Governor opens K’shetra Kumbh

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, December 3

Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya on Monday inaugurated “Kurukshetra Kumbh Mela”, the first-ever such religious event, at Brahma Sarovar here. The Kumbh Mela is traditionally organised at Hardwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain.

Arya said the Kumbh Mela would be organised from December 3 to 7. He lauded the Akhil Bhartiya Sarvmangla Kumbh Samiti for ‘reviving’ the mela.

Swami Chidanand, convener of the samiti, and editor of Lok Sabha TV Shyam Kishore were behind the Kurukshetra kumbh.

Samiti members claimed that Chidanand deciphered a reference in ancient texts that centuries ago Kumbh used to be held at Kurukshetra and other places.

Kishore claimed that the mela was being organised as per “panchaang” or Hindu calendar. He said similar Kumbh had been held in Simaria, Jagannath, Dwarika and Rameshwaram.

The state-funded Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB), with Governor as its ex-officio chairperson, was co-organiser of the function. A scholar disputed the claim that Kurukshetra had any past tradition of hosting Kumbh Mela.

Octogenarian Prof Himmat Singh Sinha, aide of the late Prime Minister Gulzari Lal Nanda, said the organisers were misleading people by giving it an unverified religious nomenclature of Kumbh Mela.

Sinha said it was highly objectionable that government agencies supported an individual to give new and unverified dimension to change historical character of an ancient place.

He said scholars who had worked on Kurukshetra should have been consulted before allowing such an event at Brahma Sarovar.

“I have studied the history of Kurukshetra and ancient scriptures. There is no mention that Kumbh was held in Kurukshetra in the last 7,500 years. The KDB has dented its reputation by co-organising such an event,” said Sinha.