Heavy rains did not deter the spirits of the lakhs of pilgrims who gathered for the holy dip of the second Shahi snan parvani at the Kumbh Mela in Nashik. The second parvani is being held on Sunday, at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.
A day earlier, on Saturday, lakhs of pilgrims took a holy dip from 4 am in the morning at Ramkund. People from other states arrived via rail and road routes. Special Kumbh Mela trains brought lakhs of pilgrims from northern states and via Mumbai. MSRTC had made arrangements to bring people from the railway station to the city. Even as crowds gathered in the city, on Ramkund and Ram ghats and Sadhugram.
Police maintained bandobast. The restrictions laid during the last parvani were relaxed earlier in the day but some points had to be tightened owing to the increasing crowds, after being at the receiving end for a very strict bandobast and barricading of the city. After series of meetings and reconsideration the barricading was relaxed this time but police bandobast with a large force continued keeping in mind the safety and security of the pilgrims flowing in.
“The bandobast is in place and we are facilitating pilgrims to reach the Ramkund and the ghats or Sadhugram. It was only at one or two points that restrictions were imposed considering the large crowd inflow. These were released in due time. The movement of locals has also been facilitated and we are keeping a close vigil on the situation”, stated commissioner of police S Jagannathan.
Pilgrims poured in through the day through the routes from Kalyan, Dhule ,Gujarat, Dindori, Pune, Peth. People also travelled to Trimbakeshwar and MSRTC had made arrangements for buses to the temple town. These arrangements will be in place on Sunday as well.
Rains tried to play a spoilt sport in the evening around 4 pm when heavy showers made all the pilgrims run for cover under the bridges. Heavy water flow from the rain showers coming down the slope of the city got mixed with the river water creating an overflow. Police and life guards ensured that people stayed out of the flow of water. The rains stopped after about an hour and no sooner did the rains stop that the crowds poured into the ghats to continue with their holy dip.
In Trimbakeshwar, the outer parking areas at Khambale saw large number of crowds. The small temple town was crowded with people and people stood in about six kilometres queue for darshan to the Trimbakeshwar temple.
Meanwhile, the preparations in the akhadas was in full swing for the second and important parvani. Many pilgrims and followers of the Sadhu mahants arrived in the akhadas at Sadhugram, a day earlier. By Saturday evening, there were more than four lakh pilgrims in Sadhugram. The akhadas and khalsas feed people and kaths, discourses, bhajans continued through the day and in the evening.
All senior officials were in the field on Saturday to maintain law and order and to ensure that smooth crowd movement is facilitated on the parvani day on Sunday.
The Nashik Municaipal corporation had to deal with an additional task of cleaning the murk on the ghats caused by the rain water. The planktons washed to the ghats through the Waghadi river were also removed and through the night Ramkund and its area was cleaned once again. The irrigation department had released water to flush out the stagnant water in the morning on Saturday. The rains took care of the rest in the evenings. The water flow will be maintained on Sunday to allow people to take bath in clean water.
The second parvani is considered important due to Amavasya and it being on a Sunday. It is hence expected that the second Shahi snan will draw more crowds that the first one on August 29. Kumbh Mela minister and Guardian Minister Girish Mahajan was also in town to oversee the preparations himself.
