Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh Mela, the world's largest human congregation of religious pilgrims is a UNESCO recognized cultural heritage fair for celebrating humanity held periodically by the banks of the Ganges in 4 (four) rotating locations. The origin of this event is traced back to Hindu mythology where the Hindu scriptures mention an event called Samudra Manthan wherein the Gods and the Demons battle over the ownership of the illusive and magical potion for immortality, and in a bid to avert the magic potion from being in the wrong hands, Vishnu the deity assigned with the preservation and conservation of life transports the potion contained in a pot shaped vessel known as Kumbha. While doing so, a few drops of the same spill from the container vessel and fall on four very distinct locations on planet earth, where this occasion is still commemorated since time immemorial as a token of acknowledgement of the Gods and their continuous struggle to make earth and life on it an opportunity of a lifetime. Of the four locations where the Kumbha Mela is celebrated, at Haridwar and Allahabad, they are held once in every 12 years on the banks of the Ganges and at the confluence of the Ganga Yamuna and now extinct and invisible Saraswati in Prayag, respectively and the dates are ascertained according to the zodiac alignments of the planet Jupiter and the Sun with planet earth.