PRAYAGRAJ, India: Ash-smeared and dreadlocked Naga sadhus or Hindu ascetics, naked except for rosary beads and garlands and smoking wooden pipes, are a huge draw at the world’s largest religious festival that began this week in India.
At the Kumbh Mela, or “festival of the pot,” held this year in Prayagraj in north India, organizers expect up to 150 million people to bathe at the confluence of three holy rivers: the Ganges, the Yamuna and a mythical third river, the Saraswati.
The festival is one of the only opportunities to see the reclusive Naga sadhus, some of whom live in caves after taking a vow of celibacy and renouncing worldly possessions.
Their charge down to the waters to bathe at the opening of the Kumbh, many armed with tridents and swords, is one of the highlights of the festival.
“It is a confluence of all Naga sadhus at the meeting point of these holy rivers,” said Anandnad Saraswati, a Naga sadhu from Mathura, a holy city in north India.
“They meet each other, they interact with each other and they meditate and pray here at the holy confluence. They give their message to the people and they transform people.”
Most of the Nagas enter the orders in their early teens, leaving their friends and families to immerse themselves in meditation, yoga and religious rituals. It can take years to be conferred with the title of a Naga, they say.
“One has to live a life of celibacy for six years. After that the person is given the title of a great man and 12 years after that he is made a Naga,” said Digambar Kedar Giri, a Naga sadhu from Jaipur.
During the eight-week Kumbh, generally held every three years in one of four cities in India, the Nagas live in makeshift monasteries called Akhara erected on the eastern banks of the Ganges.
They spend their days meditating and receiving a stream of visitors who come to pay their respects.
“It feels surreal: all this time you have read about them. They are almost like fictional characters and then you meet them,” said a woman who gave her name as Pallavi, on a visit to the Akharas.
The Kumbh Mela has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pot containing the nectar of immortality from demons. In a 12-day fight for possession, four drops fell to earth, in the cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, who share the Kumbhs as a result.
Mysterious naked holy men a huge draw at India’s Kumbh Mela
Mysterious naked holy men a huge draw at India’s Kumbh Mela
- Organizers expect up to 150 million people to bathe at the confluence of three holy rivers
- The Kumbh Mela has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pot containing the nectar of immortality from demons
Bangladesh’s leading contender for PM returns after 17 years in exile
DHAKA: Millions of supporters crowded the streets of Dhaka on Thursday to welcome Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who has returned to his country after more than 17 years in exile.
Rahman, the son of ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, waved to the large crowds from the front of a BNP bus escorted by security, as people lined the route from the capital’s airport to a reception venue, waving national and party flags, chanting slogans and carrying banners and flowers.
His return comes in the wake of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster last year and as Bangladesh gears up to hold general elections in February, for which he is emerging as a leading contender to become prime minister.
“As a member of the BNP, I want to say in front of you that I have a plan for the people of my country, for my country,” Rahman said as he addressed a throng of supporters in Dhaka.
“This plan is for the interest of the people of the country, for the development of the country and for changing the fate of the people. For this, I need support from each and every one of this country. If you people stand beside us, God willing, we would be able to implement those plans.”
The 60-year-old lived in London after he fled Bangladesh in 2008 over what he called a politically motivated persecution.
After facing multiple criminal convictions in Bangladesh, including money laundering and charges linked to an alleged plot to assassinate Hasina, courts acquitted him following Hasina’s removal from office, clearing the legal obstacles that delayed his return.
Rahman’s homecoming is “significant” as it comes as Bangladesh is going through a “very critical political crisis,” said analyst Prof. Dilara Choudhury.
“People of Bangladesh, they are expecting that there will be free and fair elections, and whoever wins will form the government and forward to the transition. In that sense, his return is significant.”
Bangladesh will hold parliamentary elections on Feb. 12, its first vote since a student-led uprising removed Hasina and her Awami League-led government from power in August 2024.
The South Asian nation of nearly 175 million people has since been led by interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, who took over governance after Hasina fled to India, where she is now in self-exile.
As the Yunus-led administration has banned Awami League from all activities, meaning the former ruling party would not be able to join the upcoming race, the BNP is on course to win the largest number of parliamentary seats, according to a survey published in December by the US-based International Republican Institute.
“I believe a new era in our politics will start with the arrival of Tarique Rahman in the country,” political analyst Mahbub Ullah told Arab News.
“He will take the realms of his party with his own hand and he will do all kinds of things to organize the party and lead the party to victory in the next election.”
