This is the season for one of the rowdiest, most controversial pilgrim journeys across north India, with millions of men (mostly) carrying Ganga water from Gangotri, Gaumukh (the river’s mother glacier) or Haridwar in Uttarakhand to major temples eastwards, like the Mahadeva temple in Baghpat, Augharnath shrine in Meerut, or Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi, all in Uttar Pradesh, or even further east where the earliest versions of this journey began. Many of them take the water home to perform