By
The Associated Press
ALLAHABAD, India - Brandishing swords and tridents, thousands of naked Hindu monks on Wednesday plunged into the freezing Ganges River, joining 32 million others in taking a holy dip on the most sacred day of the Kumbh festival.
Drawn by an auspicious planetary arrangement their priests say occurs only once in 144 years, the millions of Hindu pilgrims want to fulfill lifelong dream of bathing in the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to wash away sins and have prayers answered.
The 43-day Kumbh Mela festival, which takes place every 12 years, began Jan. 9. The crowds of worshippers have swelled, leading up to the most auspicious Royal Bathing Day, which stretched from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon.
Festival administrator Jeevesh Nandan said at least 32 million people had bathed in the river making it one of the world's largest religious gatherings.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual, planned to join the throngs on Thursday, aides said at his exile headquarters in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala. The Dalai Lama did not plan to bathe, but would participate in a prayer ritual, meet with Hindu leaders and speak on world peace, his aides said.
Awe-struck devotees of the Hindu monks, eager for a view of the holy men who were the first in the water at dawn Wednesday, crushed in the darkness against barricades made of tree trunks. Police on horseback patrolled to keep back the crowds, who tossed marigold garlands at the holy men marching toward the river bank.
Monks from various Hindu orders, with matted hair and ash-smeared bodies, waved swords and tridents as they proceeded to a slope above the river, followed by tens of thousands of supporters, praying and chanting hymns.
Gurus, leaders of the various sects, were carried on palanquins with gold-tinted umbrellas and trappings. Others arrived in chariots pulled by tractors, after organizers of the festival banned the elephants and buses that had been used earlier.
The monks then raced down the slope. They held hands and danced on the sand. Then they jumped into the water shouting slogans, punching their fists and weapons into the air, and tossing their garlands.
Raucous bands of drummers and horn players played tunes as devotees sang. There were Hindu nuns and monks with shaven heads, holding brown rosary beads and wearing saffron robes. The twinkling of thousands of oil lamps floating on the water mixed with the flames of camp fires, lighting up the 3,460-acre festival grounds.
Administrators have banned close photography of Wednesday's bathing after complaints from some Hindus about news photo and film coverage of the naked holy men, as well as women in wet saris.
Some of the holy men, however, happily posed for pictures before entering the water. Onlookers clicked away. But when the oldest and largest order, the Juna, prepared to enter the water, police physically stopped photographers from taking pictures, yanked them out of their positions and threatened to break their cameras.
One policeman told photographers they were ''dirtying the name of India and Indian culture.''
Organizers of the festival predict about 70 million people will attend by the time it ends Feb. 21, making it the largest known Kumbh Mela.
