Kumbh Mela begins as lakhs of devotees take holy dip in Sangam
Allahabad, Jan 15: At the break of dawn, chants of 'Har Har Gange' reached its crescendo as lakhs of devotees, ascetics and religious leaders of various orders congregated at the Sangam here on Tuesday for a ritual dip, marking the beginning of the Kumbh Mela.
The confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati has called out to the religious for centuries and Makar Sankranti, which marks the beginning of the festival, is one of the sacred bathing days of the 50-day Kumbh Mela.
Devotees braved the cold weather to take a dip in the icy water as they reached the Kumbh Nagari which witnessed a huge rush of people from far-away lands as early as 4 in the morning.
Sadhus of 13 akharas (seven Shaiva, three Vaishnava, two Udasina, and one Sikh) who have traditionally participated in the Kumbh Mela, the largest congregation in the world, were the first to take the holy bath known as 'Shahi Snan'.
They marched majestically, dancing and humming devotional songs, all the way to the confluence.
"Me and my family came around 4:30 am thinking that it will be too crowded later.
"Not that it is any less crowded now. Also, we didn't want to miss the march of various akharas that will be taking part at the Shahi Snan ritual," said 35-year-old Anshuman, who had just taken the holy dip.
The order in which the holy dip is performed by various akharas is pre-determined.
It started with Mahanirvani along with the Atal akhara, the Niranjani along with the Ananada Akhara, and the Juna along with the Avahana and Agni akharas.
They are followed by Nirvani akhara, Digambara akhara, Nirmohi akhara, Bada Udasin akhara, Naya Udasin akhara and lastly by the lone Sikh akhara called Nirmal akhara.
Attracting eyeballs of one and all, especially the foreigners, was the march of Naga sadhus, a martial order of ascetics who move about naked with ash smeared on their whole body.
"It is surreal. I had always heard about them. In fact, one of the reasons we wanted to come to the Kumbh was to see them in real as we are told that this is the only festival in which they arrive in numbers," said Manuel Matthaus, who had come from Germany.
"Yes, I did plan to take the bath. But I guess the water now is too freezy for my linking. May be later in the evening," he added, as his girlfriend was busy capturing the spectacle on her camera.
About 12 crore people are expected to visit the Kumbh between now and Maha Shivratri on March 4, when the Mela will come to a close, for a holy dip at the Sangam. It was traditionally called 'Ardh Kumbh' as it takes place twice in 12 years, but the present Uttar Pradesh government recently renamed it 'Kumbh'.
In 2013, according to a recent book 'Kumbha: The Traditionally Modern Mela', 12 crore attended the grand fair.
The state government expects the number to go higher this time.
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Guarantees: Siddaramaiah accuses Maharashtra BJP of 'spreading lies,' warns of legal action
Mumbai/Bengaluru, Nov 16: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said he was considering taking legal action against the BJP’s Maharashtra unit alleging it 'spread lies' about the five guarantees implemented by his government.
Addressing a press conference in Mangalwedha in Maharashtra, Siddaramaiah said: “They (BJP) have given a false advertisement in order to mislead the people of Maharashtra." Furthermore, he said he was considering filing a suit against the Maharashtra BJP for spreading lies about the guarantee schemes and its implementation. The Chief Minister said all the five guarantees have been effectively implemented in Karnataka benefiting crores of people.
The CM, his deputy D K Shivakumar and a host of Karnataka ministers, who are campaigning in Maharashtra for elections are reaching out to the people on the five guarantees being implemented in their state.
ALSO READ: "Will expose BJP on Waqf issue," says Karntaka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar
These five guarantees are 'Gruha Jyoti' offering up 200 units of free electricity for household connection, 'Gruha Lakshmi' providing Rs 2,000 to the women heads of BPL families, 'Shakti' fare-free bus travel scheme for women, 'Yuva Nidhi' offering Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500 to unemployed graduates and diploma holders respectively and 'Anna Bhagya' food security scheme for BPL families.
Siddaramaiah asked the Maharashtra leaders to visit Karnataka and see for themselves if the guarantees have been implemented or not.
Attacking the BJP-led Centre for ‘injustice’ to states in the devolution of taxes, the Chief Minister said Karnataka every year pays more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore as central tax and in return gets only Rs 60,000 crore.
"According to my information, Maharashtra is paying Rs 8.78 lakh crore, whereas the Maharashtra government is getting Rs 1.30 lakh crore. That means the Government of India is causing injustice to Karnataka and Maharashtra though Maharashtra is number one and Karnataka is number two in the country in tax collection," the Chief Minister said.
According to him, Maharashtra government was getting 15 paise for each rupee it pays, while Karnataka gets about 13 to 14 paise out of every rupee. Also, the CM said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that the five guarantee schemes could not be implemented and if at all implemented, the state governments doing so will go bankrupt. While this was the case, the BJP has ironically come up with guarantees in Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
