Kvacit prabhālepibhir indranilair
Muktāmayi yastir inānuviddhā|
Anyatra mālā sitapankajānām
Indivarair utkhacitāntareva||
- Kālidāsa
The Kalpavāsa VratÀ has its origins at the annual Magha Mela held at the Theertharaja Prayāga. Some even believe that it is this VratÀ which got interposed with the Kumbha (Kumbh) Mela’s Kalpavāsi. The annual Magha Mela coverts itself into the Ardha Kumbha (Kumbh) every sixth year and the Poorna Kumbha (Kumbh) Mela every twelfth year
Prayāga (Allāhābād) is picturesquely situated at the confluence of the rivers Gangā, Yamunā, and the invisible Sarasvati, in the heart of Gangā plain. It is famous as Thirtharāja and is believed to be holiest place in the three worlds existing in space (heaven, earth and nether world) and time (past, present, and future). It is a tirtha par excellence, a centre of faith and devotion, where people realize that religious affair is a medium of culture integration, and India it is the best event to integrate man with environment, ethics and ethos. The greatness of Prayāga, celebrated since the Vedic period, is expressed in the epics, the Purānic texts and the treatises on tirtha, and is attested by epigraphic records, foreign accounts, and Buddhist and Jain texts. Prayāga is one of the most frequented places of piligrimage, where people come especially during the month of Māgha for bathing in the purifying waves of the sister streams (sangama) and every twelfth year they come in hundreds of thousands to India’s greatest melā, the Kumbha-melā. For many centuries this has been the place of the amazing meeting of people, of religious fervor, and of sacred rites and rituals. The māghamelā, held on the vast open sacred sandy site of the rivers, is perhaps the most sanctifying attractive event in the cultural life of the country. It provides a traditional focus for a variety of sects and mendicant orders as well as commonalty. It is a colorful, unique aspect, both captivating and crushing. Here mythology is interwoven with history, true religious ignition with simple curiosity. This melā has not been studied in a comprehensive manner commensurate with its significance. In the present article an attempt has been made to present the multidimensional personality of this great affair in historical and culture perspectives.
Māghamelā is so called because the fair is celebrated in the month of Māgha (January-February). What distinguished this fair the common run of religious fairs is its long duration, longer than a month, for it covers the month of Māgha both by the lunar and solar calendars. It begins from the makara-sankrānti, i.e., when the sun enters the sign of Capricorn. Thousands of pilgrims, belonging to all strata of society and speaking different languages, and ascetics of various religious orders from all religious of the country flock to Prayāga and dwell in tents and hutments on the sands for Kalpavãsa within the sacred precincts. It is and annual feature that people perform their purificatory rites in the month of Māgha especially at Prayāga. What attracts them as a magnet, all at one time, to the same place, is the still vital strength of religious tradition. A miniature spiritual India is represented on the dry flood plain between the Gangā and Yamunā during the shivering cold of Māgha and extent of the roots of this faith.
The format of the melā is greatly extended, mass-involving ritual. The pilgrims take their baths, make their offerings, observe religious vows, receive religious instructions, and pay visits to holy spots within the sojourn here for duration to engage in mutual discussion of momentous issues of this world and the nest and in preaching to the classes as well as masses. It is perhaps only at the Māghamelā that saints and laymen feel obliged to talk exclusively about religious and profane. As the melā goes on monastic and lay religious leaders, including the most famous pundits of the land, address gatherings of many sizes, ranging from 500 to 30,000 persons. Again, doctrinal topics are discussed by the holy ones. It is these meetings alone that coordinate the present state of Hindu theological and exegetical learning in a seemingly informal manner. In previous centuries it was at this melā that Indian learning was solidified and presented to be preventative body of Brahmanical, Budhist and Jain religious opinion. The melã may thus be defined as a socio-religious gathering where trade flourished and wealth circulated.
The melā is an old cultural institution. Along with the ritual activities associated with a particular festival come the sensory delights of the fair; and the Māghamelā is primarily a ritual bathing festival. The wide spreading plain, framed by the branches of the two rivers, is practically deserted most of the year; during the rainy season most of it is covered with mud. And yet when winter comes it becomes one of the beauty spots of the world. The surpassing beauty of the confluence where the melā assembles has caught the imagination of many, such of Kālidāsa (5th Century A.D) who described the beauteous tumult of waves and ripples at sangama
