New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government, along with Hindu monastic heads, have marketed the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj as a once-in-a-lifetime event taking place after 144 years due to a rare celestial alignment.
We cannot approve or disapprove the celestial aspect of the event, given that it pertains to the faith of millions of people, but this is also not the first time in the last three decades that such a claim has been made.
In fact, a document published by the Adityanath government in 2023 and an audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) considered the 2013 Mela in Allahabad as a ‘Maha Kumbh Mela’ and said that it was held after 144 years.
Birth of the Kumbh Mela
The largest congregation of human beings in the world, Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj is one of the biggest Hindu festivals and has existed for centuries. It involves large sums of funds, meticulous planning, security arrangements, infrastructure building and management of a gigantic makeshift tent city for almost two months during winter.
The founding myth behind the Kumbh (sacred pitcher) is the puranic story of the Samudra Manthan (churning of amrit, the nectar of immortality).
Also read: Why Gandhi’s 1915 Kumbh Mela Reflections Matter in 2025
Hindus believe that when gods and demons fought over the sacred pitcher carrying the amrit, Hindu deity Vishnu – disguised as Mohini, an enchantress – grasped the pitcher from the demons and flew off to the heavens.
However, as Vishnu carried the pitcher, a few drops of the amrit spilled at four places – Allahabad (today, Prayagraj), Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. Hindus believe that it took 12 “divine years” to carry the amrit to the heavens.
A ‘divine year’ equals 12 human years, and so, the Kumbh Mela is held at these four sites every 12 years.
Prayagraj, where the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati meet to form a Sangam or holy confluence, is considered the site of the most important Kumbh gathering.
It is generally accepted and known that the Magh Mela is held annually in the month of Magh, the Ardh Kumbh (half-Kumbh) is held every six years and the Poorna Kumbh or Maha Kumbh are held every 12 years.
Politicisation of Kumbh Mela
In 2018, the Adityanath government changed the name of Ardh Kumbh to Kumbh, to scale up its significance, as part of the BJP’s saffron politics.
A year later, the government organised a Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, which would be remembered for its heavy politicisation as Adityanath broke traditions to convene a meeting of his cabinet, usually held at the secretariat in the capital of Lucknow, on the ghats of the Sangam during the Mela.
Adityanath conducted a cabinet meeting in the Mela this year as well.
Also read: Maha Kumbh Stampede Was a Tragedy in Waiting
The BJP government has marketed the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela as an event happening after a gap of 144 years. If that’s true, it means that the last such celestial event was held in 1881.
However, this theory appears to be filled with gaps.
In 2023, six years after Adityanath started ruling UP, his government published a document titled ‘Guidelines for Managing Crowds at Events of Mass Gathering, 2023’. The 60-odd page document was published by the state disaster management authority and had a large, beaming photograph of Adityanath on the cover.
Referring to the stampede at the Allahabad railway station during the 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela that was held under the rule of the Samajwadi Party, the document stated, “The 2013 event was considered a Maha Kumbh Mela, which comes only once every 144 years. It lasted 55 days and was expected to be attended by 100 million pilgrims, making it the largest temporary gathering of people in the world at that time.”
The ‘144 years’ debate
CAG’s performance audit of the 2013 Kumbh Mela also mentioned the gathering as a Maha Kumbh Mela (MKM), held for 55 days from January 14 to March 10 that year.
The CAG report said that the Melas, held in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in the month of Magh (11th month of the Samvat calendar, January-February) are graded in the order of religious significance on the basis of periodicity.
“Maha Kumbh Mela (MKM) is held every 144 years, Purna Kumbh Mela (KM) every twelve years, Ardh Kumbh Mela (AKM) every six years and Magh Mela Mela every year on the banks of river Ganga and its tributary Yamuna,” the CAG report stated.
‘Kumbh Mela-Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City’, an inter-disciplinary book published by researchers from Harvard University on the 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela, however, said that it was the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela that was held after 144 years.
“The Maha Kumbh, which occurs every 144 years, last took place in 2001 in Allahabad,” it said.
In his short book, The Kumbh Mela, senior British journalist Mark Tully, documented his experience of covering the 1989 Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.
On page 12 of the book, Tully documents how the priests believed that the 1989 version of the Mela was being held after 144 years.
“The pandits said that 1989 would be the most important Kumbh Mela for 144 years because of the particularly auspicious position of the stars and planets. I had read the pandits’ predictions and the official report on the preparations for the Mela, so I was very surprised when I arrived in Allahabad a week before the big bathe to find administrators, journalists, religious leaders and the local clergy all worried that the millions might not tum out this time,” wrote Tully.
A documentary on the 1989 Mela, produced by the UP information department, and available online, however, referred to the 1989 event as a Purna Kumbh.
No mention of 144 years on official sites
The official websites of the Prayagraj district and the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela also do not mention anything about the event being held after 144 years, as projected by the government and members of the Akhara Parishad – the apex umbrella body of the 13 Hindu sects in India.
The Prayagraj district website says, “The Kumbh held every six years and Mahakumbh every 12 years at Prayagraj (Sangam) are the largest gatherings of pilgrims on this earth. The most recent Maha Kumbh Mela was held in 2013 and the next is due in 2025.”
Also read: Death, Stampede and the Pitfalls of VIP Culture at the Kumbh: A First-Person Account
The official website of the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 says, “The Maha Kumbh Mela, a sacred congregation that unfolds every twelve years, is more than a spectacular gathering of millions – it is a spiritual odyssey that delves into the very essence of human existence.”
If the last Maha Kumbh Mela was held 144 years ago, in 1881, when the British ruled over the country, it would perhaps find a mention in their records. However, the gazetteer of Allahabad published by British officer H.R. Nevill in 1911, also does not refer to 144 years.
The gazetteer says that the last Kumbh Mela was held in 1906 – which is 119 years before the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
“Every 12th year when the sun is in Aries, and the planet Jupiter is simultaneously in Aquarius, occurs a Kumbh, and on such occasions, a vastly greater concourse assembles,” the gazetteer said.
The claims about 144 years took a political turn when last week Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, while campaigning for the bypoll election in Milkipur in Ayodhya, took a jocular dig at the government.
“The Maha Kumbh is being discussed across the country and the world. It is supposedly being held after 144 years. But many of our enlightened journalists and those who understand astronomy and are knowledgeable about the constellations, must be knowing that every Kumbh comes after 144 years,” said Yadav.
Perhaps, it is time that the government and the akharas clear the air on this one.
