INDIA-RELIGION-HINDUISM-GANGASAGAR

Indian Hindu devotees arrive to take a holy bath and to perform rituals in the Bay of Bengal at the mouth of the river Ganges in Sagar Island, around 150 km south of Kolkata, on January 13, 2017. More than 700,000 Hindu pilgrims and sadhus - holy men - are expected to gather at the confluence of the River Ganges and the Bay of Bengal during the Gangasagar Mela to take a 'holy dip' in the ocean on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, a holy day of the Hindu calendar considered to be of great religious significance in Hindu mythology. / AFP / Dibyangshu SARKAR (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images)