Naked Hindu ascetics and pilgrims took dips in the freezing waters at the confluence of sacred rivers in northern India on Tuesday, in the first major bathing day of the Maha Kumbh festival, which is the largest religious congregation on Earth.
Holding tridents, swords, spears and small two-headed drums, ash-smeared Hindu holy men marched at sunrise toward the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers in the northern city of Prayagraj. The men — with matted dreadlocks and crowns of marigolds — chanted religious slogans praising Hindu deity Lord Shiva and were escorted to the bathing site on chariots in a large procession with singing, drumming and blowing of horns.
