The Kumbh Mela is the largest human gathering in the world, at least according to my school lessons. Since then, I’ve been curious to see what this massive congregation looks like. I happened to redo most of this route again in the company of another friend when I decided to witness the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2025.
By 2025, with the ability to fund my own travel and enough mental maturity to understand the world, I planned to attend the ‘Maha Kumbh Mela,’ scheduled for 45 days starting from the day of Makar Sankranti in January 2025 and ending on Maha Shivaratri in February 2025. Initially, I planned everything for a solo trip. Considering my leave, expected crowds, and other factors, I intended to take a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam in Prayag on Shivaratri. I had booked flights and accommodation well in advance. However, as the Kumbh Mela approached, news spread rapidly about this rare celestial event happening once every 144 years, attracting people worldwide eager to dip in the river. Many flocked to the site, driven more by FOMO, less by spirituality. Due to this unprecedented rush, transportation and public infrastructure were eventually overwhelmed. One of my friends decided to join me in my quest to wash away all my sins in the river confluence.
My plan was finalised well before the global frenzy began. I had a clear list of places I wanted to visit, the order of my travels, and the experiences I sought. This was the condition I set for my friend before accepting her request to join me. We flew from Bangalore to Ayodhya, where I finally got to see the Ram temple after his return from Vanavas. (My previous visit to Ayodhya has been detailed in a separate post). From there, the plan was to take the train to Prayag to experience the energy of the Kumbh Mela during its last two days. Afterwards, we would travel by train to Banaras, stay for a few days without a fixed itinerary, and then fly back to Bangalore.
When we reached Ayodhya, the small pilgrimage town was packed with crowds. Luckily, we had secured a slot to visit the Ram temple through online booking after staying awake until midnight, two weeks earlier. That sleepless night made our Shri Ram darshan quick and smooth. Without staying on the crowded streets, we slept through the night to catch the morning train to Prayag. Media reports emphasized the massive crowds at all railway stations around Prayag, raising our concerns before we arrived. We heard that daily visitors could reach 1-2 crores, excluding the main ‘Snan / Royal Bath’ days during the mela.
We had a small list of things to do and experience, that were exclusive to the Kumbh Mela. Upon alighting at Prayag, two things happened. First, apart from the holy dip in the confluence, another priority was to see and interact with the Naga Sadhus. We believed this was a golden opportunity to experience the energy of so many ascetics in the same place who otherwise live in solitary dwellings in remote natural areas like mountains, forests or caves. However, we learnt that most Nagas had left the mela after the royal bath on the day of Basanth Panchami.
Second, I received an SMS notification on my phone that the scheduled train from Prayag to Banaras on the MahaShivaratri day had been cancelled, as a precautionary to avoid a stampede like situation that had happened on the day of the holy bath on Mauni Amavasya. This was the same train in which he had a confirmed ticket to Banaras. This cancellation then put us in even more distress wondering how we are going to navigate our travel through the crammed-up transportation system that had garnered widespread coverage on media.
After arriving at Prayag railway station, there was still hope. Things didn’t seem as bad as we had imagined, and it was rather easy to navigate from the station to the hotel we had booked earlier. Also, during other occasions, the Nagas belonging to the major thirteen Akhadas leave for their abodes after the Kumbh mela. But this time was special, the last day of the Kumbh coincided with the Maha Shivaratri. They had all headed to Banaras, for the Lord’s darshan on the most important night of their Adi Guru, Lord Shiva. We still had a probability to see them all if we reached Banaras for Shivaratri. But, we had planned to take our holy dip on that same day as it was one of the most important bathing days.
On the other hand, some good Samaritans recommended us to leave Prayag before the last day of the mela as a large crowd was expected to flock to not miss out the once in 144 years opportunity to wash off their sins. All holy sites and landmarks within the proximity of the confluence were closed for the next couple of days to avoid overcrowding. Roads would be blocked for vehicular movement and reaching either the airport, railway stations or bus stations would be far off to be accessible by foot. Finding some wisdom in the words of so many people, my friend and I both decided to reschedule our plan for Prayag.
Accordingly, after freshening up in our tented accommodation by late noon, we set out on a triple riding bike taxi to complete few of the things from our to-do list. Firstly, we tried para-motoring. Getting a bird’s eye view of the massive wall of the Allahabad fort setting a backdrop for the holy confluence and the tent city was a beautiful experience we had waited for. From there, we went visiting the temporary sets of the twelve jyotirlingas and finally reaching for the Ganga aarti at the ghat. We participated in the bhajans, did the aarti and slid into the warmth of the blankets in our tent.
We woke up the following morning to board the boat that we had booked on the previous evening. The biting cold temperature made us a little hesitant to take the dip, but when we finally reached the confluence- the energy felt different. We both thanked the waters, greeted the rising sun and dipped ourselves in the Triveni Sangam, praying for good of us, our families and the world. It was a moment that I had looked forward to all my life, that twinkle in the eyes of the younger me was beaming with joy.
After changing into dry clothes, we packed up and decided to move out of Prayag at the earliest. We hired bike taxis to reach a bus-station located on the outskirts of Prayag. To our surprise upon reaching, none of the buses were as crowded as we had expected them to be. Each bus left the stands as soon as the seats were occupied. The frequency was such that no passengers needed to stand on the aisle for their journey to Banaras from Prayag. The journey was smooth and rather on time, thanks to dedicated lanes marked for local and outside registered vehicles each and for public buses.
Continued as Part 2: The Story of The Maha Shivaratri and the Naga Sadhus
The Lost Lander 