Among The Faithful

The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 was more than just the largest gathering of humanity. It was a testament to faith and devotion.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr Rajesh M Parikh, director of medical research at the Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai and a passionate photographer, and Namas Bhojani, the internationally well-known photographer, spent many days in Prayagraj during the Maha Kumbh Mela documenting the pilgrims' progress.

All photographs: Namas Bhojani, Rajesh M Parikh

All the hype around the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 barely does it justice. It is much more than the 50 crore pilgrims that inspire awe across the world.

Much more than the once in a lifetime, once in 144 years event. Much, much more than the lakhs of the legendary Naga Sadhus.

The Maha Kumbh Mela is indeed the largest gathering of humanity in the history of our planet.

Every 12 years it grows larger outstripping the increase in population of our species. In 2025 in Prayagraj, it is estimated to have been 500 million.

IMAGE: A blissful devote post taking the holy dip at the Triveni Sangam (The confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers).

Let us attempt context. If the gathering were a nation, it would be third largest in the world after India and China.

Imagine 25 times the population of Mumbai in an area of 10,000 acres distributed over 45 days.

For those familiar with Mumbai, that would be the area between Colaba at the southern tip of the city and Vile Parle in the north west quarter of the city.

Seen in another context, let us imagine more than the entire population of the United States in an area slightly more than the size of Manhattan.

IMAGE: Cleansing with holy water.

Yet none of our projections can prepare us for the enormous masses that greet us at first view.

Words could never describe it, photographs may at best provide a mere glimpse.

Mark Twain on visiting the Kumbh Mela in 1895 wrote, 'It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination ...'

IMAGE: The young don't want to be left behind in the march towards moksha.

There it is! The power of faith comes close to capturing the spirit of the Maha Kumbh.

Faith is overwhelmingly seen and deeply felt not only in the crowds, but in individual faces, eyes, hands and in the weathered limbs trekking hundreds of kilometers with belongings on heads to take the holy dip in the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

If one allows oneself to be drawn into the experience like immersing oneself into the currents of the Ganga, it is powerful enough to transform an atheist into an agnostic and an agnostic into a devout believer.

It would take a strong heart and an inflexible mind to persist in the belief that all one sees arose spontaneously out of nothing and that the Gods had nothing to do with the divinity around and within us.

We hope our pictures convey some of our experience.