Devotees gather to take part in the celebrations to mark the Krishna Janmashtami festival at a temple in Jalandhar on August 26, 2024. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)
A Hindu devotee offers prayers during Shivaratri festival at Sri Parvathi Jadala Ramalingeshwara Swamy Devastanamu, in Narketpally, India, Wednesday, February 26, 2025. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)
Women dressed in traditional attire participate in a procession to mark Gudi Padwa or the Marathi New Year in Mumbai, India, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)
An instructor dances as participants follow the dance steps in a Bihu dance workshop ahead of the Rongali Bihu Festival in Guwahati, India, on April 8, 2025. (Photo by David Talukdar/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)
Migrants try to board an overcrowded train as they leave the city at the Jammu Tawi railway station in Jammu on May 10, 2025, amid the ongoing border tensions between India and Pakistan after the Kashmir tourist attack. Pakistan and India on May 10 stepped up missile, drone and artillery attacks in a fourth straight day of conflict, as the US urged both sides to restore dialogue to “avoid miscalculation”. (Photo by Money Sharma/AFP Photo)
A Kathakali classical dancer (2L) watches artists rehearse the traditional folk dance Pulikkali (Tiger Dance) as they wait backstage before their performance at a cultural festival in Chennai on July 12, 2025. (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP Photo)
Varanasi is a city on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 320 kilometres (200 mi) southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It is holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism. Hindus believe that death at Varanasi brings salvation. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in India.
In this Tuesday, March 31, 2015 photo, Indian women walk carrying firewood they collected from a forest at Gobhali village on the outskirts of Gauhati, India. Every evening, hundreds of millions of Indian women hover over crude stoves making dinner for their families. They feed the flames with polluting fuels like kerosene or cow dung, and breathe the acrid smoke wafting from the fires. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)