The sangam at Allahabad

Photographer: Eric Newby

Country: India

‘The peak time for bathing was between nine and one o’clock. By good fortune we met Bag Nath and Hira Lal, our boatmen, and they insisted on taking us out to the sangam in their boat … We bathed at the confluence where the long curving line of bathing platforms and boats reached out across the Jumna and the Ganges ripped across it. It was one o’clock and the water was warm. Out in the stream dolphins came to the surface, sighing like steam engines. This was the meeting-place not only of three rivers but of all humanity’ - Slowly Down the Ganges.

Ref.: S0027619