Huge turnout for cleansing

KUMBH MELA: OVER 400 MILLION PILGRIMS EXPECTED TO GATHER, BATH IN SACRED WATERS

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» Nationalist party's opportunity to burnish credentials.

Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters as the Kumbh Mela festival opened yesterday, with organisers expecting 400 million people – the world's largest gathering of humanity – to assemble over six weeks.

The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing – and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions – is held at the site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

“I feel great joy,” said Surmila Devi, 45, after bathing just before dawn. “For me, it’s like bathing in nectar.”

Businesswoman Reena Rai’s voice quivered with excitement as she spoke about the “religious reasons” that brought her to join the sprawling tents, packed along the river banks in the north Indian city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.