Some 150 million people are attending this year's Kumbh Mela, which runs through to early March.
The Kumbh Mela includes a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at Sangam that dates back to at least medieval times.
The event, which UNESCO added to its list of intangible human heritage in 2017, is the largest congregation of pilgrims on earth. (Pictures: AP/Channi Anand).
Pilgrims bathe in the river believing it cleanses them of their sins and ends their process of reincarnation.
Pictured here Naga Sadhus or Naked Hindu holy men shout slogans and take dips at Sangam, the confluence of three sacred rivers the Yamuna, the Ganges and the mythical Saraswati, on Mauni Amavsya or the new moon day, the most auspicious day during the Kumbh Mela or the Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh state, India, Monday February 4 2019.
An Ariel view of thousands of Hindu devotees taking dips at Sangam, the confluence of three sacred rivers the Yamuna, the Ganges and the mythical Saraswati, on Mauni Amavsya or the new moon day, the most auspicious day during the Kumbh Mela or the Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh state, India, Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh).
(AP/Channi Anand).
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