A huge crowd of naked Naga Babas heads towards the Ganges river at the Kumbh Mela 2013 Hindu festival near Allahabad (India).

Their bodies are covered in Vibhuti (Hindu sacred ash).

Kumbh Mela is the largest festival on Earth, taking place once every 12 years, with more than 50 million Hindu pilgrims gathering to pray and bathe in the holy Ganges river.

Thousands of Naga Sadhus (naked Hindu Holy men, with their bodies covered with wood ash) walk at dawn toward the bank of the Ganges river at the Sangam where they will take the Holy Dip. The Triveni Sangam is the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganga (Ganges) rivers, and this is the holiest place to take the ritual baths during the Kumbh Mela. Also called Naga babas, those naked sadhus are wanderers with no possessions.

This was the morning of Vasant Panchami Snan day, an important religious date for Hindu people and one of the most auspicious mornings for taking the holy bath in the Ganges river.

For more info about Vibhuti, the Hindu holy ash, read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibhuti.

For more info on Sadhus, go to:

- factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub354/item1345.html

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhu

For more info about Naga [naked] Sadhus, go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashanami_Sampradaya.

For more information about Vasant Panchami (or Basant Panchami), read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasant_Panchami.

For more photos and info about the Kumbh Mela festival, read the album description.