PRAYAGRAJ (AFP) – India’s Kumbh Mela festival wrapped up yesterday, with final ritual river bathing ceremonies ending six weeks of celebration that organisers say have been attended by hundreds of millions of devotees.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ally, Yogi Adityanath – chief minister of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where the festival is being held – say the millennia-old Mela has been the “grandest” yet.
Both men themselves took part in the festival, with Modi bathing in the spot where the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet.
The Kumbh Mela is rooted in mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.
The festival, which opened on January 13, ended yesterday, coinciding with the festival of Maha Shivaratri.
Helicopters scattered flower petals on the vast crowds taking part in sacred bathing rituals at dawn.
According to eyebrow-raising figures from the Uttar Pradesh state government, more than 640 million worshippers took part in the festival, a staggering statistic even for the world’s most populous nation of 1.4 billion people.
Just yesterday, more than eight million devotees were reported to have shrugged off stomach-churning faecal matter measurements to immerse themselves in sacred river waters.
Authorities say the attendee estimates have been calculated using artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras, but the figures are impossible to independently verify. Organisers now face the massive task of cleaning the site up after the festival ends and pilgrims go home.
Deepak Prajapati, 43, said his family decided to come on the last day of the festival because it was auspicious.
“We hope that our family has found salvation from the cycle of life and death,” he told AFP.
