Prayāga

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Prayāga or Prag. ‘Place of sacrifice’. Hindu place of pilgrimage (tīrtha), later called by Muslims Allāhābād, at the meeting point of Gaṅgā and Yamunā rivers, and the subterranean Sarasvatī. It is therefore called triveṇī, ‘triple-thread’. Even its soil is so sacred that a small part of it can cleanse from sin. It is one of the seven sacred cities, and one of the four sites of the kuṃbha-mela, which takes place every twelve years. To avoid the Muslim name, Hindus usually call it Ilāhābād, the abode of Ilā, the mother of a solar dynasty king.