The organisers of India's giant Hindu festival braced themselves today for a torrent of pilgrims from far and wide who will bathe at the confluence of the holy Ganges and Yamuna rivers in one single day.
Fog hung over the sandy flood plain of the Ganges in the northern Indian city of Allahabad, where a kaleidoscopic township of tents housing more than one million holy men, gurus and their devotees has sprung to life since the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, got under way on Tuesday.
Mela Officer Jeevesh Nandan said the crowd was likely to swell to eight million - more than the population of Switzerland - tomorrow, the second of six auspicious days for washing away sins in the river during the 42-day festival.
Allahabad, in the Hindi-speaking heartland of Uttar Pradesh, is one of four spots where Garuda, the winged steed of the Hindu god Vishnu, is believed to have rested during a titanic battle with demons over a pitcher of divine nectar of immortality.
Garuda's flight lasted 12 divine days, or 12 years of mortal time, so the Kumbh Mela is celebrated at each city, alternating between each every three years. Hindus consider the festival at Allahabad as the holiest of the four.
More than 20,000 police personnel, including forces from outside the state, have been deployed in the festival area, which sprawls across some 1,396 hectares.
Special electricity sub-stations have been built, 20,000 toilets and urinals have been installed and more than 8,000 sweepers have been put to work to deal with the debris of a crowd which, cumulatively, could total some 70 million by the time the festivities end next month. Nandan said traffic would be restricted to prevent bottlenecks in the throng of pilgrims, thousands of whom will walk to the river in the dead of night and immerse themselves in the chilly water before sunrise.
Fabulously decorated holy men and naked ascetics who come from monasteries, caves and even opulent palaces around the country will be the first to plunge into the river, in a strict - and jealously guarded - sequence according to their monastic order.
Reuters