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.

Millions of Hindu devotees and mystics have gathered in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh festival, which is the largest religious congregation on earth

Scores of naked Hindu ascetics smeared in holy ash charged into the water of holy rivers in northern India yesterday, dreadlocks flying, during the first “royal bath” of the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival.