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Mahakumbh mela

2021 MAR 23

Preliminary   > Art and Culture   >   Miscellaneous   >   Religion

Why in news?

  • Mahakumbh mela in Haridwar is scheduled to start from April 1 and go on till April 30.

About the Mela:

  • Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism.
  • It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: the Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra).
  • The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass feedings of monks or the poor, and entertainment spectacle.
  • The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to pr?ya?citta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes, and that it cleanses them of their sins.
  • The festival is traditionally credited to the 8th-century Hindu philosopher and saint Adi Shankara, although there is no historic literary evidence of these mass pilgrimages called "Kumbha Mela" prior to the 19th-century.
  • Each festival attracts millions, with the largest gathering at the Prayag Kumbh Mela and the second largest at Haridwar.
  • The festival is one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world, and considered as the "world's largest congregation of religious pilgrims".
  •  It has been inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
  • The festival is observed over many days, with the day of Amavasya attracting the largest number on a single day.

Prelims Question

Which of the following places are hosts to Kumbh melas every 12 years:
1.Haridwar
2.Rishikesh
3.Prayag
4.Ujjain
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a)1,2 and 3 only
(b)2,3 and 4 only
(c)1,3 and 4 only
(d)1,2,3 and 4

 Answer to the Prelims Question