The antiquity of Indian culture doesn’t require any introduction. The oldest culture/civilization of the world which is popularly known as Sanatan culture is quite famous for its events and festivals which are being celebrated by its followers on regular basis since time immemorial. According to various texts of Sanatan or Hindu religion there occurred a war between Gods and demons during the ancient time. During this war the incident of Samudra Manthan took place. Samudra Manthan resulted in origin of various sacred objects, among which nectar was one. It is believed that Gods and demons fought for this ‘precious nectar’ and during this fight four drops of nectar fell on the earth. It is believed that the Four places were Prayagraj on the banks of River Ganga and River Yamuna, Haridwar on the bank of River Ganga, Nasik on the banks of River Godavari and Ujjain on the banks of River Kshipra.
Thus a sacred event Kumbh, Simhastha etc. is organized at these four places since ages. This reason contributed towards UNESCO recognizing ‘Kumbh’ as an intangible world heritage. Therefore, this recognition makes us understand that Kumbh is now a heritage for the entire humanity. Some scholars have recently commented that ‘Kumbha’ is just a couple of hundred years old event, basically started by the Britishers. But unfortunately these scholars forget that the Sanatan culture is the most ancient culture of this world and all events and festivals have both historical and archaeological evidence.
In connection with Kumbh which is going on in Prayagraj we first find its mention in ancient Hindu text of Mahabharata. In the ‘Anushasan Parva’ of Mahabharata it is mentioned that Kumbh was first organized on the banks of Ganga and Yamuna in Prayagraj. We all know that Mahabharata war took place during 3000 BCE. An inscription at Aihole clearly mentions the antiquity of Mahabharata. Thus on this basis Kumbh at Prayagraj is thousand year old event. It is also important to note that Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India during 6th – 7th century CE. He also talks about a sacred event organized at Prayagraj. He visited Prayagraj during the reign of great king Harshvardhan of the Pushyabhuti dynasty. Hiuen Tsang mentions that Harshvardhan donated all his belongings to saints and other needy people during this sacred event on the banks of Ganga and Yamuna. Apart from this, ancient Hindu text of Skanda Purana also talks about this sacred event. The Shankar Samhita of Skanda Purana holds the information of Kumbha. The scholars questioning the antiquity of Kumbha should go through these texts before attesting to anything. It is quite possible that the ancient time the sacred event was not termed as Kumbha but the particular event was evidently organized during a specific time on the above mentioned places and we have ample amount of literary reference proving its existence. Thus saying that Kumbha was first organized during the 19th century CE is just an act of defaming Indian culture, the oldest culture of the world.
