Makar Mela is a traditional Hindu festival celebrated every 12 years in the month of Magh (Mid January-Early February) in

Panauti Panauti ( ne, पनौती) is a municipality in Kavrepalanchok District in Bagmati Province of Nepal located 32 km Southeast of the capital Kathmandu. The town is currently listed as a UNESCO tentative site since 1996. Origin Panauti i ...

town of Nepal. The festival attracts Hindu pilgrims from all over Nepal, India and some foreign tourists. Pilgrims believe that taking a dip in the holy river during the festival washes away their sins. The festival is celebrated for the whole month of Magh at Tribenighat, the confluence of three rivers viz. Punyamati, Roshi (also called Lilawati) and Rudrawati. The festival starts when the sun enters Makar Rashi as per the Vedic astrology. Pilgrims bath in the river and worship Basuki Naag which is considered to be the caretaker of Panauti. Then the devotees proceed to worship Indreshwor Mahadev.

Mythology

According to the mythology, once Indra, the king of heaven, suffered from an incurable disease. To cure it, he meditated for 12 years to get rid of disease by pleasing

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

at Tribenighat. Shiva mixed some nectar in Rudrawati river to cure the disease. When Indra dipped in the river, he got cured. It is believed that every 12 years, the nectar flows in the river which will cure all the diseases. Another mythology describes that the festival is celebrated from the time of king Dirgharath of Panauti and king Satyawar of Patan which they started to pray goddess Phulchowki for the rivers Roshi and Godawari.

Others

* As a ritual, the festival was forbidden to be visited by the King of Nepal because the kings of Nepal and the main god of the festival -

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

were considered to be the same god. However, the last King of Nepal,

Gyanendra Gyanendra Shah ( ne, ज्ञानेन्द्र शाह, born 7 July 1947) is a former monarch who was the last King of Nepal, reigning from 2001 to 2008. As a child, he was briefly king from 1950 to 1951, when his grandfather, Tribhuv ...

visited the festival. *Some environmental concerns have been raised because of the water pollution caused during the festival.

Festival years

*2066

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

*2078 B.S. (2021) *2090 B.S.

References

{{reflist Festivals in Nepal Hindu festivals in Nepal