumbh Mela is astonishing. The last one, in 2013, drew 120 million people in Prayagraj, according to a government estimate. An intermediate festival in 2019, though less significant religiously, attracted 240 million people.

This year, the city, home to about 6 million residents, is preparing to host 300 to 400 million people, government officials said. In preparation, the state has built a temporary campsite across a 10,000-acre area, with tens of thousands of tents and bathrooms, roads, parking lots, water and electricity infrastructure and thousands of security cameras and drones.

Read more details here on this in New York Times with spectacular pictures.

Video Covered by Associated Press:

Naked, ash-smeared Hindu ascetics take holy dips at India’s Maha Kumbh festival.

Tens of thousands of naked Hindu ascetics and millions of pilgrims took dips in freezing water at the confluence of sacred rivers in northern India on Tuesday. It’s the first of a series of major baths in the Maha Kumbh festival, the largest religious congregation on Earth. (AP video by Shonal Ganguly and Rishi Lekhi)

Published 3:35 PM GMT+5:30, January 14, 2025

Dreadlocked Indian ascetics among 35 mln who take holy dip in Maha Kumbh festival.

Saurabh Sharma in Reuters | Prayagraj | Jan 14, 2025:: Naked Hindu ascetics smeared in holy ash charged into the waters of sacred rivers in India on Tuesday, part of a large crowd of 35 million devotees who took the holy dip on the second day of the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, seeking absolution from their sins.

The “royal bath” of the ascetics is a key part of the event, held every 12 years in the northern city of Prayagraj, because Hindus believe it confers salvation from the cycle of birth and death, in addition to the absolution of sins.

Thousands of devotees watched the ascetics take a dip in freezing waters, dreadlocks flying and clad only in holy beads, though some carried tridents, spears, or maces, after a procession to the water accompanied by chants and the beat of drums.

“The crowd today was fantastic,” said ascetic Rakesh Kumar after his holy dip at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati. “We need people to follow our faith and participate in festivals like this.”

On Tuesday, 35 million people “earned the holy benefit” of taking a dip, Uttar Pradesh State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, thanking authorities for their efforts to maintain law and order.

Nearly 15 million people, more than double the 6 million population of the city, had taken a ritual dip on Monday, when the six-week festival, expected to attract more than 400 million people, began.

Read vivid reporting in Reuters with excellent pics and videos. 

Millions start bathing in holy rivers at India’s biggest Hindu festival.

Geeta Pandey in BBC | Prayagraj | Jan 13, 2025:: Millions of 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.