The Kumbh Mela for foreign visitors

At a glance

• May you attend? — yes — the Kumbh is open to all, and always has been
• May you bathe? — yes; nobody is asked their religion at a ghat
• Visa — an ordinary tourist visa; check current Indian visa rules for your nationality
• Dress — modest and covered; you will bathe in your clothes, not a swimsuit
• At the mela — no meat, no eggs, no alcohol in the mela area

You are welcome — and the tradition means it

The Kumbh has drawn visitors from outside India for as long as there are records of it, and foreign scholars, pilgrims and travellers have been received at akhada camps for centuries. Nobody at a ghat will ask your religion or your nationality before you enter the water.

What the occasion asks is that you come as a guest at somebody's sacred rite, rather than as an audience at a spectacle. The difference is entirely in conduct, and it is noticed.

Practical basics

Travel on an ordinary tourist visa; the Kumbh needs no special permission for an ordinary visitor. Check the current rules and e-visa eligibility for your nationality with the Indian mission before travelling, since these change.

Carry a copy of your passport and visa on you, and leave the originals secured at your accommodation. Some mela accommodation will register foreign guests as a matter of routine.

Journalists and film crews are in a different category entirely and need accreditation in advance — that is covered on our media and VVIP page, not here.

Etiquette that actually matters

Dress modestly — shoulders and knees covered, for men and women. You will bathe fully clothed; a swimsuit is not appropriate and will cause visible discomfort to those around you. Cotton clothes you can get wet, and a dry set to change into.

Remove footwear where others do, near ghats and in temples and camps.

Photography. The mela is one of the most photogenic events on earth and this is exactly where visitors most often go wrong. Ask before photographing a person, always, and accept refusal without argument. Never photograph anyone bathing or changing. Never photograph a family performing rites for their dead. Naga sadhus are not a costume exhibit; some will happily be photographed, some will not, and the way to find out is to ask.

Do not touch a sadhu, their seat, their fire or their implements without invitation. If you are given prasad, receive it with the right hand.

No meat, no eggs, no alcohol anywhere in the mela area. This is not negotiable and is treated seriously.

If you are invited to sit in an akhada camp, sit. Accepting tea and staying an hour will teach you more than a day of walking around with a camera.

What to expect, honestly

It is enormous beyond useful description — a temporary city of tens of millions, with its own roads, hospitals and police districts. Distances are long, crowds are dense, and phone networks fail regularly.

It is cold in January and February in the northern cities, and the rivers are glacial.

Facilities are basic and communal by Western standards. Toilets are numerous but simple. Accommodation, even good accommodation, is plain.

And it is, by common report of the people who go, unlike anything else. The advice of almost everyone who has been: stay longer than the famous morning, and spend at least one day in the ordinary rhythm of the mela — a kalpvasi camp, an akhada's evening discourse, a quiet ghat at dawn — rather than only in the crowd of an Amrit Snan.