KEY POINTS:
ALLAHABAD - You could see the lights from hundreds of kilometres away - they had turned the night sky over this usually sleepy, dirt-poor corner of India a bright orange.
They were spread out, thousands of lights glittering along the river banks - spinning wheels of lights, lights that burst in imitation of fireworks, lights that cascaded down what looked like Hindu temple towers.
Millions of Hindu pilgrims massed at Allahabad yesterday for the sacred ritual of bathing in the Ganges. And as dawn approached, naked sadhus immersed themselves in the water.
A fine mist was hanging over the river banks. The naked holy men stood unabashed in front of the gathered crowds, and seemingly oblivious to the cold. They were heading for what is known here as a "holy dip", a brief immersion in the water at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna that is believed to wash away all of a pilgrim's sins. The water did not look inviting - in fact it looked distinctly chilly.
"When you go in you do not feel cold at all," said Nigamber Yogendra Puri, one of the sadhus. "You feel warm because it is God's will."
Bajrav Giri, a sadhu clad in orange robes, with long hair and matted beard, had travelled hundreds of kilometres from Jaipur in Rajasthan but he had not had to pay a penny. He had begged lifts from cars and trucks, relying on the respect Indians still have for sadhus, who renounce all worldly goods.
The crowds were far smaller than expected yesterday, the first of several auspicious bathing days - and the reason may have been something else that was making the water look uninviting: the gleam of toxic sludge on the surface.
The Ganges and Yamuna have been getting steadily more polluted over the years, both by factories pumping chemical waste into them, and by the influx of untreated sewage. The Yamuna, which passes through the capital, Delhi, before it reaches Allahabad, is particularly noxious, full of foul-smelling black slime.
This year, the holy men have finally had enough, and a major sadhus' organisation has announced it will boycott the "holy dip" this year to force the national Government to clean up the rivers. Thousands of sadhus have even threatened to commit mass suicide.
In an effort to calm the sadhus' anger, the authorities have flushed the rivers with fresh water from canals and dams upstream and kept dams open to try to raise the dwindling water level - to the dismay of farmers who say that water they desperately need for irrigation is disappearing to replenish the Ganges.
Mystics' River
* 45-day Ardh Kumbh festival draws 5 million
* Devotees believe site is where holy nectar of gods fell to earth
* Bathing at Sangam, fork of three holy rivers removes sins
* Sunday, Monday key bathing days with sun in Tropic of Capricorn
- INDEPENDENT
