Estimated 230 million take holy dip during India’s Kumbh festival

DPA, 04th MARCH, 2019  -  A record-breaking 230 million pilgrims took the ritual dip at the confluence of holy rivers in northern India during the seven-week Kumbh Mela, officials said at the close of the festival on Monday.

Hindu devotees, ash-smeared ascetics and gurus bathed during the Kumbh Mela, billed as the largest religious gathering on earth, held in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad.  Hindus believe that bathing at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers during the Kumbh Mela will absolve them of all sins and stop the cycle of rebirth. “Five bathing festivals of the Kumbh have concluded successfully with more than 220 million pilgrims taking a holy dip,” the federal government said in a statement released on Sunday evening.

Senior festival official Dilip Kumar Trigunayat said an estimated 229.5 million pilgrims had taken the holy bath during the festival and 10 million more were expected on Monday, the sixth and final bathing day on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri, dedicated to Shiva, one of the deities of the Hindu trinity.