Kumbh Mela - History and Legend
Kumbh Mela has a very absorbing legend associated with it. It is said the Indra (ruler of celestial bodies) was gifted a garland of flowers by the Durvasa, a renowned savant. But Indra, fortuitously passed it to his divine elephant under who's feet, it got crushed. Hurt by this gesture, Durvasa, out of rage cursed Indra of denudation of his powers and as a result, Indra was circumvented by Bali, a fiendish king. The gods then pleaded Vishnu for penance and he recommended divine nectar called Amrita, that helped in attaining immorality. To obtain this the oceans and 'asurs' stirred and the part of delight was distributed among the Brihaspati, (Jupiter) Surya,(Sun) Chandrama (Moon) and Shani (Saturn). This process took 12 days to get materialised, which is equivalent to 12 years on earth. During the process however, few drops of this Amrit fell on four regions of the earth namely Allahabad, Ujjain, Nasik and Haridwar. Since then these places are revered and once in 12 years play host to the pious Mela.
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