Millions of Hindus converged on a makeshift city at Allahabad yesterday in preparation for the first of a series of baths in the icy waters of the Ganges River during a once-in-12 years festival considered one of the world's largest religious gatherings.
Thousands of soldiers and police -- equipped with closed circuit television and bomb detectors -- were on alert against terrorist attacks, stampedes and crime among the pilgrims crowding in tents or sleeping outside in the winter cold during the 43-day Kumbh Mela.
PHOTO: AP
Masses of people chanted prayers and made offerings to prepare for the first bath today. In 1984, during a smaller festival in the town of Hardwar, 200 people were killed in a stampede.
Once every 12 years Hindus believe they can wash away their sins -- reducing the number of reincarnations in this life and achieving nirvana in the afterlife -- if they bathe in the confluence of three sacred rivers at the auspicious time of the Kumbh Mela that occurs every dozen years.
About 65 million people are expected at the Kumbh Mela before it ends Feb. 21. Most of them will try to bathe on days they consider most auspicious, according to the stars, to free them from the cycle of reincarnations.
The first of those days is today.
This year's festival coincides with the beginning of the millennium in the Western calendar, making it even more auspicious for the pilgrims.
The Ganges and the Yamuna, bringing melted snow from the Himalayas, converge at Allahabad, which means "city of God." According to Hindu belief, the mythical Saraswati River also converges at that spot.
Hundreds of thousands of tents have sprung up over a 30km radius along the banks of the Ganges, 575km southeast of New Delhi.
Nearly 300 special trains, 4,000 government-owned buses and hundreds of flights have begun ferrying in the devotees.
The Kumbh is part pilgrimage and part village festival on a gigantic scale. Aside from the six days identified by Hindu holy men as the best for ritual bathing, the makeshift city -- equipped with new roads, toilets, and water wells -- is abuzz with religious classes, sermons, processions and prayers.
Megaphones blare chants from the Hindu scriptures, competing with radios blasting out religious songs and the latest film tunes.
No souvenir sales or other commercial activity is allowed in the festival area, except for food shops approved by the local administration. "We have stopped the entry of non-vegetarian food, liquor and cigarettes into the festival area," said Jivesh Nandan, the district administrator.
Hindu priests and holy men have arrived from throughout the country wrapped in traditional orange robes and turbans. Hermits, with scraggly beards and threadbare clothes, come out of the hills to join the throng. Women wear bright saris, although some have shaved their heads as a sign of devotion.
None are as eye-catching, however, as the 20,000 naked holy men called Naga Sadhus, their torsos smeared with paint and ash.
To handle the numbers, the Uttar Pradesh state government has built 15 new pontoon bridges, some across the mighty Ganges; 80km of new roads; 20,000 new streetlights, thousands of water faucets and portable toilets.
There are 12 temporary hospitals and 35 police stations.
A special computerized unit has been set up to trace the hundreds of people, especially children, who get lost in the crush. Their pictures will be flashed on television screens to help reunite them with their traveling companions.
Fifty companies of paramilitary troops, assisted by the army and air force, will be on alert 24 hours a day against terrorist attacks.
Metal detectors, closed-circuit TV, a special bomb disposal unit, and plainclothes policemen are in place.
The festival also has political overtones.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu nationalist organization affiliated with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, plans to announce during the festival the date for building a controversial temple on the site of a demolished Muslim mosque.
The decision is expected to whip up tensions between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims, who are opposed to building the temple at Ayodhya, 550km east of New Delhi.
The demolition of the mosque in December 1992 by Hindu nationalists sparked religious riots that killed 2,000 people across India.
Vajpayee, who heads a diverse coalition government, has made conflicting statements in the past month about the temple. The hard-liners in his party who want India to be a Hindu nation, rather than a multi-religious one, are believed to be testing the waters to see how much support they have before state elections this year in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state.
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