As the Kumbh Mela event got underway Monday, vast groups of Hindu pilgrims in India started taking baths in holy waters. Organizers anticipate 400 million attendees, making it the greatest human gathering in history.
The spot where the Ganges, Yamuna, and legendary Saraswati rivers converge is the scene of the millennium-old Kumbh Mela, a display of religious devotion and ceremonial bathing that also presents an enormous logistical problem.
Before dawn, pilgrims rushed ahead to start taking a dip in the chilly waters.
“I feel great joy,” said Surmila Devi, 45. “For me, it’s like bathing in nectar.”
As businesswoman Reena Rai talked about the “religious reasons” behind her decision to join the crowded tents along the riverbanks in Prayagraj, north India, her voice trembled with excitement.
“As a Hindu, this is an unmissable occasion,” the 38-year-old said, who travelled around 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) from Madhya Pradesh state to take part in the festival, which runs from Monday until February 26.
Saffron-robed monks and naked ash-smeared ascetics roamed the crowds offering blessings to devotees, many of whom had walked for weeks to reach the site.
“The world’s largest spiritual and cultural gathering is starting,” said Hindu monk and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a statement, welcoming devotees to the festival to “experience unity in diversity, to meditate, and take a holy bath at the confluence of faith and modernity”.
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