Sadhu wearing a garland hat - stock photo

Close-up imager of a Sadhu wearing an orage, flower and mala bead made hat. Photo taken during Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, India, 2019 Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism, and probably the greatest religious festival in the World. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: the Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra). The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass feedings of monks or the poor, and entertainment spectacles. Pilgrims believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to cleanse them of their sins and favour a better next incarnation.