Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-03
Stampede Kills
Hindu Scores
Ranges Panic
; Million at Rite;
Scared Elephants
Add to Wild Melee
BY the Associated Press

NEW DELHI, India, Feb 81
Scores of Hindus were trampled
to death today in a frenzied
stampede of religious bathers
into the holy waters at the join
ing of the Gauges and Jumna
Rivers, near Allahabad.
Unofficial estimates of the
death toll ranged from 200 to
1000. Unconfirmed reports said
at least 1000 were injured.
Although official sources at
Allahabad would give no casualty
figures and refused any COM
ment on the reported tragedy.
eyewitness accounts said 200
square yards along the sandy
banks Of the sacred Ganges were
streWn with bodies after police
cleared away the millions of
panic-stricken bathers at the
great Kumbh Mela festival-one
of the hottest in the Hindu re-
ligion.
ThrOng Set at 3 Million.
The vast throng of pilgrims,
estimated at million strong,
had gathered at the rivers con-
fluence in Eastern India-350
miles south of New Delhi-in
observance of the orthodox
Hindu belief that bathing there
during the Kumbh Mela spares
them the pangs of rebirth into
a reincarnation.
More than two million of the
pilgrims had waited all night
on the river banks amid cold
rains. They hoped to battle
during the first three hours
after daylight dimmed the new
moon. considered by the Hin
dus the most suspicious time
for the ceremony.
Their frenzied eagerness to
reach the waters resulted in the
tragedy.
First reports said the pilgrims
in the early dawn had watched
a procession of 10000 Sadhus-
holy men-and leaders astride
elephants going down to the
river to battle first.
Then the streams of pilgrims
began to push toward the bank,
creating a crushing human
juggernaut.
Elephants Frightened.
The reports said the confusion
was heightened when the des-
perate Sadhus sought to beat
back the onrushing crowds with
spears and the long steel-pointed
wooden stats they use in their
forest hermit life for protection
against wild beasts.
The rush also frightened the
elephants carrying Sadhu chiefs
and Hindu temple officials, and
the huge beasts added to the
melee.
Hindu astrologers had pro-
claimed today's ceremony as .
18th Kumbh Mela, the most i'm
portant religious bathing fes-
tival in IA years.
A bathing festival-known as
the Magh Meals held at the
spot every year from January
IA to March a.. It commmem-
crates battle on the site in
Hindu mythology in which the
Gods defeated a hordse of
demons.
This Year Most Sacred.
Every 18th year. however, this
ceremony becomes the Kumbh
Mela and is more sacred. Every
18th Kumbh Mela, which Hindu
astrologers believe comedies with
a mythical eclipse of the new
moon. reaches the acme of re-
igious Importance.
To the devout there is no bet
Ter Time or place to die, for
death during the 18th Kumbh
Mela would mean a direct pas
sage to heaven.
Prime Minister Nehru was to
visit the festival today and In
dian President Rajendra Prasad
had been scheduled to join the
bathers. There were no indica-
tlons where the two government
leaders were when the stampede
occurred.
The disaster reported today
had been presaged by smaller
stampede yesterday in which.
according to reports published
here, six persons were killed and
80 persons were injured. These
reports said thousands of pill
grims damned up and a pom
toon bridge collapsed under