... find your way to the largest religious gathering in the world - The Kumbh Mela?

I was all packed for Kashmir's lovely weather when a last minute hesitation to board the plane to Srinagar started me on a long 12-hour car journey to Haridwar. There, I witnessed the Kumbh Mela 2010 - the festival that gained international fame as "the world's most massive act of faith".

Kumbh Mela is a mass pilgrimage. The 45-day festival takes place at the confluence of the three holy rivers in India, the Ganga (Ganges), Tamuna and Sarawati.  The celebration is said to be anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 years old; bringing the holy people of the Hindu religion, their followers, and a few "immortals" together.  Each 12-year cycle includes one Maha Kumbh Mela or Great Kumbh Mela.  The Ardh Kumbha Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Prayag, while the Purna (complete) Kumbha always takes place at Prayag every twelve years.  The 2001, Maha Kumbha Mela was attended by around 60 million people, making it the largest gathering anywhere in the world.

Here are the visual spoils from my trusty Olympus EP1...

The Kumbh Mela 2010 attracted more than 40 million devotees to Haridwar.

The main highlight for most pilgrims during Kumbh Mela is the observance 

of sacred bath at the sangam.

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Bathing in these rivers during the Kumbh Mela is considered an endeavour of great merit, cleansing both body and spirit.  It is belived that bathing in the river has a purifying effect. In the place where the three rivers meet, it is said that the bather's purification is increased one hundred times.

Breakfast with the holy men.  Carbo-loading before the day's religious procession.

In the camp of the holy men. A camp of the Naga Sadhus.

Sadhu is a common term denoting an ascetic.  Nagas, the most important in the hierarchy of Hindu holy men, wait to take the plunge at the Kumbh Mela festival on April 14.

The Kumbh Mela honors the Hindu legend in which the gods fought for possession of a pot of amrita (the nectar of immortality).   The confluence of the Ganges, the Yarmuna and the Saraswati (or "Invisible") rivers is held in Hindu mythology to be the place where the gods dropped the amrita.  

A religious procession towards the Ganges on the day where only the Sadhus can bathe in the river.  One Sadhu will "find the nectar".