Mahakumbh's management is both a sacred and secular triumph
With over 100 million people expected to visit the Allahabad Sangam, the Mahakumbh Mela is the biggest spiritual show on earth. According to the Hindu calendar, the Kumbh marks particular dates when bathing in holy waters is especially auspicious. The Mahakumbh is the biggest of these cyclical sacred dates, occurring once every 12 years.
The ritual is rooted in an ancient Hindu myth of creation and order. Texts note that during a battle for divine ambrosia between gods and demons, drops of this nectar spilled from its kumbh or vessel upon Haridwar, Ujjain, Nasik and Allahabad. From this comes the custom of the devout flocking to these sites for holy dips.
Alongside Hindus though, the Kumbh is open to all, observers, participants or passing tourists — as Mark Twain was when he wondered awestruck on the Kumbh in 1895.
Yet, its core belief aside, the Kumbh has changed remarkably with time. In earlier years, a hoary joke accompanied the mela about siblings separated amidst its millions, reunited later in life. While many were routinely lost amidst crowds, the events were also beset by disease, even stampedes.
Recently, however, there is far greater administrative control around the Kumbh. From running ghats to parking lots, providing shelter, security and sanitation, offering services from potable water to hospitals, managing infrastructure, crowds and communication, the local administration has clearly taken the world's hugest spiritual event in its stride.
It's heartening to see such a mammoth and complex occasion, lasting 55 days, well-planned and coordinated. If evidently capable administrations only extended such care to the daily running of their domains, we'd feel even more blessed.