Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity

The Kumbh Mela is the largest religious celebration on earth and the world’s largest public gathering. The resulting settlement is a virtual megacity! The Kumbh Mela deploys its roads, pontoon bridges, as well as tents serving as residences and venues for spiritual meetings, and social infrastructure such as hospitals, sanitation outlets and vaccination clinics—all replicating the functions of an actual city. The pop-up settlement seamlessly serves up to seven million people, who gather for 55 days, and an additional influx of 10 to 20 million people, who come for 24-hour cycles on the six main bathing dates. In 2013, a team from Harvard University, representing faculty from multiple disciplines, researched the large-scale event from its preparation to the actual celebration itself. This was the first systematic study on the Mela as a City: a planned entity, covering issues of social inclusion, diversity, and even democracy that emerge under the framework of a neutralising grid of roads that is the organising armature of the city. This subdivision of the town forms clusters of freedom, facilitating space for individual and group expression. The volume presents the comprehensive research findings and includes city maps, aerial images, analytical drawings and photographs of this spectacular Ephemeral Mega City for the Kumbh Mela.