A huge temporary city is created at the site of the festival for the millions of pilgrims that arrive for the most auspicious bathing days. Kumbh Mela is like a Yogi Convention, where yogis, sadhus (saints), holy people and pilgrims come from all over India. Many sadhus come from various holy places, remote forests and mountain caves in the Himalayas. The most famous of them are the Naga Babas, who are completely naked. Their bodies are smeared in ash and they wear their hair in deadlocks.
It is said that if a person bathes at the confluence (Sangam) of the Ganges, Yamuna and the subterranean Saraswati on one of the main bathing days during Kumbh Mela, he or she attains liberation. The Vishnu Purana says that one gets greater benefit by bathing during this festival than by performing 1,000 Ashwamedha Yajnas (horse sacrifices) or by circumambulating the earth 100,000 times. It is believed that by bathing at Maha Kumbh, a person is free of all his sins and 88 generations of his or her ancestors are benefited.
The main bathing days are known as ‘Shahi Snan’ or Royal Bathing Days. The main bathing day, which witnesses maximum participation, is on the Mauni Amavasya day (the dark moon). The next main day or the next Shahi Snan is said to be on Vasant Panchami (fifth day of the new moon). Another significant day is on the Bishma Ashtami which is the eighth day of the new moon. For further details please visit Kumbh Mela 2013.