Allahabad

(“City of Allah”) City at the junction of
the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. The city
was named Allahabad by the Moghul
emperor Akbar, who built a fort there in
1583 to signify Moghul control of the
region. Traditionally, the place where the
rivers meet is considered a sacred
bathing (snana) place, and the city was
called Prayaga (“place of sacrifice”) by
the Hindus. This name is still used to
distinguish the sacred site (tirtha) from
the city surrounding it. Another name
for the junction is Triveni (“triple
stream”), reflecting the traditional belief
that the two visible rivers are joined at
the confluence by a third underground
river, the Saraswati. Near the bathing
place is a banyan tree believed to be the
akshaya vata (“indestructible banyan
tree”), which despite its powerful name
is at present very small.
As with all places where the Ganges
makes some natural transition—here
its confluence with another sacred
river—Prayaga is considered especially
holy, and bathing there is believed to
confer even greater religious merit
than a normal Ganges bath. This sanctity can be further amplified by
bathing during particularly auspicious times in the calendar. For
example, the annual Magh Mela is a
bathing festival held during the lunar
month of Magh (January–February).
The holiest time for bathing is during
a festival called Kumbha Mela, which
is held approximately every twelve
years when Jupiter is in Taurus. The
Kumbha Mela is followed six years
later by the Ardha (“half”) Kumbha
Mela, which carries less sanctity than
the “full” Kumbha Mela but is still
considered a highly propitious event.
Allahabad’s Kumbha Mela in 1989 was
the largest religious festival on earth,
attended by an estimated fifteen million people on a single day.