India's vast Hindu festival draws to an end

PRAYAGRAJ

India's Kumbh Mela festival wrapped up on Wednesday, with final ritual river bathing ceremonies ending six weeks of celebration that organizers say have been attended by hundreds of millions of devotees.

Despite two deadly stampedes that killed dozens, the festival in the northern city of Prayagraj has been hailed as a triumph by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, bolstering its carefully cultivated image as a steward of Hindu resurgence and prosperity.

Both Modi and his ally, firebrand Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where the festival is being held, said the millennia-old Mela has been the "grandest" yet.

Both men themselves took part in the festival, with Modi bathing in the spot where the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet.

The Kumbh Mela is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.

The festival, which opened on Jan. 13, ended on Wednesday, coinciding with the Hindu festival of Maha Shivaratri, in honor of the deity Shiva.

Helicopters scattered flower petals on the vast crowds taking part in sacred bathing rituals at dawn.

According to eyebrow-raising figures from the Uttar Pradesh state government, more than 640 million worshippers took part in the festival, a staggering statistic even for the world's most populous nation of 1.4 billion people.

Just on Wednesday, more than 8 million devotees were reported to have shrugged off stomach-churning fecal matter measurements to immerse themselves in sacred river waters.