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As many as 400 million Hindu pilgrims are expected to visit Prayagraj, India, during this year’s 45-day Maha Kumbh Mela festival. Held every 12 years at one of four places in India, the Kumbh Mela is considered to be an especially auspicious time to bathe in the Triveni Sangam—the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers—for purification from sin.

Dozens of people are feared dead and injured after a barrier broke during a holy bath at a major Hindu religious festival in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Drone footage showed millions of devotees, shoulder to shoulder, arriving in the pre-dawn dark for the holy dip to mark the most auspicious day of the festival. Video and photographs after the crush showed bodies being taken away on stretchers and people sitting on the ground crying, while others stepped over a carpet of discarded belongings left by people as they tried to escape the stampede. Reuters cited one official...

Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was on Tuesday spotted in Prayagraj for participation in the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025. She was given the Hindu name “Kamala” during her visit by the Niranjani Akhara, as if granting her the right to solidify her inter-connection with Hinduism. Powell Jobs, in her philanthropy and as Emerson Collective’s CEO, has openly professed being an admirer of Hindu thought. This journey to Prayagraj comes as a direct reflection of these interests as Powell Jobs interacts with spiritual leaders and surrounds herself with religious and cultural celebrations of the Kumbh Mela. The...

Millions of Hindu devotees are bathing in sacred waters as the world’s biggest religious gathering begins in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over the next six weeks, a staggering 400 million people are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher, on the riverbanks in the city of Prayagraj.