Faith and photography: Namas Bhojani and Rajesh Parikh showcase Mahakumbh Mela
In this photo essay, we showcase a range of creative works from Mumbai’s premier Jehangir Art Gallery.
Launched in 2014, PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 935 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.
Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery recently hosted an exhibition on the Mahakumbh Mela 2025, by eminent photographers Rajesh Parikh and Namas Bhojani. See our coverage of earlier exhibitions at this premier cultural hub of Mumbai here.
Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Rajesh M. Parikh is also a poet, photographer, painter, and author of four best-selling books. Namas Bhojani is an internationally renowned photographer whose works have appeared in national and international media such as the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and TIME.
The Kumbh Mela is regarded as one of the oldest and largest religious festivals in the world. It commemorates the cosmic struggle between gods and demons over a pot (kumbh) of amrita, the nectar of immortality.
According to legend, during this struggle, drops of the sacred nectar fell at four holy river sites—Prayagraj (Ganga–Yamuna–Saraswati), Haridwar (Ganga), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra).
Some Kumbh festivals are held every six years or 12 years. The Maha Kumbh is much rarer, and is said to occur once every 144 years at Prayagraj under special celestial alignments.
The 2025 gathering drew an estimated 660 million pilgrims. It also involved building a 4,000-hectare tent city with 150,000 tents, roads, hospitals, utilities, and transport. There were cultural performances, debates, yoga, music, and charitable activities filling the grounds.
The exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery featured around 50 outstanding images taken from nearly 30 days working days in Prayagraj during the Mela. The exhibition brings alive centuries-old rituals and conventions.
“The photography exhibition is our meaningful, heartfelt effort to record this exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime assemblage. Photos depict the spiritual significance of the festival while devotees depict stories in a variety of ways – in body art, street art, pandal art and giant structures,” Bhojani tells YourStory.
Based in Bengaluru, Bhojani has held roles such as Consulting Photo Editor and Cinematographer for Cosmopolitan India. He later focused more on independent photographic projects and visual storytelling.
His published books include The Power of Faith: The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 and Bombay: A Contemporary Account of Mumbai. He has also contributed to titles such as Mahesh Bhat’s Unsung – Extraordinary Lives (Volume 2).
His works are known for their documentary and humanistic approach. His exhibitions and publications reflect his prowess in capturing a wide range of human emotion, diversity, devotion, and ritual life.
“This is our attempt to showcase the largest gathering of humankind, a celebration that can be witnessed from space, and an event that will only repeat after 144 years,” Parikh explains.
Dr Parikh is Director of Medical Research and Honorary Neuropsychiatrist at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, as well as Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa. His creative pursuits in the arts have earned him recognition well beyond the medical field.
His published books include The Coronavirus: What You Need to Know about the Global Pandemic as well as Kashmir: Hameen Ast (a photographic coffee table book on Kashmir).
He also contributes photo essays to publications like Rolling Stone India. Parikh and Bhojani’s exhibition on the Kumbh Mela is a testimony to the power of their creative collaborations.
The Kumbh provides a glimpse of the scale and grandeur that is impossible to find anywhere else. “This photography exhibit is the eternal proof of India’s long cultural heritage and diversity,” Bhojani signs off.
Now what have you done today to pause in your busy schedule and harness your creative side for a better world?
Namas Bhojani
(All photographs taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at Jehangir Art Gallery.)