At the water’s edge, Magh Mela in Allahabad. Photo: Alf Berg.
A Holy Man prays in the Ganges River during Magh Mela.
Photo: AP, via NRI Association.Magh Mela is underway in Northern India, a cleansing ritual in the troubled Ganges for millions of pilgrims.
At the new moon, during the sun’s season in Capricorn, the faithful come to Allahabad in Northern India. Here three rivers cross: the sacred Ganga (Ganges), the Yamuna, and the Saraswarti. (The latter, mentioned over and over in the Rig Veda, was long considered mythological, but scientists are proving otherwise; it’s real.)
This confluence, considered one of the most sacred sites in all India, draws believers each January for the Magh Mela, a 15-day festival of bathing. “Tents and huts sprout along the banks which come alive to chanted mantras, and chiming bells, sacred dips and the fragrance of incense and flowers. A huge township springs up on over 25 acres of vacant land, and elaborate arrangements are made to provide security and regular infrastructure to the approximately 40,000 sadhus, 500,000 kalpavasis and 20,000 people who come for a few days.”
Allahabad, India (red dot); Image: Boston.com.
We learn that this year’s event has met with considerable controversy. Yesterday’s edition of the Hindustan Times reported: “The sants as well as other Kalpvasis have announced to go on warpath from today because of black and yellow stinking water in Ganga. Even the saints fraternity has refused to take a holy dip on Mauni Amawasya enraged at (the) government’s callousness to check pollution in Ganga whose water they said was no longer fit for rituals.”
Could it be that an ecological awakening has undermined faith in the Ganges’ sacred powers to cleanse? This editorial column from 2001 takes a swipe at the bathing ritual.
“You take a breath, bend at the knees, and then duck your head into the water three times, facing the rising sun. As you rise after the third immersion, you are confronted by a man holding out a glass of watery milk.
A Holy Man prays in the Ganges River during Magh Mela.
Photo: AP, via NRI Association.
“How thoughtful, you think, and take the glass and raise it to your lips. At which point he says, ‘Nahin nahin sahib, yeh doodh aap Ganga-maa ko pila deejiye.’ So you pour the milk (please note that the word ‘milk’ is used, here, in a very loose sense) into the river. Along comes another gent, holding out a vaati of marigold flowers—which you are exhorted to throw into the water. Done. As I clamber back out of the water, there is a tap on my shoulder. ‘Saab, dakshina tho de dijiye.’ The milk and the marigold flowers cost me Rs 21.”
It’s easy to scoff at such rites, also easy—at a distance, anyway—to romanticize them. From what we’ve been able to gather, the Ganges is in trouble. Leather industries dump toxins like Chromium into the water by the ton. With a population boom in the river basin’s cities since the 1950s, the Ganges carries huge amounts of raw sewage. And because of its religious significance, “Hindus often cremate their dead on the river’s banks and throw the remains and burnt charcoal into the river. This practice is especially common at Vârânasi. All of these factors have so polluted the river that drinking and bathing in its water have become dangerous.”
As religious leaders gather in Allahabad for this year’s Magh Mela, their joining together to protest the river’s pollution is as sacred and cleansing as any act of devotion.
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