“This is the time when the chances of spiritual salvation are at a peak,” holyman Parushram Shastri explained to AFP on Sunday, a day known as “Mauni Amavasya”.
Assorted dreadlocked holymen, priests and self-proclaimed saints from all over the country have assembled for the spectacle.
Despite the hardships of waking early, plunging into the polluted water and the relentless crush of the crowds, pilgrims described feeling spiritually uplifted and amazed by the scale of the event.
Swapna Bhatia, an interior designer from New Delhi, called it “simply an out of the world experience”.
“I feel so light now,” Bhatia said.
More than 7,000 policemen were deployed to oversee bathing on Sunday along with 30,000 volunteers to guard against stampedes, which are a regular and often deadly feature of Indian religious festivals.
The Kumbh Mela has its origins in Hindu mythology, which describes how a few drops of the nectar of immortality fell on the four places that host the festival – Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar.
Most devotees dunk their heads under the water, some drink it and others bottle it and take it home as gifts.
Management of the festival requires a monumental effort – and a budget of 16 trillion rupees ($290 million).
Despite its important role in Hinduism, the Ganges is tainted by industry and the settlements along its banks, which quickly turn the clear waters from the Himalayas into a murky, frothy brown downstream.
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