A festering dispute over Hindu ambitions to build a temple on the rubble of an ancient mosque overshadowed last-minute preparations in northern India yesterday for the largest gathering of human beings in history.
Vast crowds had already arrived in the holy Uttar Pradesh state city of Allahabad the day before the start of the six-week Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival, which the government estimates will be visited by at least 30 million Hindu pilgrims.
Hindus believe that bathing in the holy waters of Allahabad during the mela - which takes place once every 12 years - will cleanse them of sins, breaking the cycle of death and rebirth and uniting them with Brahman, the universal divinity.
Devotees will head in droves for the sangam, or confluence point, where they believe the Yamuna and Ganges rivers are joined by an underground mythical river, named Saraswati after the Hindu goddess of learning.
Many of the pilgrims are sadhus, scantily clad - or often naked - holy men who wander throughout India practising yoga, preaching the tenets of Hinduism and begging for a living.
"I came a long way from Jammu and Kashmir to be at this holy place," said one sadhu who was far from prepared for northern India's winter chill, which has claimed 35 lives in Uttar Pradesh over the last few days.
The festival acts not only as a reaffirmation of faith, but also as a chance for members of various sects to meet and discuss theological differences.
Muslim and Hindu leaders ruled out talks to settle their latest dispute at the weekend. Representatives of the minority Muslim community threatened to use force to stop a temple to the god-king Ram being built on the site of the Babri Mosque, which was torn down by a mob of Hindu fanatics in 1992.
The razing of the mosque in the town of Ayodhya, which lies a few hours' drive north of Allahabad, triggered India's worst communal violence since the partition of 1947.
Hardline sadhus will meet at the festival on January 19th21st and then announce the date when work on a temple will start at the site, which is believed by Hindus to be Ram's birthplace.
The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to national prominence on the back of a campaign for an Ayodhya temple in the 1980s, threw fuel onto the blazing controversy last month. His remark that the temple was an unfulfilled expression of national sentiment put his 15-month-old coalition government on the defensive, though it won a debate on the issue in the Lower House of Parliament as allies closed ranks.
Allahabad is one of four spots where Garuda, the winged steed of the god Vishnu, is said to have rested during a titanic battle with demons over a pitcher of divine nectar of immortality.
He rested at four spots - Allahabad, Hardwar, Ujjain and Nasik - at each of which nectar spilt onto the earth.
Garuda's flight lasted 12 divine days, or 12 years of mortal time, so the Kumbh Mela is celebrated at each city every 12 years, alternating between each every three years.
Hindus consider the festival at Allahabad as the holiest of the four, and the last one, in 1989, attracted 15 million pilgrims. The Guinness Book of Records called it "the largest-ever gathering of human beings for a single purpose".
Twice that number are expected at this year's festival. More than half a million tents and 20,000 makeshift toilets have been erected and, with concerns over attacks by separatist guerrillas, some 20,000 policemen have been deployed.
The first major bathing date will be January 9th. Other auspicious dates are January 14th, 24th and 29th, February 8th and 21st.
Ancient records show the festival has been held for at least 2,000 years. The Chinese traveler Huan Tsang noted in AD 643 that pilgrims of other faiths also attended.
"The sadhus all parade down to the water, naked and blowing horns and banging drums. Everyone makes way for them," said Satvinder Bir Singh, a Sikh landlord who attended the last mela. "It was a magnificent sight."
Thousands of soldiers and police - equipped with closedcircuit television and bomb detectors - are on alert against terrorist attacks, stampedes and crime among the pilgrims.
Roads around the city of Allahabad were choked with buses and trucks. Many people, frustrated with the traffic jams, walked the last few miles to the festival grounds.
A horse-drawn carriage rolled off the road into a canal, injuring all 12 passengers. One person died in the festival grounds of cold and exposure, officials said.
Radios blasting religious songs competed with Hindu scriptures chanted over megaphones.
In 1954 about 800 pilgrims died when the Kumbh Mela was held in Allahabad and in 1984 about 200 people were killed in a stampede in the Hindu holy town of Hardwar.