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 little farther, Nagavalli Gupta reads a prayer book while her husband sits cross-legged wearing a woolen cap, wrapped in a blanket. They are from Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka and have been on a pilgrimage for the past two months.

Naked Hindu ascetics and pilgrims are taking holy dips in sacred rivers in the first major bathing day of the Maha Kumbh festival, which is the largest religious congregation on Earth