Magh Mela

{{Short description|Annual festival which is held in the month of Magha near river banks and Hindu temples.}}

File:Scenes from every land, second series; a collection of 250 illustrations picturing the people, natural phenomena, and animal life in all parts of the world. With one map and a bibliography of (14580412870).jpg – where river Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.]]

Magh mela, also spelled Magha mela, is an annual festival with fairs held in the month of Magha (January/February) near river banks and sacred tanks near Hindu temples. About every twelve years, Magha melas coincide with what is believed by faithful as an astrologically auspicious position of Jupiter, sun and moon, and these are called the Kumbh Mela such as the one at Prayagraj. In the south, a notable festival is at the Mahamaham tank in Kumbhakonam; in the east, at Sagar island of West Bengal and Konark, Puri.[https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Latest-News/2019-02-12/Thousands-take-holy-dip-near-Konark-on-Magha-Mela/493411 Thousands take holy dip near Konark on Magha Mela], The Hans India (January 2019)[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/6988952/Hindu-devotees-bathe-in-the-Ganges-river-in-India-on-the-occasion-of-Makar-Sankranti-at-the-Magh-Mela.html?image=4 Hindu devotees bathe in the Ganges river in India on the occasion of Makar Sankranti at the Magh Mela], Telegraph UK (2019), Quote: "Pilgrims walk in a serpentine queue to offer their respects at the Kapil Muni temple after taking holy dips on the occasion of Makar Sankranti at Gangasagar on Sagar Island" The Magha festival, along with the bathing rituals as a form of penance, is also observed by the Hindu community in Bali, Indonesia.{{cite book|author=Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder|title=Kalangwan; a survey of old Javanese literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2AOAAAAYAAJ|year=1974|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff|page=194|isbn=978-90-247-1674-6 }}

Certain dates such as the Amavasya and the Makar Sankranti are considered particularly sacred, attracting a larger gathering. The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community activities with fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, dāna and community meals for the monks and the poor, and entertainment spectacle.{{cite book|author=Diana L. Eck|title=India: A Sacred Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uD_0P6gS-vMC|year=2012|publisher=Harmony Books|isbn=978-0-385-53190-0|pages=152–155}}{{cite book|author=Williams Sox| editor= Lindsay Jones| title=Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd Edition| year= 2005|publisher= Macmillan|volume= 8|pages=5264–5265}}

The religious basis for the Magh Mela is the belief that pilgrimage is a means for prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes,{{cite book |last=Kane |first=P. V. |authorlink=Pandurang Vaman Kane |year=1953 |title=History of Dharmaśāstra: Ancient and Medieval Religious and Civil Law in India |volume=4 |url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfDharmasastraancientAndMediaevalReligiousAndCivilLawV.4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfDharmasastraancientAndMediaevalReligiousAndCivilLawV.4/page/n463 55]-56}} the effort cleanses them of sins and that bathing in holy rivers at these festivals has a salvific value, for moksha – a means to liberation from the cycle of rebirths (samsara).{{cite book|author1=Simon Coleman|author2=John Elsner|title=Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqPtMU0QZ8sC |year=1995|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-66766-2|pages=140–141}}Kama McLean (2009), Seeing, Being Seen, and Not Being Seen: Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Layers of Looking at the Kumbh Mela, Cross Currents, Vol. 59, Issue 3, pages 319-341 According to Diane Eck – professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, these festivals are "great cultural fairs" which brings people together, tying them with a shared thread of religious devotion, with an attendant bustle of commerce, trade and secular entertainment.{{cite book|author=Diana L. Eck|title=India: A Sacred Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PyC4o7i9tnEC|year=2013|publisher=Three Rivers Press|isbn=978-0-385-53192-4|pages=152–155}}

The Magha Mela festival is mentioned in the Mahabharata and in many major Puranas.{{cite book|title=Purāṇam, Vol. 10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXR1AAAAIAAJ|year=1988|publisher=All-India Kasiraja Trust|pages=61–62}} The Magh Mela is a part of the river festivals that follow the transition of Jupiter into various zodiac signs. These river festivals – called Pushkaram (or Pushkaralu) – rotate over the year to ghats and temples along the major rivers of India, each revered as a sacred river goddess. They include the ritual bathing as well as prayers to ancestors, religious discourses, devotional music and singing, charity, cultural programs and fairs.{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC| year=2010 |publisher =Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-341421-6|pages=319–320}}

An annual bathing festival is also mentioned in ancient Tamil anthologies of the Sangam period. For example, nine of the surviving poems in the Paripatal collection is dedicated to river goddess Vaikai.{{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ |year=1973 |publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-03591-5|pages=123–124}}{{cite book|author1=A. K. Ramanujan|author2=Vinay Dharwadker|author3=Stuart H. Blackburn|title=The collected essays of A.K. Ramanujan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2waAQAAIAAJ |year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-566896-4|page=235}}, Quote: "seventy poems dedicated to gods Tirumal (Visnu), Cevvel (Murukan) and the goddess, the river Vaiyai (presently known as Vaikai)." These poems mention bathing festivals in the Tamil month of Tai (January/February) after the month of Margazhi, a period which overlaps with the northern month of Magh. These bathing festivals are depicted as spiritually auspicious and occasions for water sports, fairs and community gathering.The festive bathing lines in the poem also allude to rebirths and merits in previous lives; Pari. 11:88–92, {{cite book|author1=V.N. Muthukumar|author2=Elizabeth Rani Segran|title=The River Speaks: The Vaiyai Poems from the Paripatal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnwruNVgFUkC&pg=PT104 |year=2012|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-81-8475-694-4|pages=103–105 with notes on "Lines 184–91"}}

In Sikhism, the Magha mela – along with Diwali and Vaisakhi – were three festivals recognized by Guru Amar Das who urged Sikhs to gather for a community festival (1552–1574 CE).{{cite book|author=H.S. Singha|title=Sikh Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nRodBu9seiIC |year=2005| publisher=Hemkunt Press|isbn=978-81-7010-245-8|pages=101–102}} It is popularly known as Maghi, and it now marks the memory of the forty martyrs during a Muslim-Sikh war (1705 CE) during the time of the Guru Gobind Singh.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQeKTUXphPMC|title=Glimpses of Sikhism|first=Major Nahar Singh|last=Jawandha|date=1 January 2010|publisher=Sanbun Publishers|isbn=9789380213255|accessdate=14 September 2016|via=Google Books}} The largest Maghi gathering is found in Muktsar.B.S. Marwaha (1969), Maghi fair – Muktsar, Sikh Review, 18(186): 44–46 According to Pashaura Singh and Louis Fenech, Guru Amar Das built Goindwal Sahib as a Sikh pilgrimage site (tirath).{{cite book|author1=Pashaura Singh|author2=Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CzYeAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT93| year=2014| publisher=Oxford University Press| isbn=978-0-19-100412-4|pages=93–94}} He also built a baoli – stepped water tank – at Goindwal for ritual bathing.{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi | editor1=Anshu Malhotra|editor2=Farina Mir|title=Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vQtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT254|year= 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-908877-5|pages=254–255}}