Magh Mela, Prayagraj: the yearly tent city at the Sangam

In the Puranas, Brahma performed a sacrifice at the meeting of the three rivers and named the place Tirtharaj, "king of holy places". The Matsya Purana praises the holiness of Prayag in the month of Magha, and the 16th-century Ain-i-Akbari notes that Allahabad, as the city was then called, is especially holy in Magha. The biography of the Bengali saint Chaitanya says that when he came to the Magh Mela, the pilgrims were so many the plains could not hold them.

The mela is held every year. It is not a once-in-twelve-years event: in the Kumbh years the same gathering at the same place becomes the Maha Kumbh, every twelve years, or the Ardh ("half") Kumbh, six years after it. In other years it is the Magh Mela, smaller but still vast. The Kumbh Mela page explains the four-city cycle.

The mela opens with the first of its baths, Paush Purnima (the full moon of Pausha) or Makar Sankranti, whichever comes first, and closes on Maha Shivaratri: six to eight weeks from January into February or early March. The Prayagraj Mela Authority, the state body that runs it, notifies the bathing dates six to twelve months ahead.

Six main bathing days (snan parv) are set by the moon and the sun. Makar Sankranti is solar, so in some years it comes before Paush Purnima and in others after it. Mauni Amavasya is the peak.

The mela stands on the sand at the Sangam, in recent years about 800 hectares divided into seven sectors and joined by pontoon bridges across the Ganga. In them are the camps of the akharas (monastic orders of sadhus), the tents of religious organisations and the rows of kalpvasi tents.

Kalpvas, "dwelling", is the core of the Magh Mela: a month of life by the river under vow. Kalpvasis bathe at dawn, read scripture, listen to discourses and eat simple food without onion or garlic. It usually lasts a month, but depending on capacity a kalpvas can be cut to 5, 11 or 21 days.

On a bathing day people go into the water from the sand ghats from before dawn, and boats ferry bathers out to the confluence itself. On Mauni Amavasya many try to keep silence all day, so the Sangam is quieter than its crowds suggest. The mela is also about dana, giving: monks and the poor are fed at community meals, and saints give discourses in the camps. Bathing and walking the sectors are free and open to everyone; in the camps you are a guest, so ask before photographing.

A main bathing day needs three or four nights: two before it, the night of the bath, and ideally one after, since the roads stay closed and people bathe from midnight to noon.