Why is the Kumbh held once in twelve years?
Once in twelve years. That is the number everyone knows about the Kumbh, and it is the first thing the law that set up the Kumbh authority says about it. The number is Jupiter's. It takes about twelve years to go round the twelve signs of the zodiac, and when it comes back to Leo the Kumbh comes back to Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. This page is the count — where it comes from, how it sends the Kumbh round four places, and what Nashik tells about the twelve. The year it makes at Nashik has a page of its own.
अर्ध कुम्भardh kumbh
the half Kumbh — a fair held at Haridwar and at Prayag six years after the full one, halfway through the twelve
Table of contents
The Kumbh Mela comes to Nashik and Trimbakeshwar once in about twelve years. The law that set up the Kumbh Mela Authority defines a Kumbh Mela as exactly that — a religious fair held about every twelve years at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar — and the same is true of the other three places the Kumbh goes to. The reason is a planet. Jupiter takes about twelve years to go once round the zodiac, and the Kumbh at each place is tied to where Jupiter is.
Section I
Why it is twelve
The sky is divided into twelve signs, and the planets move through them at their own speeds. The sun goes round all twelve in a year. The moon goes round in a month. Jupiter, the slow one, takes about twelve years, so it spends about a year in each sign and comes back to any one of them once in about twelve years. In the stories Jupiter is बृहस्पति Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, which is why people call the planet Guru as well as Jupiter.
For Nashik and Trimbakeshwar the sign is Leo, and when Jupiter goes into it the Kumbh comes here, which is where the name Simhastha comes from, and Why it is called Simhastha has the whole of that, including how the day Jupiter enters Leo is read from the panchang.
Section II
The four places and their years
There are four places in the country the Kumbh goes to, and each one has a sign of Jupiter’s that is its own, with a position for the sun and the moon to go with it.
- Haridwar, on the Ganga — 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.
- Prayag, where the Ganga and the Yamuna meet — when Jupiter is in Taurus, with the sun and the moon in Capricorn.
- Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, on the Godavari — when Jupiter is in Leo, with the sun and the moon in Cancer.
- Ujjain, on the Kshipra — when Jupiter is in Leo, with the sun and the moon in Aries.
Nashik and Ujjain both wait for Jupiter in Leo, with the sun and the moon in a different place for each, and both are called Simhastha for that reason. What each of the four places is like is on the four Kumbh places.
Haridwar and Prayag also have a half Kumbh. An अर्ध कुम्भ ardh kumbh comes to each of those two places six years after the full one, halfway through the twelve. Nashik and Trimbakeshwar do not have one.
Section III
How long a Kumbh is
The Kumbh at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar is not a day or a week. The authority has fixed a Kumbh period, and it opens with the flag hoisting at Ramkund and at Kushavarta and closes with a ceremony of its own, Simhastha Samapti, the end of the Simhastha, with the big bathing days inside it. The dates the authority has given for the opening, the bathing days and the close, and what it says about them, are on the main Kumbh page.
The surest sign of a Kumbh year at Nashik is a door. Beside Ramkund is the Ganga Godavari temple, and it stays shut for eleven years. On Kartik Purnima, once in twelve years, it is opened, and it stays open for a year, through the Simhastha, and then it is closed again. The temples of Nashik has it.
The last Simhastha at Nashik and Trimbakeshwar was in 2015–16. The one this site is about is the next.
Section IV
What Nashik tells about the twelve
This is what Nashik tells.
After the churning of the ocean the jar of amrit was snatched and carried off to keep it from the asuras, and the chase lasted twelve days of the gods, and a day of the gods is a year of ours, so it lasted twelve years, and Samudra manthan tells the whole of that. अमृत amrit is the drink that makes whoever drinks it deathless. On the way the jar was set down at four places — Haridwar, Prayag, Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, and Ujjain — and at each of them, at that moment, the sun and the moon and the planets stood in a particular pattern in the sky, and that pattern is what the Kumbh waits for at each place. At Nashik the place the drops fell is Ramkund, and Why the Kumbh comes to Nashik tells that in full.
Section V
Explore more guides
Why it is called Simhastha
Jupiter goes into Leo, and that is when the Kumbh comes to Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. What the name means, and where the rule comes from.
Samudra manthan
The churning of the ocean, the jar of amrit and what Nashik tells about where the jar was set down — the story every Kumbh comes out of.
Why the Kumbh comes to Nashik
The amrit at Ramkund, the river Gautama brought down, and Jupiter in Leo — the three things that bring the Kumbh here and to Trimbakeshwar.
What the old texts say
Which old texts sit behind the Kumbh at Nashik and what is in each — the churning, the Ganga in Shiva's hair, and what Nashik tells about the river and the year.
The temples of Nashik
The temples along the river, including the Ganga Godavari temple beside Ramkund that opens once in twelve years.
The four Kumbh places
Haridwar, Prayag, Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, and Ujjain — the river at each, the sign Jupiter stands in for each, and when the last one was.
What is a Kumbh Mela
What the words mean, where and when the fair is held, and what happens at one.
Section VI