My Pilgrimage to Triveni Sangam at Holy City of Allahabad in India

One of the holiest places of pilgrimage in India that attracts lot of pilgrims and the tourists is Allahabad. I have visited this city more than once and have enjoyed my visit immensely. This is the place where the three holy Rivers of India meet. These Rivers are Ganga, Jamuna, and Sarswati. That is why this city of Allahabad is known as triveni sangam city. Allahabad is situated in the State of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is having an area of around 65 square kilometers and has population of around one million people. City of Allahabad is also known as Prayag Tirth. It is a strong belief in Hindu religion that if anybody takes bath here at the triveni sangam, all his sins are washed away forever. The city remains full of pilgrims all through the year. However, the best time to visit this place is during winter months of October to February. It is around 126 miles from Luckhnow, 78 miles from Banaras, and 370 miles from Delhi.

Allahabad is well connected by air as there are three airports near this city. These are Luckhnow, Banaras, and Kanpur. Allahabad is connected by train from Delhi, Mumbai, and other major cities of India. The State Transport buses are also available from all the major cities of Uttar Pradesh for reaching Allahabad. This is one of the oldest cities of India. This was the place where Lord Brahma performed the big Parikshit yajna. This city existed since the time of Mahabharata and Ramayana. The recent Allahabad city was established by Mogul King Akbar in the year 1575. He also made a big fort at the triveni sangam here. The most holy place to see here is triveni sangam where the three rivers of Ganga, Jamuna, and Sarswati meet. The meeting place clearly shows two different colors of the river waters of Ganga and Jamuna. Ganga is milky white in color and Jamuna is black in color. Sarswati is meeting from below these Rivers and is not visible. The pilgrims have to travel by a boat to reach the exact spot of this triveni sangam. Taking a holy dip inside the rivers here at this point is considered very holy as per Hindu religion. There is a Lord Hanuman temple near the sangam. This temple has the statue of Hanuman in the sleeping posture, which is one of the rarest occurrences. This temple sinks in the River water in case of high flood in the rivers here. There is a temple of Patalpuri inside the fort at the river shore. This temple is located around 100 feet inside the land. There are statues of gods of Hindu religion like Ganesh, Lord Shiva, and Lord Vishnu here in this temple. There is one very large and tall tree, called Axayvat here near this temple. This tree is one of the oldest trees in India. It is said that if anybody commits suicide by jumping from this tree in to the River water, he will go straight to heaven. Even today some of the pilgrims try to commit suicide here.

The next place to visit here is Anandbhuvan. This was the house of the Nehru family during the freedom fight of India. Nehru family donated this house to congress party in the year 1930. There is a large museum here, where all the old memories of the freedom fight are stored. The Ex-Prime minister of India Mrs.Indira Gandhi was born here. This house is now the national monument and its possession is with the national congress party.

There are many nice hotels here to stay. Hotels like Mayur, Finaro, Iravati, Prayag, Vilas, Presidency, and Royal are some of the famous hotels at Allahabad. Most of these hotels provide 3 star amenities and their charges are in the range of Rs.2000 ($50) to Rs.3000 ($75) per day for a nice double room. The stay of around 3 days here can be sufficient to cover all the sites seeing places. The famous Kumbha fair is held here at every 12 years and the fair of Ardhkumbha is held every 6 years. The Magh fair is held here every year in the month of January. The city of Allahabad gets full of pilgrims during these fairs, in particular, during the Kumbha fair. However, foreigners may avoid the visit during any of these fairs so as to avoid big rush, hassles, and lack of the facilities. I have visited this holy place twice in my life and have no hesitation in recommending visiting it to all my AC friends.