Hope, chaos and sorrow at Maha Kumbh Stampede

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By Chandra K. Pjr

KATHMANDU, Jan 31: A convulsive crowd at the Maha Kumbh Mela, being held in Prayagraj of India, killed several pilgrims on Wednesday. 

There is no doubt that this pre-dawn accident has shattered the families and the relatives of the deceased. However, the scars it has cut in the hearts of those who were able to escape, either due to lucky timing or due to some angelic alignments of their stars, are also irredeemably deep. Ambika Purbey, 43, a resident of Janakpurdham-16, Nepal, expressed her distress during a phone call with Republica, “It’s terrifying and heartbreaking. I had come here to experience God, but am now in more pain than I ever was.”

Ambika had once been a vigorous woman. But after the death of her youngest son in 2013, her life sank into a hell of guilt and self-reproach. She began to spend time with spirits, brooding alone in the gloomily-lit room of her house and talking with them. Efforts after efforts were made to restore her. Her husband took her to numerous pilgrimages. Initially, she was skeptical but as her health improved, her protest slowly gave way to resigned acceptance. It is difficult to establish whether it was the pilgrimages or whether it was time itself that had gradually set her healing into motion. In any case, the overall effect had been that she developed an unshakeable faith in the powers of religion. So when her neighbors and relatives came up with an idea for a pilgrimage to Prayagraj, she at once agreed. “I was excited. It was a lifetime opportunity to cleanse all my sins. I was convinced that I would feel a lot better after it,” Ambika told Republica. 

There are many Nepalis like Ambika who have visited Prayagraj for the holy dip at the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati River. Though from different backgrounds, they share the same conviction that the pilgrimage would restore health and spiritual well-being to them and their kins. Bijay Shah, who is from Bhawanipur-2 of Siraha and returned from Kumbh Mela Thursday morning, shared with Republica, “I went there for the spiritual experience and in some ways got that. Crowd. Yes, yes I had anticipated the crowd would be overwhelming and was prepared for it. But the news of the death silenced me.”

This year’s Maha Kumbh, needless to say, is a special one as it occurs periodically in only 144 years. Determined by a specific celestial alignment of the sun, the moon and Jupiter, it is believed to represent the presence of otherworldly powers on Earth during the period of the Mela. For devout Hindus, there is not a more auspicious opportunity to plead to their tutelary gods for the betterment of their health and life. Most devotees, therefore, gather at the confluence with the unshakeable hope that a beacon of prosperity would shine in their lives after the holy bath. However, the tragedy of the magnitude that was unleashed during Wednesday’s stampede, upends this hope and turns it into an indelible, sorrowful scar.