Prayag Kumbh Mela

Prayag, later called Allahabad, lies beside the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Sarasvati. Its Sanskrit name means place of sacrifice, for tradition holds that Brahma performed the first sacrifice there. The Mahabharata and Puranas praise bathing there in Magha as washing away sin and winning heaven.

The annual Magh Mela is the oldest of the great Indian bathing festivals. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang described in 644 King Harsha's quinquennial assembly, with crowds bathing at the river junction. The later twelve-yearly Kumbh gathering grew out of this festival.

Through the sultanate and Mughal periods the fair continued, and Akbar built his Allahabad fort overlooking the sangam. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was organised by the akharas, armed bands of Hindu ascetics, whose rival claims to bathe first sometimes ended in bloody clashes.