Where are the four Kumbh Melas held?

Haridwar is in Uttarakhand, on the Ganga, at the place where the river leaves the mountains and comes out onto the plain. People go there for that: this is where the Ganga arrives. The bathing is at the ghats along the river in the town. A घाट ghat is the flight of stone steps leading down into a river, and the bank they stand on. Har Ki Pauri is one of them, and there are others: Vishnu Ghat, Ganesh Ghat, Birla Ghat and Gau Ghat.

The Kumbh comes to Haridwar when Jupiter is in Aquarius, with the sun in Aries and the moon in Sagittarius. Aquarius is Kumbh, the water pot, the same word as the fair. It falls in the month of Chaitra, in March and April, and the last one was in 2021. Some pilgrims spend the whole month of the Kumbh on the bank of the Ganga, bathing three times a day. Haridwar also has a half Kumbh. An अर्ध कुम्भ ardh kumbh comes six years after the full one, halfway through the twelve.

Prayag is Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh, and the Kumbh there is at the सङ्गम sangam, the place where the Ganga and the Yamuna meet. People say a third river, the Saraswati, joins them there unseen. The ground where the fair is held is the open sand at the meeting of the rivers.

Every year in the month of Magh, from the middle of January to the middle of February, a fair is held on that sand. It is the Magh Mela, and pilgrims come and stay the month in tents, bathing at the sangam. Every twelfth year the Magh Mela becomes the Kumbh. The Kumbh comes to Prayag when Jupiter is in Taurus, with the sun and the moon in Capricorn. The government puts up a town of tents on the sand for it, with roads, water, electricity, hospitals and police.

The last Kumbh at Prayag ran from 13 January to 26 February 2025, and its authority called it the Maha Kumbh. It had six main bathing days: Paush Purnima, Makar Sankranti, Mauni Amavasya, Basant Panchami, Maghi Purnima and Mahashivratri. Prayag also has the half Kumbh six years on, and it was there in 2019 as well.

Nashik is in Maharashtra, on the Godavari. This is the one Kumbh held in two towns, and why the Kumbh is at two places has the whole of that. The Vaishnav akhadas bathe at Ramkund in Nashik, the pool on the bend of the river at Panchavati, and the Shaiva and Udasin akhadas at Kushavarta in Trimbakeshwar, the kund in the middle of the small town upstream where the river comes down from the hill. A कुण्ड kund is a tank or pool with stone sides and steps, fed by the river or a spring. An अखाड़ा akhada is an order of sadhus with its own head, its own rule, its own property and its own place in the bathing order at a Kumbh. The word originally meant a wrestling ground.

The Kumbh comes here when Jupiter is in Leo, with the sun and the moon in Cancer, and that is why it is called the Simhastha, and why it is called Simhastha has the name and the planet. Nashik tells that at the churning of the ocean drops of amrit fell at Ramkund, and अमृत amrit is the drink that makes whoever drinks it deathless, and why the Kumbh comes to Nashik tells that in full. The last Simhastha here was in 2015–16. The dates for the next one, with what the authority has said about them, are on the main Kumbh page.

Ujjain is in Madhya Pradesh, on the Kshipra. The Mahakaleshwar temple is on the bank of the river there, and it is one of the twelve jyotirlings. A ज्योतिर्लिङ्ग jyotirling is a ling of light, one of the twelve lings of Shiva that are counted above all the others. The bath at the Kumbh is at Ram Ghat, on the Kshipra. This is what Ujjain tells about the name. When Ram’s father died, Ram performed the last rites for him here, on this bank, and the ghat has been called Ram Ghat since.

The Kumbh comes to Ujjain when Jupiter is in Leo, with the sun and the moon in Aries. Jupiter in Leo is what Ujjain shares with Nashik, so Ujjain’s Kumbh is a Simhastha too. The last one was in 2016.

The pot. Nashik tells that after the churning of the ocean the jar of amrit was carried off and set down at four places, and that these are the four, and Samudra manthan tells the churning in full. Each place has a river, and at each the Kumbh comes when the planets stand a certain way and people go down into the water on the days set for it.

At each of the four the akhadas come, and on the main bathing days they go down to the river in procession and bathe before everyone else, and the shahi snan has that. At each a town of tents goes up for the sadhus and comes down again afterwards, and Sadhugram is the one at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.

The last round went Nashik and Trimbakeshwar in 2015–16, Ujjain in 2016, Haridwar in 2021, and Prayag in 2025, with Prayag holding one in 2019 as well. The next in the round is the one at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar.

At Haridwar you go down the steps at Har Ki Pauri to the Ganga, just out of the hills. At Prayag you walk out onto the sand to the sangam, and in a Kumbh year the sand is a town. At Nashik you go down to Ramkund at Panchavati, and at Trimbakeshwar to Kushavarta, the square kund with steps on all four sides in the middle of the town. At Ujjain you go down to Ram Ghat on the Kshipra. What is a Kumbh Mela is what happens once you are there.