Kumbh Mela in India

Few religious festivals are as grand as Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage of faith where devotees arrive on India’s holy rivers to wash away their sins. There are four main festivals, which rotate every two to three years at different locations: Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. The festivities take place on the banks of the Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati and Godavari rivers.

These places weren’t chosen by accident. Rivers are often places of spiritual importance and celebrated as a sustainer of life. According to Hinduism, the four sites of Kumbh Mela are where the religion’s main deities (called Devas) worked with malevolent and benevolent demons (called Asuras) to regain their powers. The plan was to churn the primordial ocean to produce amrit, or nectar of immortality. A fight broke out between the two sides, leading the divine physician Dhanvantari to carry the amrit away in a kumbha, which literally translates to pot. The four sites are where he spilled the nectar, marking them holy grounds.

Today, devotees travel from around the country and the world to wash their sins according to traditional Hindu customs. India is a poor country, so it’s not uncommon for participants to leave their village for the first time to pay their respects. The festival is also regarded as one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world. An estimated 120 million people came to Allahabad in 2013, with 30 million arriving on Mauni Amavasya for the holy dip.