The grand festival of Mahakumbh culminated on Wednesday 26 February 2025 with the fifth and the final bathing on the ocassion of Mahashivratri. The registered footfall of devotees at the end of the event stood at 66.30 crore, i.e. 663 million. According to the official figures released by the government, as many as 1.53 crore people took the holy bath at Triveni Sangam on the last day (till 8 pm).
Mahakumbh, the largest human gathering took off from January 13 on Paush Purnima and concluded yesterday, marking successful 45 days. The expected figure to show up was 45 crores, but a whopping 66.30 crore people attended the event in Prayagraj, the highest ever in Kumbh history. Marking the final day, fighter jets and the transport aircrafts of the Indian Air Force performed a flypast, as a part of the special air show over the Sangam sky in the afternoon ending Mahakumbh on a high note. All through the day, pilgrims bathing were showered with rose petals from the sky. All throughout the event, as much as 120 quintals of rose petals was showered on the major snans of Paush Purnima, Makar Sankranti, Mauni Amavasya, Basant Panchami, Maghi Purnima and Mahashivratri.
The grand religious fair reflects upon the significance of Sanatan Dharma. Not only the nationals of India, but also foreigners visited Prayagraj in large numbers. They bathed in the holy waters of Sangam and also took deeksha (spiritual initiation) of Sanatan Dharma. Visitors chanted Jai Shree Ram, Har Har Mahadev, and were also seen praising the arrangements in Prayagraj. Also, how fortunate and blessed they feel attending a once in a lifetime event that is taking place after a period of 144 years.
On Mahashivratri, devotees started pouring in large numbers since midnight only. Most of them took the snan in the Brahma Muhurat (auspicious period). Apart from this, the muhurat began from 9:19 am on Wednesday, ending at 8:09 am on Thursday. By 2am only, 11.66 lakh devotees had taken the holy bath, which rose to 24.64 lakh by 4am. And in the noon, by 12 pm the bathers’ count was 1.01 crore and ended at 1.53 crore by 8pm.
There were some mishaps in between, which includes the stampede caused in the early hours of Mauni Amavasya, and the fire that broke out at some places. But no such major incident reported. After this, the administration took close vigil upon the traffic control, security and crowd management. With Uttar Paredsh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself monitoring all the arrangements since the early hours of the day on every snan day. Even on Wednesday, Yogi Adityanath kept a close watch on every movement from control room in Gorakhpur.
Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Prashant Kumar said, “Today, the Mahakumbh is in its final stage. In these 45 days in Prayagraj, more than 65 crore people took the holy dip. Our colleagues have won everyone’s heart by their conduct without any weapons, the full capability of the police was tested here, everyone lived up to it and we completed the entire Mahakumbh without any major incident. During the mela, we reunited more than thirty thousand lost and found people with their families.”
According to Vijay Kiran Anand, the Mahakumbh Nagar District Magistrate, the Chief Minister will formally announce the conclusion of the Mahakumbh in the mela area with various events on Thursday.
With this, the largest spiritual human gathering concluded, with devotion that knew no bounds, enthusiasm and spirit never seeing a dip and the borders that could never divide humans towards the divine. It was historic, unbelievable and something unachievable until it was done!