According to Hindu mythology, during a battle among the gods and demons four drops of nectar fell to earth. These landed on the Indian cities of Allahabad, Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain, where since then the Kumbh Mela has been celebrated in a twelve-year cycle. The most important of these festivals in the Mahakumbh Mela, organized every twelfth year. That is followed by the Ardh Kumbh Mela, which is celebrated half way through the cycle. During the Kumbh Mela pilgrims bathe en mass in the holy river in order to wash their sins away and break out of the cycle of reincarnation. In 2007 about seventy million pilgrims participated in the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, a place that has extra significance because it is where three holy rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati, flow together.

As a freelance photographer Prashant Panjiar (b. 1957, India) has been a member of juries for World Press Photo. In 2004 he published a book on the history of Indian photography.