Kumbh is one of the most celebrated spiritual events recurrently observed in India. Owing to the huge participation of devotees, it has a substantial domestic and global impact. With an expectation of being visited by over 660 million people this time, representing domestic and international communities, it is bound to have major economic, social and cultural bearings upon society. It is presumed that 30 times the total population of the whole city had visited Prayag Raj during the peak of the festival with more flocking in even towards its fag end. A religious congregation held every three years in one of the four different cities in India, Kumbh is considered to be the largest, time specific human gathering on earth. This year, it was held at Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, from January 13 to February 26.
KUMBH AND AYURVEDA
Kumbh is closely associated with the mythological origin of Ayurveda. The word ‘Kumbh’ refers to an ‘urn’ containing amrita (or the nectar of immortality) and is said to be one of the 14 auspicious objects that were thrown up during the churning of the ocean while the good fought evil. The fight for the amrita caused the urn to tilt, making a few of its drops fall at four different places, namely Prayagraj, Nashik, Ujjain, and Haridwar. The Kumbh congregation is held at these places to commemorate the event every three years. Held on the banks of the auspicious rivers in these cities, the Kumbh is marked with ritual bathing in the river on certain auspicious days.
Dhanvantari, the divine vaidya (medico) who is aptly considered as the God of Ayurveda, was the most precious among all valuables as it was he who held the amrita kumbha or the urn containing the nectar of immortality.
Marking the association of Dhanvantari and Ayurveda, India celebrates National Ayurveda Day every year that commemorates the birth of Dhanavantari. This close association of Kumbh and Ayurveda makes it an obvious corollary to think of ways to further utilise this great congregation for fostering, promoting and propagating Ayurveda, both nationally and globally.
The first thing in this regard which comes immediately in sight is to provide Ayurveda-based healthcare facilities for everyone visiting the Kumbh Mela and desirous of getting it. The people who are visiting Kumbh are expected to have a positive mindset towards Ayurveda on the basis of its spiritual roots and connections. However, those who are not well aware about the rich tradition of Ayurveda in India may be provided with a thorough exposure to this most antique healthcare tradition of the world.
PRACTICAL AYURVEDA FOR PILGRIMS
Ayurveda healthcare facilities at Kumbh site are therefore needed to be created with foresightedness, extra care and should be equipped with all Ayurveda interventional modalities in the form of a fully functional health care delivery unit. For example, the facilities related to panchakarma (Ayurvedic detoxification therapy), jalauka (leech therapy), kshar sutra (for anorectal conditions), kriya-kalpa (for ocular conditions) should also be functional at the site, primarily for the purpose of providing specialised care to the desirous people. At the same time, it should also give first-hand exposure to the people about various unique specialties of Ayurveda. Provision of suvarna prashana (Ayurvedic immunity boosting intervention through nano gold combined with cognition promoting herbs) in Ayurveda healthcare units for all below the age of 16 years could have been a game changer from the prospects of wider domestic spread and internationalisation of important Ayurvedic practices having a history of prolonged use, substantiated through thorough evidence. We propose that Ayurveda should be given a large and prominent space at the Kumbh venue every time to display and to portray its real worth among the Kumbh visitors.
Besides providing healthcare services and awareness based upon Ayurveda, the other fascinating aspect of Kumbh could have been to make random qualitative and quantitative observational and ethnographic studies utilising the people visiting Kumbh. These could be structured and unstructured interviews, structured and unstructured questionnaire based random observational studies, and studies focusing upon specific sects and sub-populations visiting Kumbh. These sub-populations could be based upon age, religious sects and subsects, ethnicity, geographical identity, primary language and country of origin. Utilising the digital technology available today, such observations can be made through the utilisation of mobile apps, digital kiosks and in-person random interviews of people. The best could have been to provide an incentive for everyone participating in such activities in the form of a memoir reminding them of their Kumbh participation and its contextuality with Ayurveda. The government of Uttar Pradesh has already promoted this Kumbh as ‘digital Kumbh’, so it’s high time we embraced digital technology in the traditional health care segment as well.
DIVINE THERAPY
Pilgrimage is an important aspect of Ayurvedic treatment for diseases of unknown origin or where the exact cause of the disease has not been well understood. Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa (‘divine therapy’) has been a very important intervention from Ayurveda, dealing with diseases thought to have originated from some wrong doings sometime in the present or past life. The only remedy for such maladies is to purify oneself, accepting and regretting the wrong doings and learning from the mistakes. The sanctity of Ganga and its confluence with Yamuna and Saraswati for its purifying potential is so deeply rooted in the Indian psyche that every Indian having a spiritual mindset wishes to take a dip in the Ganga in order to clean the outer as well as inner self.
It is for this reason that it is quite common to find people with incurable diseases visiting Kumbh in order to get relieved of their guilt and to get purified. Such people can be a treasure to make scientific observational studies in Ayurveda in order to see the role of Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa in treating the incurable conditions. This would have been interesting to see at the recently concluded Mahakumbh, the mental change it creates if someone is deeply immersed in the process of spiritual practices. Considering participation in Kumbh as a therapeutic intervention from the perspective of Daivavyapashraya Chikitsa, a very interesting pre- and post-intervention analysis can be done to find the changes on certain predefined objective and subjective parameters through the people participating in Kumbh.
In order to increase awareness among devotees, several digital initiatives can be launched to spread authentic information about Ayurveda. These platforms can also help gather valuable insights from visitors attending Ayurveda healthcare facilities at the site. The data obtained by using appropriate technology may be used for further analysis, to identify general awareness of people about Ayurveda, their common concerns, the help they are seeking from Ayurveda and their willingness to learn more about Ayurveda. Such information may be used to find the gaps between what is expected and what is provided in reference to Ayurveda. This will improve the image of Ayurveda and will help it meet the expectations of the people globally.
CO-HOSTING KUMBH AND WORLD AYURVEDA CONGRESS
Events related to Ayurveda with international importance may also find harmonious co-conduction on the sidelines of Kumbh. A good example is the 10th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) which was recently organised at Dehradun and had over 10,321 participants, including 352 international delegates from 58 countries. Held in December 2024, and considered to be the largest global gathering of Ayurveda researchers, practitioners and academicians in India, this event was held just a month before the beginning of the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj. Akin to Kumbh, the WAC is often called the Kumbh of Ayurveda. This is imaginable, had this largest Ayurveda gathering in the country been organised during the actual Kumbh, it would have drawn more global attention and could have proved to be immensely beneficial to Ayurveda.
It is interesting to note that like Kumbh, the WAC is also a recurring event, taking place every 4th year at different places in the country. Apart from such large-scale activities, many smaller activities involving available Ayurveda infrastructure and human resources could also have been planned. Such small activities might have involved the organisation of seminars and workshops for interested people, tours to Ayurveda related sites, display of historical genesis of Ayurveda through ages, showing the techniques and technologies related to Ayurveda used in historical times and their relevance today, arranging small discourses related to Ayurveda in general and its connection to spiritual health, and arranging small awareness courses of 3-5 days for the willing people. Things of archeological importance related to the history of Ayurveda and hand-written ancient manuscripts of Ayurveda could also have been displayed during such events.
Kumbh can also prove to be a novel and the largest canvas to do cross disciplinary observations and research. Mass gathering related to Kumbh comes with numerous sanitation, food, shelter, transportation and energy supply related problems. India moving ahead with its ‘make in India’ proposition in technology can also come forward in experimenting its indigenous technologies for the benefit of its own people during such events.
MAKING LARGE HUMAN GATHERING SUSTAINABLE
We have recently learnt about pollution of water in Kumbh with coliform bacteria making it non-consumable. Ayurveda comes with the novel proposition of cleaning the water and making it drinkable again with the help of certain herbs. Disposal of human excreta in such massive gatherings could always be a huge issue to handle. Imposing some green and handy technologies to convert waste into energy could have been of great importance and helped in managing such issues. Converting human presence into clean energy could have been one of the most promising areas of experiment at Kumbh. There could have been pressure sensors in the areas of high foot fall at the venue. These pressure sensors may have been designed with sensitivity and calibration in order to convert every foot fall into energy which could have been saved. Actually, this Kumbh could have been converted as a Kumbh of indigenous technologies to serve the people with novel propositions. Indian unicorns and startups along with Indian techno-giants could have taken appropriate steps beforehand to use this unique opportunity to serve the people and to experiment newer, safe and practical technologies including Ayurveda for the benefit of people.
Kumbh is the reflection of the human quest for the divine. It reflects the deeply rooted cultural ethos of man, compelling his search for spirituality and eternity. Looking broadly at the event, this can also turn out to be a testament of preserving, prompting and prospering human values and wellbeing through Ayurveda. Although people gather at such events for their own inner spiritual quest, it is quite practical to get much more from them in order to enrich our own system. The human congregation as large as 660 million at one place, that too in a small stretch of time, needs to be thought of in an innovative and out-of-the-box way for its use for the growth of nation, science and humanity. This write-up is just a brief overview which opens up a new way of thinking to make the best use of opportunities. The recurring nature of Kumbh every three years at different venues of the country gives us a unique opportunity to experiment, learn and to improve upon the previous event. Merging this with Ayurveda and other indigenous knowledge-based technologies may prove to be revolutionary in future from both domestic and global perspectives.
* The writer is Founder-Incharge, Ayurveda – Arthritis Treatment and Advanced Research Centre (A-ATARC), Lucknow; former Head, PG Dept of Kaya Chikitsa, State Ayurvedic College, Lucknow; and former Director, Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (National Academy of Ayurveda), Ministry of AYUSH, New Delhi. He is an author and has edited three bestselling books on Ayurveda, including ‘Ayurvedic Science of Food and Nutrition’ (Springer Nature, NY). He is also the editor-in-chief of ‘Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine’.
