An archaic foundation of the Kumbh Mela

In essence, the templating for the Tanunaptra comprises a particular event wherein the Gods came together to convocate and to share, Each drawing from Their ‘most valued’ ‘strengths’ or ‘capacities’ to make Their ‘best contribution’, with all of these being ‘pooled together’ (‘Mela’, we might suggest) to produce a singular potency far grander than could be conceived of through unlinked individual expressings.

Ask as to the meaning of “Kumbh Mela”, and you’ll likely get an answer oriented around a great “coming together”.
Not simply of people with other people—or even, for that matter, of people with the sacred waters of the Tirtha…but of insights and understandings. And through all of this, the human engagement with the Divine.

There are, as is well known, several major traditions around the origination and the rationale to the Kumbh Mela. It is not our purpose to parse these in what follows, as one can readily find remarkable recountings for these elsewhere.

For my own contribution to proceedings, I had considered conjuring a comparative analysis as to various of its features shared with our religion’s cousins in Europe (note: shared with, not derived from)—and certainly, it is remarkable to consider the strong concordance between the salient astrological elements of the event and what would be more familiar to a European view of the Heavens. What is known as the “Garuda” asterism, for example, is “Aquila” (“Eagle”) for us of the West—and with a likewise significant role to be played in bearing that which carries the Amrta, the Ambrosia (terms of direct cognate in both linguistic and functional meaning), in connexion with Jupiter (Brhaspati); the Amrta association for these stars evidently reaching right back into the Vedic era, as we observe in the Taittiriya Brahmana’s detailing for the coterminous Naksatra of Srona [III 1 2 7].

Yet as interesting as that might have been for myself, it would hardly have served to illustrate something essential to the Kumbh Mela itself.

For that, I instead intend to draw from another archaic Vedic foundation—this being the Tanunaptra Rite extolled in the Sruti. Which, whilst not directly connected to our present Kumbh Mela observance, nevertheless bears within it elements of a key resonance to our current undertaking.

In essence, the templating for the Tanunaptra comprises a particular event wherein the Gods came together to convocate and to share—Each drawing from Their “most valued” “strengths” or “capacities” [“priyani dhamani”, per SBr III 4 2 5] to make Their “best contribution”, with all of these being “pooled together” (“Mela”, we might suggest!) to produce a singular potency far grander than could be conceived of through unlinked individual expressings.

(As an aside, the Aitareya Brahmana [I 24] recension for the Rite has this con-mingled “pooling” undertaken into a water-bearing ritual vessel not unlike a Kumbha, designated the “House of Varuna”—perhaps resonant with the Vedic perception for the key asterism within the sign of Aquarius [“Kumbha”], Satabhisa, as dominion of Varuna; pertinently to our modern proceedings, this being both linked to the Amrta style imbuement of “Dirgham Ayuh” [“Long Life”] as enjoyed by the Gods per Tait. Br. III 1 2 9, and facilitating “liberation from sin” [“enah pra mumugdhy”], per RV I 24 9)

The ultimate purpose to all of this? To ensure the ascendant immanence of Rta throughout the Worlds—an objective accomplished via the collective empowerment of the contributors.
The parallels to our contemporary Kumbh Mela observance begin to suggest themselves almost immediately, and upon any number of levels (although for reasons of space, we shall only seek to briefly remark upon two).

Consider the most materially foundational—namely, the immense suite of preparatory work as well as ongoing support activities which must be conducted in order to enable a gathering of this size to actually occur.

A quote from an article upon the subject which I’d happened across within my local newspaper really gets to the heart of the matter: ‘“So many devotees are going to come,” 48-year-old [Babu] Chand told AFP, who says he is working for a noble cause of the mela, or fair. “I feel I am contributing my bit—what I am doing seems like a pious act.”

What was Chand’s role in these august proceedings? Digging a ditch to run electrical cables through.

Or, phrased another way—making his important contribution of ability to the greater pool, very much aware of that which he is helping to infuse life to.

He is not a Sadhu nor a senior official—and nor does he need to be for his contribution to, indeed, be a “pious act” worthy of the hailing.

As Lord Rama had been well aware, what may appear a small or a menial task can prove to be the vital duty without which the whole thing should fail. Just ask His Squirrel.

Speaking further as to foundations—consider the aforementioned multiplicity of traditional accountings for the Kumbh Mela’s origination. Whereas in other religions such a thing might seem near tailor-made to foment fractious (and even potentially fratricidal) disjunction, within the context of the Kumbh Mela entirely the opposite effect occurs—each differing narrative providing a bespoke “anchoring” to the event for another style of devotee with another shade of focus for their attendance, their converging through the Kumbh serving to draw their proponents together rather than apart.

One could no doubt suggest that to be something of a metaphor for our Hindu religion at large, come to think of it—many strands, woven together to produce a most remarkable rope, reaching all the way up to Heaven.

The last element to cover is, fittingly, the Telos—that being the objective or the culmination to the undertaking.
Many would (quite understandably) state that as applies the Kumbh Mela this should be the “Snana” (cleansing bathing) within the holy waters of the Tirtha.

Yet I am not so sure.

In the Vedic forerunner to the Kumbh Mela identified by Professor Witzel, the Yamuna provided a “pathway to Heaven”—those undertaking the bathing (“Avabhrtham” at PB XXV 13 4) therein “disappearing” from this world.

For our present-day observance this is obviously not the case, and following its conclusion we all return home to our communities.
But we bring with us that which we have encountered at the Kumbh MelA. And through so doing, we each aid in that ancient Vedic Telos: “Krnvavanto Visvam Aryam”.

Curwen Ares Rolinson is a New Zealander by birth and a devout Hindu via affirmation. A theologian and recovering political journalist, he heads the Arya Akasha Research Institute writes extensively upon both Hindu and comparative Indo-European theology.