1801 T. Hardwicke in Asiatick Researches (London ed.) 6 312 This Mela, or fair, is an annual assemblage of Hindus.

1848 Alfred in India 25 A mehla is a fair or market, where all sorts of merchandise is..bought and sold.

1896 N. Davis Three Men & a God 157 Poor wretches who at the Mela time stand in the court-yard and have the sacred water poured over them.

1936 J. Nehru Autobiogr. xvii. 122 I went down to the river early in the morning to see the mela.

1967 V. Mehta Portrait of India 58 He is going to Allahabad, on a pilgrimage to the Kumbha mela.

1995 Northern Echo 24 July A new sound for the Middlesbrough Mela was Hustlers HC, three Asian rappers and Djs who play to packed houses on the Asian club scene in London.

1957 O. Gosvami Story Indian Music xix. 195 Ramamatya introduced for the first time the Mela-karta..and added a new chapter on the Melas,..thus driving deeper the wedge that separated South Indian music from the North Indian.

1967 V. Mehta Portrait of India 31 Melas, generic scale patterns that have their own ascending and descending structures.

1980 New Grove Dict. Music IX. 82/1 (heading) 16th- to 20th century south Indian sources for mela (scale type).