It’s late evening in the city of Prayagraj and the roadside vendors selling snacks are packing up their wares to shut for the night.

Millions of pilgrims hoping to cleanse their sins by ritual baths at India's Kumbh Mela festival rely on key lavatory workers to clear up behind them -- those born on the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system.

For pilgrims at the largest gathering of humanity, ritual bathing in India's holy rivers includes a key challenge -- finding your family and clothes after the chilly dip.

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Tens of thousands of naked Hindu ascetics and millions of pilgrims took dips in freezing water at the confluence of sacred rivers in northern India on Tuesday, in the first of a series of major baths in the Maha Kumbh festival, the largest religious congregation on Earth.

Naked Hindu ascetics smeared in holy ash charged into the waters of sacred rivers in India on Tuesday, part of a large crowd of 35 million devotees who took the holy dip on the second day of the Maha Kumbh Mela,

Millions of Hindu followers converged on a river for a holy dip ritual in India. Aerial footage shows worshippers queuing for the religious mass bath in the Triveni Sangam river in Uttar Pradesh on January 13.

Tens of thousands of naked Hindu ascetics and millions of pilgrims took dips in freezing water at the confluence of sacred rivers in northern India on Tuesday.

Over 20 million people performed the holy dip ritual at the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in India's northern city of Prayagraj, a local official said on Tuesday (January 14).