Ash-smeared naked Hindu holy men charged into India's most sacred river Ganges at dawn on the first most significant bathing day of the Kumbh Mela festival (also known as Mahakumbh) in the northern city of Prayagraj. The ascetics chanted religious slogans, invoking Hindu gods and goddesses as they plunged into the icy waters.

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,