According to Hindu mythology, the Kumbh Mela celebrates the victory of gods over demons in a furious battle over a nectar that would give them immortality. As one of the gods fled with a pitcher of the nectar across the skies, it spilled on four Indian towns Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar.
The Kumbh Mela is organised four times every 12 years in those towns. Hindus believe that sins accumulated in past and current lives require them to continue the cycle of death and rebirth until they are cleansed. If they bathe at ganges on the most auspicious day of the festival, believers say they can rid themselves of their sins.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims slept the night on the vast festival grounds in more than 1 million tents green, blue, and brown erected all over, while many huddled together under trees. Some 20,000 makeshift lavatories have been have been erected, while 10,000 sweepers have been deployed to keep this makeshift tent town clean.
