ABSTRACT
People form a sense of themselves and their environmental surroundings at a variety of scales, time frames, functions, mobilities, quests, and mental states. The natural environment and its various attributes have long attracted people to gaze at and appreciate the aesthetics and sense of place that comes from natural elements, such as rivers, mountains, and forests. Many Hindu mythologies describe mountains as places possessing a deep power of sacrality—where heaven and earth meet—as well as temples and sacred towns which are viewed as Sacred Mountains and being as axis mundi regarded as the meeting point of heaven, earth, and hell. An estimated 250–600 million people a year travel for religious purposes. Festivals at sacred sites in India are a vital part of Hindu pilgrimage traditions. The Kumbha Mela has attracted the most attention in the academic literature because of the sheer number of pilgrims that attend these melas.
