Riding pillion through narrow medieval streets on a grimy Tata motorbike, we crested a low hill to suddenly encounter the world’s largest-ever gathering of humans: the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, a festival of Hindi multitudes, gathered to share Amrita, the nectar of immortality. A massive temporary city sprawled before us as far as the eye could see.
Held every 12 years, when Jupiter enters a new phase of the zodiac, the Kumbh festival was first recorded in 1285. But this year was particularly auspicious; Jupiter was completing a full rotation of its astrological cycle, a one in a 144-year event, meaning this year a record number of pilgrims were expected for the Maha, or Great Kumbh.
Around 450 million pilgrims (10 million a day) were predicted to visit the Kumbh tent city to bathe in the holy water of the River Ganga (Ganges) at its confluence with the Yamuna River and the mythical Saraswati River and so be freed from the cycle of birth and death.
To house them, an ephemeral megacity was built on the sandy floodplain at Prayag-Sangam, near the holy city of Varanasi. As a Sydney architect and urbanist with knowledge of planning and building our Olympics 2000, I became fascinated with the logistics of this event and eager to understand how India’s national and Uttar Pradesh state governments could suddenly create this city. The Olympic build took three years. The build for the Kumbh Mela takes place over three months.
The city cannot be constructed until last year’s monsoon crop season passes, and is dismantled immediately after the festival. The last time the event was held, in 2013, organisers estimated 120 million people attended over 55 days. Thirty thousand policemen supervised the visitors – averaging around 1000 pilgrims a policeman a day, according to Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City, edited by architecture professor Rahul Mehrotra, which examined the 2013 festival camp in detail, and put the figure of attendees at a total of 60 million.
Almost 11,000 toilet zones provided about 122,000 portaloos for 20 million users a day. To cater for heavy maintenance vehicles, roads were partly paved with steel plates that could be each carried and bolted down by two men. Near the river junction, 20 new pontoon bridges were floated across the Ganges on large hollow tanks supporting the steel beams and road plates. These materials are recycled at future festivals.
The 144-year timing of this year’s festival meant even these astounding numbers were set to be topped. There were to be 40,000 police officers, this time supported by AI surveillance systems. The Uttar Pradesh government reclaimed 26 hectares of new land to accommodate the crowds and increase the bathing area, so the festival grounds now covered 4000 hectares, equivalent to the area of Georges River Council in Sydney, which has a population of 158,000 people, or Melbourne City Council, which has 150,000 people in 3800 hectares. The total length of temporary roads built purely for the purpose of catering for the pilgrims increased from 299 kilometres to more than 450 kilometres. Thirty pontoon bridges were built.
A record number of pilgrims was expected to bathe in the sacred rivers.
A record number of pilgrims was expected to bathe in the sacred rivers.Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images
Intrigued, I flew to Varanasi and trekked out to this year’s Kumbh Mela site to see exactly how such a vast camp was put together and how well it served the human needs of Indian pilgrims.
We hired a car for the two-hour journey from Varanasi and then two motorcycles and their drivers to weave us through a slow cacophony of honking bikes, tuk-tuks and cars flying orange festival flags. After a few hairy encounters with oncoming traffic, and security blockages of back routes, we eventually entered the camp to join millions of Indian families, couples, sadhus, monks and occasional camels wandering around the grid of roads. Few European tourists were seen around, so we were warmly greeted with many requests for selfies.
Above the fields of brown and khaki tents, some high, ornamental portal structures marked the entrances to 14 akharas – fenced stations containing worshippers and leaders of government-approved religious groups. One crowd of pilgrims parted to allow a spectacular parade of about 40 saffron-swathed sadhus. Beside the roads were sellers offering religious charms, shawls, artefacts and bowls of bright ochre dyes for dabbing on the foreheads of passersby. Sitting on the ground, some invalids and aged people called for donations.
Brightly coloured structures mark the entrances to the camps of individual religious groups.
Brightly coloured structures mark the entrances to the camps of individual religious groups.Credit: AP
The secret to the construction of the many temporary buildings needed for the festival was a carefully planned approach that used basic resources that were easily transported, assembled and later recycled. Most structures were built of bamboo poles with rope or nail connections. The evidence of this was all around me.
Interesting small pavilions were made of bamboo poles with thatched roofs – all easy to dismantle. Larger structures were also made of bamboo poles but cloaked with bright fabrics. From the roadway they seemed quite solid but, internally, the bamboo pole frames were precariously made. Some pavilions contained instant restaurants with giant aluminum pots cooking rice, rotis and vegetable stews to feed the hungry. After a few hours sweltering in the heat, these meal stations were appreciated for shade, sustenance and lime sodas.
Building for such enormous numbers of people relies on using simple materials combined in numerous ways and assembled by plentiful cheap labour.
Building for such enormous numbers of people relies on using simple materials combined in numerous ways and assembled by plentiful cheap labour.Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images
But can a temporary city be a good city? Could the Kumbh Mela successfully meet this measure? There were four key elements I was looking for: a street structure that was clear and easy to understand, a physical definition of the streets that made them feel like a linear room with a comfortable sense of enclosure, street edges that produced a lively interplay between buildings and city life, and an easy pedestrian experience.
The street grid was clearly laid out across the vast site and the streets lined up across the Ganges River through the 30 floating bridges connecting with the streets on both sides. The physical definition of the streets was helped by the imposing facade structures for the akhara camps. These structures were around 30 metres tall and looked like solid temple walls but were actually painted canvas on bamboo structures. They played the part of street-defining buildings.
As for activity at ground level that delights the eye and promotes a dynamic use of space, the Mela excelled with many temporary stalls, often on the ground, selling exotic powders, and religious artefacts next to inviting restaurants and the odd sadhu lying on thorns and keen to get monetary contributions.
Finally, city streets that are dominated by traffic are not good people places and pedestrians feel uncomfortable, but at the Kumbh Mela pedestrians dominated the streets in a lively, friendly and brightly coloured procession of humanity. Even as a temporary city the Kumbh Mela ticked all the boxes that make for a great place.
Most of the crowds moved towards the bathing zones and pontoon bridges along the Ganges. To take panoramic photos, I climbed the cabin of a semi-trailer, a vacant watch tower, a pile of sandbags and a wobbly fence. Bathers, mostly men, stood thigh and waist deep in small, muddy pools enclosed by low barriers of bamboo or blue plastic pipes. Across the river, thousands more bathers and onlookers spread along the riverfront – jostled by thousands more devotees continually crossing the floating footbridges; each allowing only one-way transit.
Security was among the many services supersized for this year’s festival.
Security was among the many services supersized for this year’s festival.Credit: AP
Ours was a relatively quiet day with perhaps 3 million or 4 million attendees (my best guess) but massive crowds were expected on the following sacred day. The official projection of 450 million visitors over the 45-day event appears to have been exceeded, with organisers announcing that 650 million people had attended when the festival finished last week. However, visitors who stayed for multiple days may have visited the holy bathing sites several times and been counted every time, boosting the daily numbers, and inflating the final figure.
Sadhus generally stay the full 45 days of the festival, sleeping in their akhara zones or in roadside tents, from where they wave and beckon to passersby. Near one of these tents lay a grey-bearded, orange-turbaned sadhu, daubed with violet ochre, resting on a blanket with branches of thorns surrounding his lower torso, clutching beads in one hand while happily shaking a small drum. Beside this spectacular guru lay a scattering of IR50 ($1) notes amid orange chrysanthemum blossoms.
A sadhu shakes his drum as pilgrims pass by.
A sadhu shakes his drum as pilgrims pass by.Credit: Chris Johnson
After leaving the river bathing, we lost our way but stumbled upon a restaurant tent where the manager spoke English. After our meal, he kindly found us two more motorcyclists to return us to our waiting car and driver. Riding pillion gave a good parting overview across the temporary city as we wove through the endless crowds towards the rail and vehicle bridges across the Ganges River.
The experience of seeing a temporary city with an average population of 10 million people a day was amazing. The massive crowds seemed orderly and friendly. At intersections, policemen managed the traffic and pedestrians with mobile barriers and lots of whistleblowing. Every now and then an ambulance would weave through the crowds but generally apart from the road watering there were no vehicles.
We did test the portaloos, which were in large banks. Attendants steered us to appropriate versions that included Western toilets, but the cleanliness was dubious so some wipes were useful to clean the seat. Apparently, the toilets are mainly used in the early mornings before or after the bathing rituals.
Bathing at the confluence of the sacred rivers is said to free devotees from the cycle of life and death.
Bathing at the confluence of the sacred rivers is said to free devotees from the cycle of life and death.Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images
The atmosphere was a bit like that of a country fair but multiplied many times. The balance between the state government’s infrastructure of streets, toilets, electricity, water and health facilities and the private sector religious groups who were allocated sites for their akharas seemed to have worked well (though before we arrived, this year’s festivities were marred by the deaths of 30 bathers who were crushed by a surge of devotees near the water’s edge, and three fires broke out during the event, gutting tents, before they were extinguished by firefighters).
The festival ended last week. In another 12 years, another Kumbh Mela will be organised, but the scale and complexity of this version cannot be expected for another 144 years … until 2169.
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Chris Johnson is a former NSW government architect (1995-2005) and executive director, NSW Department of Planning (2005-2009). He was CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia between 2011 and 2019.