According to "The Guiness Book of Records", the month long Kumbha Mela, is the largest fair in the world with the greatest recorded number of human beings assembled with a common purpose in history.

During the days of the Mela, a temporary township is built on the banks of the Ganges river to shelter millions of pilgrims. The days unfolds to reveal the processions of holy men going for their ritual bath in the river, followed by pilgrims (men, women and children) with awe-inspiring faith on their way to be blessed by contact with the river at the Sangam.

The confluence (Sangam) of the Jamuna and Ganges rivers designates the sacred place for the reunion of the holy men of India who gather every twelve years. Arriving on boats, buses, trains, elephants, horses or by foot, 25 million devotees congregated in January 2001 to worship "Mother Ganges (Ganga Ma in Hindi) at the Kumbha Mela Festival.