The Maha Kumbh 2013

The magic of India's Kumbh Mela

By Mark Tully
Former BBC India Correspondent
India is a land of spectacles, it is a land of teeming millions and a land of an ancient culture and civilisation.

In my long years in India I have seen many spectacles but none so remarkable as the two Maha or Great Kumbh Melas which I attended.

I have seen vast crowds assemble but none as big as the millions who flocked to the north Indian city of Allahabad to bathe at the confluence where the cloudy waters of the river Ganges meet the blue waters of the river Yamuna on the most auspicious day of those Melas.

I have never been more forcefully reminded that India's age old culture survives today than I have been by those two Kumbh Melas.

Anyone who wants to enjoy the Kumbh Mela to the full must appreciate its many different aspects.