Members of Panchayati Akhara Bada Udasin take part in a religious procession as they head towards the Kumbh Mela festival ahead of the royal bath near the Sangam, the confluence of three of the holiest rivers in Hindu mythology – Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati – in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, 12 January 2025. Every 12 years, Hindu pilgrims gather for ritual baths at the river's banks during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival. (Photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA)

A Hindu pilgrim takes a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on February 5, 2025. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/AFP Photo)

This photograph taken on January 30, 2025 shows a labourer looking into a Hindustan Ambassador yellow taxi, transporting fish at a wholesale market in Kolkata. Kolkata cherishes its past, which is why the one-time Indian capital is mourning a vanishing emblem of its faded grandeur: a hulking and noisy fleet of stately yellow taxis. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

An elephant tries to eat leaves during a religious procession called Jal Yatra, ahead of the annual Rath Yatra, or chariot procession of Hindu god Lord Jagannath, in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (Photo by Ajit Solanki/AP Photo)

A relative of an injured migrant laborer wails outside a hospital in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, July 13, 2023. Three migrant laborers were injured after suspected militants fired upon them in Gagran area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday evening. (Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo)

College students wearing traditional Punjabi attires celebrate the “Teej” festival in Amritsar on August 4, 2023. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

A Kathakali dancer in Kochi, India, performs a traditional story play on August 10, 2023. Kerala Kathakali originated in the Early 17th Century. A story acted that contains Mime, Acting Drama and music, The Stories are mainly taken from Hindu Mythology and Puranas. (Photo by Paul Quezada-Neiman/Alamy Live News)

Students with faces painted as Hindu goddess Kali, take part in a cultural event ahead of the Janmashtami festival, or the birth anniversary of Hindu Lord Krishna, inside a college in Mumbai, India on September 4, 2023. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)