Maha Kumbh and public bathing across civilisations

With millions of devotees taking a dip into the holy waters of Sangam in Prayagraj during the Maha Kumbh, or the Poorna Kumbh, the 45-day event held every 12 years, is the biggest festival celebrating a public bath. History, myths, legends and faith come together at the Maha Kumbh to develop a community feeling among the believers.       

How has the Maha Kumbh fascinated public figures and writers? How does the practice of communal bathing at the Maha Kumbh compare to similar traditions in other civilizations?

The Maha Kumbh, a fair and religious festival 

The Maha Kumbh has fascinated not only the devotees but also public figures and writers coming from different lands and religions. In his travelogue Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World (1897), American novelist Mark Twain expressed his praise and sense of amazement at the faith of the pilgrims.

“These pilgrims had come from all over India; some of them had been months on the way, plodding patiently along in the heat and dust, worn, poor, hungry, but supported and sustained by an unwavering faith and belief; they were supremely happy and content, now; their full and sufficient reward was at hand; they were going to be cleansed from every vestige of sin… by these holy waters which make utterly pure whatsoever thing they touch… 

“It is wonderful, the power of faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know… No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination marvelous to our kind of people, the cold whites.” In his vivid account of the Kumbh, Twain also called it a “fair as well as a religious festival”.

Communal bathing in Mohenjo-Daro and Roman civilisation 

Though the Maha Kumbh is unparalleled in terms of number of devotees attending the event, the practice of public baths has existed across civilisations, serving as a means to connect people and provide opportunities for socialisation. Even in prehistoric times, the Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro, dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, was a distinctive aspect of the Indus Valley Civilisation. It is believed to have been used for ritual bathing, despite the civilisation’s advanced infrastructure, which included bathrooms in individual houses and an excellent sewage system. 

Whether they be oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds or modern amenities like spas and swimming pools, sites of public bathing have played a central role in many societies and cultures throughout history. For instance, in Roman civilisation around 3000 BC, bathing was a public event and an occasion to socialise and connect with others in a leisurely manner. Looking at archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, American historian Garret G. Fagan, in his book Bathing in Public in the Roman World (1999), wrote that a Roman bathing ritual combined “what in modern terms would be considered a visit to a gymnasium, bathroom, and massage parlour”.

Remains of many buildings, inscriptions detailing their construction, and literary works offer a glimpse into the long and elaborate affair of Roman public baths. It involved stages of undressing, application of oil on the body, exercise to work up sweat, cleaning the body with a strigil (a curved scraper), and choosing a heated room from amongst the many with varying degrees of warmth. 

Similar to visiting a mall today, in the class-conscious Roman society, which however valued communal life, there were both large and small bathing complexes. Large bathing complexes were known as thermae and smaller bathing areas were called balneae, with slaves readily available to scrape the body of rich bathers and do the chores. A Roman bath was also believed to offer health benefits; Asclepiades of Bithynia, a Greek physician living in Rome, advised bathing for health reasons. However, lack of cleanliness and hygiene, and filth from the use of strigil also posed health risks. 

Hammam in the Muslim lands

The hammam, a public bath practiced in Turkey, Tunisia, Iran and many other Muslim countries, bears a clear influence of Roman baths, though mediated by Islamic notions of modesty and segregation of sexes. A hammam, like Roman baths, involves sweating, washing, massaging and socialising, but it differs in that baths are typically taken in individual rooms. 

Often existing as an exotica in the Orientalist imagination, the famed Turkish bath disappointed Twain. In The Innocents Abroad (1869), he described the site of the bath as “a latticed chicken coop” which had nothing of “that voluptuousness one reads of so much.” For Twain, “it was more suggestive of the county hospital than anything else.” On the contrary, the hammam has provided many ordinary Arab women a valuable hour to break free from the stranglehold of patriarchal control and foster female bonding. 

In A Mountainous Journey: An Autobiography (1990, translated into English by Olive Kenny), Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan recounts her childhood visits to the public bath with her mother as an emotionally liberating affair. She describes the hammam in her town Nablus as a congenial social center for women, featuring many doors, vaults, a large pool of water and the passage for hot air. Reflecting on the atmosphere, Tuqan writes, “… I was delighted with the spontaneity of these women, who lived in a much freer and more down-to-earth atmosphere than that of the bourgeoisie, which was characterised by falsehood and hypocrisy.”

Public baths in other cultures

Using water for therapeutic purposes, people in ancient Egypt bathed in the Nile River – their life-giver and a centre of spiritual life. Egyptians also used calderas – large, bowl-shaped volcanic depressions – for communal baths. Similarly, the Russian banya – a traditional public bathhouse – was used to cleanse as well as gain spiritual experience. 

In Korea, jjimjilbang – gender-specific bathhouses originating from natural hot springs – have been frequented by families for relaxation. Meanwhile, Finnish saunas, still popular in Finland, have been marked for their health benefits and public nature, offering people spaces for meetings, celebrations, and social gatherings. 

In the case of Japan, public baths date back to the 6th century and flourished during the Edo and Meiji periods (17th to 19th centuries), becoming important centres of social life. Japanese sentos (artificially heated baths) and onsen (hot springs getting their heat from the natural volcanic activity) have also had a religious, spiritual, therapeutic, and social significance providing an occasion for people to meet, interact, and build a community feeling. 

Mixed-gender konyoku onsen were also common in Japan until the 19th  century. However, with western norms of privacy and Christian stance on nudity becoming normative, and personal and private bathrooms commonplace, there has been a significant reduction in the number of sentos in Japan. This shift necessitates a discussion about the community spirit that public baths engendered.

Post Read Questions

What role do history, myths, and legends play in shaping the significance of the Maha Kumbh?

How have writers and public figures documented their experiences of the Maha Kumbh?

What are some examples of communal bathing practices in ancient civilisations?

Why has communal bathing been a recurring practice across different cultures and societies?

What social or spiritual purposes does communal bathing serve in different traditions, including the Maha Kumbh?

(Mohammad Asim Siddiqui is a Professor in the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University.)

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