THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S STORY
The Photographer’s Story
MARK DAFFEY
ARD
KUMBH
MELA
MARK DAFFEY is an Australian travel writer and photographer who
visited India courtesy of Korean Air (koreanair.com) and Crooked
Compass (crooked-compass.com). You can follow him on Instagram
@markdaffey.India’s Kumbh Mela festival is believed to be the largest
peaceful gathering of people anywhere on Earth. Though
the fair can run over several weeks, as many as 30 million
Hindu pilgrims have attended on a single day.
The origins of the Kumbh Mela stem from a mythical battle
for a pot of nectar that was said to possess immortal powers.
Opposing deities – one representing good, the other evil –
faced off against each other for this eternal prize.
In order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, a
bird-like creature known as Garuda spirited the nectar
away in a kumbh, or pot. During its flight four drops of the
nectar fell upon Earth, and it is at these four indentations- at Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik – that
the Kumbh Mela alternates around a 12-year cycle.
Earlier this year Haridwar hosted the Ardh (‘Half’) Kumbh
Mela, a downsized adaptation that nevertheless attracts huge
crowds. Haridwar spreads out along the banks of the Ganges
River at the point where it spills out from the Himalayan
Mountains onto the northern plains, and Hindus believe that
those who submerse themselves in the water here at Har Ki
Pauri will wash away a lifetime’s worth of sins. These ghats,
where Lord Vishnu is said to have stood, are the most
revered location along the world’s holiest river. It’s also the
site around which most activity centres.
On February 8, a moonless evening sky marked it as an
auspicious date for this year’s Ardh Kumbh Mela. From
dawn until dusk pilgrims piled into the river to bathe.
Tented cities popped up around town and bamboo
turnstiles were erected to aid the tidal flow of itinerants.
In Haridwar the river gushes past as clear and fresh as a
mountain stream, and I couldn’t resist joining the masses
dunking their heads in the water. Let me tell you, too, that it
was invigorating. Just as the entire Kumbh Mela was.