The day started with the floating of a dead tortoise at the bathing ghat, which is considered auspicious.

“I have deployed to maintain law and order at the mela. This is my 17th year at the fair,” said Shiva Thapa, a policeman from Darjeeling. “The passing years have brought a lot of changes. But the spirit behind the festival remains unaltered,” he added.

Thapa, along with lakhs of other pilgrims, took a holy dip in the river and went to seek the blessings of the Kapil Muni ashram mahanto.

“Pilgrims come to attain moksha (salvation) here. But after the holy dip, they get more involved with materialistic pleasures. This entanglement with materialistic pleasures will attract them to the Ganga Sagar mela next year too,” said Prashant Giri, a naga sanyasi from Haridwar. About a hundred naga sanyasis left the fair today.

The 2-km long beach of the island was bustling with activity before sunrise. Pilgrims from different corners of the country thronged the beach to complete the holy rituals.

While Rajasthani pilgrims offered til, gur and grains to the river served in a betel leaf, the jats hailing from Gurgaon district of Haryana took the holy dip after celebrating Lohri to promote the growth of crops.

For those based in Patna, the holy dip was preceded by kanya daan, a Bihari custom in which parents touch the feet of their girl children and symbolically offer her to the sacred river.

Interestingly, a good number of Nepali people also turned up for the occasion.

The Tamangs of Kathmandu are such a family. The Tamang women decorated a portion of the beach with sindoors of all possible colours and grains before making a splash into the river water.

“This custom ensures prosperity and security in the family,” said the 25-year-old newly married Namrata Tamang.

Mogli, an eight-month-old girl, arrived all the way from Madhya Pradesh sitting on the shoulders of her father Sandip Singh to be blessed by the river.

It was also a day of profit for the hundreds trying to cash in on the rituals. The fake purohits who ask pilgrims to perform the vaitarani par ritual or those waiting desperately for pilgrims to throw coins into the water filled their pockets.