The Kumbh Mela rotates between four cities on a schedule set by planetary positions, and the version of the festival held at each has its own specific procession of ash-covered ascetics leading the way into the water.
Four rivers, one calendar
The festival rotates among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, with the specific host city and timing determined by the astrological positions of Jupiter, the sun and the moon relative to particular zodiac signs, a calculation embedded in Hindu astronomical tradition rather than a fixed civil calendar date, meaning each location hosts a Kumbh only once every twelve years.
Naga sadhus enter first
At each site, processions of Naga sadhus, ascetics who renounce clothing and cover themselves in ash as an expression of detachment from worldly concerns, traditionally bathe first in a strict order of precedence among different monastic orders, before the wider public is permitted into the water, a hierarchy that governs the festival's most photographed moment.
Crowding has killed people before
Large Kumbh gatherings have suffered fatal crowd crushes on more than one occasion, including major incidents in 1954 and 2013, prompting progressively larger crowd management operations, pontoon bridges and dedicated police deployments by Indian authorities for subsequent gatherings, given that the event now draws crowds regularly described as the largest single human gatherings on the planet.