3,000 Pravasi Bharatiya delegates arrive in Prayagraj for Kumbh Mela

Prayagraj, Jan 24: About 3,000 Pravasi Bharatiya delegates, drawn from across the globe, reached the city on Thursday morning to get a glimpse of the ongoing Kumbh festival.

The visit has been organised by the Ministry of External Affairs as part of this year's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations. The main convention at Varanasi concluded on Wednesday.

Locals say the Kumbh at Sangam city Prayagraj, as Allahabad is now known, dates back to a glorious past and was first mentioned around 2,000 years ago in accounts of the Chinese tourist Hsuan Tsang. The Chinese traveler and scholar is said to have visited India during the reign on King Harshvardhana.

The visiting delegates showed much enthusiasm during their four-hour long journey from Varanasi to Prayagraj raising 'Har Har Gange' slogans at various places.

Local people stood on both sides of the road between Mirzapur and Prayagraj waving hands to welcome the overseas visitors and also took snaps and recorded the moments on their smart phones.

"It is like welcoming of Barati," said an enthusiastic US based radio programmer - who originally hails from Madhya Pradesh. The NRIs will be taken to Akshayvat and Saraswati Koop temples to offer puja besides the Triveni Sangam for holy dip.

The Kumbh Mela at Prayag that got underway on January 15 takes place for approximately 55 days, spread over thousands of hectares around the Sangam area.

It is rightly regarded as the greatest of ephemeral city in the world.

"Regularity of this celebration and holy dip at the Sangam of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical river Saraswati is continuing since ancient times and is unique in more ways than one," Amar Kumar Pandey, a local resident said.

The Kumbh Mela at Prayag is very different as compared to Kumbh at other places due to many reasons. The Triveni Sangam is considered as the centre of the earth in few scriptures and it is also believed that Lord Brahma performed the Yajna here for creating the universe.

The mega Kumbh Mela, which began on January 15 and will continue till March 4.

According to business chamber Confederation of Indian Industry, although the Kumbh Mela is spiritual and religious in nature, the economic activities associated with it would generate employment for over six lakh workers across various sectors in Prayagraj and adjoining places.

Reports said Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has allocated Rs 4,200 crore for the Kumbh Mela this time, which is over thrice the budget of the Maha Kumbh in 2013