Maha Kumbh 2025: Basant Panchami on Feb 3, Officials Aim for Zero-Error ‘Amrit Snan’

Maha Kumbh 2025: The principal officials in Uttar Pradesh continue to strive for strict implementation of chief minister Yogi Adityanath's mandate of a zero-error function, regarding the final 'amrit snan' on Basant Panchami at Maha Kumbh 2025 in Prayagraj dated Monday, February 3. The mandate has been imposed further strenuously in the aftermath of the January 29 stampede, which resulted in some thirty deaths and injuries to at least sixty persons.

Crowds continue to swell for the Basant Panchami Snan, with almost eighty lakh devotees having taken a dip in the Ganga and Sangam till Sunday noon. The Maha Kumbh has seen over 33.61 crore devotees take part in the holy bath since January 13.

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Yogi Adityanath paid a visit to Prayagraj following the fatal crowd crush at Sangam Nose on January 29.

Heavy public attendance on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya created a stampede at Sangam Nose due to over-crowding. The police reported that a surge in the influx of devotees led to the collapse of a barricade, triggering the chaos.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to pay a visit to Maha Kumbh Nagar on February 5, Indian news agency PTI has reported.

Here's how UP govt is gearing up for Basant Panchami

• For the same reason, the UP Government has assigned two senior IAS officers who have been part of the key team that organized the 2019 Ardh Kumbh for the smooth implementation of the current fair.
• They are Ashish Goyal and Bhanu Chandra Goswami, two men who command much respect for their abilities in managing operations in Prayagraj, especially crowd management and inter-agency coordination during the Ardh Kumbh 2019. They join Mela Adhikari Vijay Kiran Anand. All three were actively associated with the mega event six years back.
• Additional director-general of police (ADG) Bhanu Bhaskar is supervising crowd control measures inside the fair.
• What followed were monitoring of the spot of the recent incident by Yogi Adityanath, and checking the hospitals where the injured were admitted. In a review meeting regarding Basant Panchami snan preparations, he directed officials to carry on with the event "without any errors."
• In the morning on Sunday, ADG Bhaskar had visited the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) situated in the Mela Authority building, where he monitored the entire fairground with major intersections and entry points through large screens. He also kept announcing through loudspeakers to allow smooth movement at the ghats.
• While addressing the devotees from the ICCC microphone, he stated that they should not linger at the ghats after taking a dip and leave immediately so that others can take a dip. They should not eat or drink at the ghats and instead avail the refreshments where designated.
• Bhaskar further instructed the police officers to ensure that the devotees do not congregate on the ghats and leave straight away once the rituals are done.
• In parallel, a mela administration official told PTI that the police force had been instructed to be focused on crowd control pertaining to the entire fair area. Bhanu Chandra Goswami and Ashish Goyal, meanwhile, officers arriving from Lucknow, are working shoulder to shoulder with the administration to share thoughts and experiences from their prior postings.
• Goswami was vice chairman of the Prayagraj Development Authority during the last Kumbh in 2019, while Goyal was divisional commissioner.
• Mahant Ravindra Puri, who is the president of the All India Akhada Parishad, implored devotees by stating that the five-kilometre stretch of Prayagraj is considered part of the Sangam.
• He assured them that they would stand with the same spiritual merit if they bathed anywhere between Phaphamau and Arail and urged them not to jam that small stretch of the confluence.

Amrit Snan

Amrit Snan, which means immortal bath, is the focal point of the Maha Kumbh Mela, wherein millions and millions of pilgrims from all over the world are attracted into the Triveni Sangam. It is believed that during such rare celestial alignments, whoever bathes in the holy waters gets rid of all sins and the ultimate liberation of 'moksha' from the unwanted cycle of birth and death.

Another highlight of this celebration is that saints and ascetics parade through the streets, among them the ash-laden Naga Sadhus belonging to the various Akharas or monastic orders.

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Amrit Snan dates are reckoned in accordance with the astrological positions of the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter since these alignments, too, are considered to impart spiritual energies to the sacred rivers. In this Maha Kumbh, the first two Amrit Snan were celebrated on January 14 (Makar Sankranti) and January 29 (Mauni Amavasya); the next will fall on February 3 (Basant Panchami).

In a Hindu calendar, Basant Panchami is on Magh Shukla Panchami, meaning the day when spring is auspiciously reaching the threshold of the soul.

Three other main days of bathing apart from the Amrit Snan are also observed: one on January 13 (Paush Purnima), and two more will be on February 12 (Maghi Purnima) and February 26 (Mahashivratri), which is also the grand closure of this event occurring once in 12 years.

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