The Kumbh Mela festival, the largest religious gathering in the world, has begun in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj.

Days before India started its mammoth Kumbh Mela festival, a video showing preparations for a nighttime light show surfaced in social media posts that falsely linked it to the six-week Hindu event. The video was in fact originally published by a US-based drone show company and shows a Christmas celebration.

No visit to the Kumbh Mela is complete without a dip in the sacred waters of the Triveni Sangam, where the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

An estimated 40 crore people are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj this year with the Uttar Pradesh government earmarking a budget of Rs 6,990 crore for the gathering.

India began on Monday its Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, which is expected to draw more than 400 million visitors to the northern city of Prayagraj over six weeks, making for the largest gathering of humanity in the world.

By Saurabh Sharma PRAYAGRAJ, India (Reuters) -Naked Hindu ascetics smeared in holy ash charged into the waters of sacred rivers in India on Tuesday, part of a large crowd of 35 million devotees who took the holy dip on the second day of the Maha Kumbh Mela,

Esri India launched a user-friendly GIS-based web application in Hindi and English for the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 in Prayagraj, offering pilgrims essent

It’s late evening in the city of Prayagraj and the roadside vendors selling snacks are packing up their wares to shut for the night.

A six-week Maha Kumbh Mela or Great Pitcher Festival begins in India on Monday, a Hindu sacred event that will be the world's largest gathering of humanity as it showcases religion, spirituality, tourism and crowd management.