History of Kumbh Mela:Types, significance and venue

Kumbh Mela is the major festival of Hindus celebrating every twelve years. As a part of the ritual, Kumbh Mela has four sacred river sites such as Prayag on the meeting of river Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati, Haridwar on the river Ganges, Nashik on the river Godavari and Ujjain on river Shipra. The largest crowd from the whole world are coming to take part and take bathe in that sacred rivers. Dipping in the water is the main religious ceremony of Kumbh Mela. Hindu devotees belief is that while bathing in these sacred rivers will purify the mistakes that have done in the past. Four Kumbh Melas are celebrating in different ways. Maha Kumbh Mela or Major Kumbh Mela is a type of Kumbh Mela conducts in Prayagraj on every 144 years after Kumbh Mela. Another Kumbh Mela is Purna Kumbh Mela. Purna Kumbh Mela has four sacred sites such as Praygraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. It comes every twelve years. Next is Ardh Kumbh Mela or Half Kumbh Mela. It comes every six years and it is celebrating on two sacred rivers such as Haridwar and Prayagraj. Kumbh Mela is another one and it is organised by the State Government. Magh Kumbh Mela or Mini Kumbh Mela is the last type of Kumbh Mela. As per Hindu calendar, Magh Kumbh Mela is assembled in the month of Magh". The history behind Kumbh Mela depicting the story of Samudra Manthan. One day Gods and demons are started churning to obtain the precious ratnas and nectar. For that, Mountain Mandrachala became a churning stick and Nagaraja Vasuki became the rope. To get liberation or immortality, they were started to churning. The first to come out during the churning was a deadly poison which was swallowed by Lord Shiva and his throat turned blue came to be known as Nilakantha. Lord Vishnu incarnated as Kasava to support Mandrachal mountain. So many obstacles have happened and a thousand years later finally Dhanwantari emerged with the Kumbh of divine nectar. By seeing the pot of nectar, God chased the pot and they assigned a duty to four Gods Brihaspati, Surya, Shani and Chandra for the safety of nectar. But it leads to a conflict between gods and demons. At that time, drops of Kumbh fell at four places. It continued for twelve days as twelve years for humans. That is the mythical story of celebrating Kumbh Mella once in twelve years and denotes these sacred rivers as holy sites. There is the belief that during the drops of Kumbh Mela fell, that four rivers turned completely into Amrit or nectar and that is the reason for the Hindu pilgrims are bathing in the river to attain purity and immortality. The place for celebrating Kumbh Mela is decides based on the standpoint of Sun, Moon and Jupiter.