Ujjain Simhastha 2028: the Kumbh on the Shipra

For two months Ujjain becomes something else: a city whose population multiplies, with the camps of the akharas and ashrams spread across the mela ground along the Shipra, and pilgrims bathing at the public ghats on any day. The state expects more than 40 crore (400 million) visits over the two months.

The defining images come on shahi snan mornings. While the stars are still out, the akharas walk to Ram Ghat in procession, the naga sadhus ash-smeared and unclothed, and the first of them enters the Shipra at about four in the morning; the public bathes after them. In between, the pace is gentler: the evening Shipra aarti at Ram Ghat at sunset, lamps moving over dark water, and the long queue at Mahakaleshwar.

Mahakal is why Ujjain matters. The temple holds one of the twelve jyotirlingas (shrines of Shiva as a pillar of light) and the only one that faces south, towards Yama, god of death. Its Bhasma Aarti at 4 am, when the lingam is dusted with ash, is the temple's best-known ritual; places are booked in advance, and men attend in a dhoti, women in a sari. Pilgrims bathe in the Shipra and then go to bow to Mahakal.

The window comes from a Madhya Pradesh government meeting; the bathing days follow tradition and press reports and still await official notification.

April and May on the Malwa plateau are the hottest weeks of the year, and the ghats are open to the sun.

Ujjain’s own hotel stock is a fraction of what a Simhastha brings.

In the Kumbh legend, drops of the nectar of immortality fell at four places, Ujjain among them. Ujjain’s own legend belongs to Mahakal: King Chandrasena, a devotee of Shiva, is attacked by neighbouring kings allied with the demon Dushana, and at the prayers of his devotees Shiva appears as Mahakal, “great time”, destroys the enemies and stays on as the city’s guardian. Ujjain, Avantika in the Puranas, is one of the seven holy cities. Its Simhastha grew out of Nashik’s: in the 18th century the Maratha ruler Ranoji Shinde invited ascetics from there, and under British rule this was the only Kumbh run by a princely state, Gwalior.

The Nashik and Ujjain Simhasthas fall within a year of each other, so if you are searching for a Simhastha in 2027, it is the [Nashik Kumbh](/en/festivals/nashik-simhastha/).

Malwa food is part of the trip: poha with hot jalebi for breakfast, dal bafla (wheat balls boiled, then baked, eaten with dal and ghee), and the Mahakal laddoo, the temple’s prasad of gram flour, semolina, sugar and ghee.