Participants from an art group wearing traditional dresses rehearse Garba dance ahead of the Navratri festival in Ahmedabad on September 20, 2022. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP)

Goats covered with cloth are tied next to a hut on a cold winter morning in New Delhi on December 26, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A woman dressed in traditional attire participates in a procession to mark Gudi Padwa or the Marathi New Year in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

Folk dancers in Ahmedabad, western India, rehearsing on September 14, 2025 for the Hindu festival of Navaratri, which begins next week. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/Getty Images)

A mahout guards the elephants during the annual Vrischikolsavam festival, which features a colourful procession of decorated elephants along with drum concerts, at a temple in Kochi, India, November 18, 2017. (Photo by Sivaram V/Reuters)

A sadhu, or a Hindu holy man, blesses a devotee as he smokes marijuana at a transit camp on the way to Gangasagar, in Kolkata, India, Sunday, January 7, 2018. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, where the Ganges River reaches the Bay of Bengal, on the auspicious Makar Sankranti festival day that falls on Jan. 14. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

A street food vendor waits for customers on a footpath in New Delhi, India, November 27, 2018. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

A child dressed as Hindu god Krishna watches a mobile phone as a woman gives finishing touches to his costume on the occasion of “Janmashtami” festival marking the birth of Krishna in Ajmer on August 30, 2021. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)