India: Holy Hobos (photo gallery)

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A Hindu ascetic woman adjusts her hair after taking a dip in the Ganges river in Kolkata January 4, 2011. Hindu ascetics and pilgrims are making the annual trip to Sagar island for a holy dip, at the confluence of the Ganges river and the Bay of Bengal, during the one-day festival of "Makar Sankranti" on January 14.
(REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri)

More photographs of sadhus and wandering mystics follow.

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Sadhus, or Hindu holy men, cook their food on the banks of the Ganges river in Kolkata January 4, 2011.
(REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri)


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A Hindu ascetic woman smiles as she adjusts her hair after taking a dip in the Ganges river in Kolkata January 4, 2011.
(REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri)


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An ascetic, or sadhu, stands near the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal at Sagar Island, 150 km (95 miles) south of Calcutta, January 13, 2005.
(REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw)


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A Hindu ascetic smokes from a "chillum", or earthen pot, at Kamakhya temple during a four-day long annual "Ambubachi festival" in Guwahati, in India's northeastern state of Assam, June 23, 2010.
(REUTERS/Utpal Baruah)