What to carry to the ghat, and what to leave behind
The ghats are stone, wet, crowded and open to the sky, and on a bathing day you may be standing for a long time before you reach the water. Everything on this page follows from those four facts.
Table of contents
Section I
What should you carry to the ghat?
As little as you can hold in one hand, and nothing you would mind losing. The ghats are public, wet and crowded, and on a snan day you will be moving with the crowd rather than through it. The lists below are grouped by what the day involves. Take the group that applies and leave the rest.
For the water
- A dry set of clothes, rolled tightly, in a bag that closes.
- A towel or a large cotton cloth. It dries you, and it is also the changing room.
- Footwear you can slip off and carry, since the steps are wet stone and bare feet are the custom at the water’s edge.
- A small sealed bag for a phone, keys and cash, worn on a cord if you are alone.
For the wait
- Drinking water, in a bottle you can refill.
- Something to eat that keeps without a fridge and does not need unwrapping with both hands.
- A hat or a cloth for the head. The ghats face open sky and the queues face it too.
- A folding stool or a mat, if you have an elderly person with you. There is nowhere to sit that is not stone.
For a rite
- Your family’s gotra, written down, along with the names of the people the offering is for and how they were related to you. The priest asks for these first, and it is easier to read them out than to remember them at the water.
- Unstitched cotton for the person making the offering, if your family follows that custom. Ask the priest beforehand rather than assuming.
- A small amount of cash in low notes. The materials for the rite are usually arranged by the priest, but small payments along the way are easier with the right change.
Section II
What should you leave behind?
Anything valuable, anything heavy, and anything that has to stay dry. Jewellery beyond what you always wear is the first thing to leave at your lodging. A camera bag is the second. A suitcase is not a thing to bring to a ghat at all, and there is nowhere at the water to check one in.
Leave behind, too, the expectation of doing several things in one visit. On an ordinary day you can bathe, attend a rite and see the temples in a single afternoon. On a bathing day you can do one of those, and the one you can do is decided by the crowd, not by you.
Section III
In what order should you do things on the day?
The same order every time: settle the practical things before you go near the water, do the one thing you came for, and only then look around. Written out, it is this.
- Decide the night before which ghat you are going to and how you will get back. On a bathing day the roads near the river close and the return matters more than the arrival.
- Put on what you will bathe in, under your clothes, before you leave your lodging.
- Eat before you go. The queue is long and the food near the ghat is cooked for the crowd, not for you.
- Arrive, and find the person you are meeting before you do anything else. Phones do not work well in a crowd of that size.
- Do the one thing you came for, whether that is the bath or the rite.
- Change, drink, and sit down somewhere off the steps before you decide what to do next.
If you are attending a rite, the priest sets the time and it falls in the afternoon by custom. Arrive before it, not at it, and expect the rite itself to be shorter than the wait.
Section IV
What if you forget something?
Almost everything on the first list can be bought near the ghat, at a price that rises with the size of the crowd. A towel, a bottle of water, a cloth for the head and a cheap pair of slippers are sold from stalls on every approach road. What cannot be bought on the day is a written gotra, a dry set of clothes that fit, and the name of the person you are meeting. Carry those, and the rest can be replaced.
Section V
Explore more guides
Taking an elderly pilgrim to the Kumbh
What the ghats and the walk to them are like for an elderly pilgrim, and what has and has not been arranged for accessible bathing.
Naga sadhus
The ash-covered ascetics of the Shaiva orders who lead the bathing at a Kumbh, and how a visitor should behave around them.
Section VI