Panchganga Ghat, Varanasi: Where Five Rivers Meet in Light

Before the million lamps, there is one. At Panchganga Ghat — where five sacred rivers are believed to meet — a single diya catches the dark water of the Ganga, its flame trembling in the current, its reflection the only light in the night.

This is the ghat the city turns to in Kartik, famed for its hanging sky-lamps and its thousands of flames on Dev Deepavali.

But it begins here, quietly: one lamp, one prayer, set upon a river that has carried them since before the city had a name.

Watch closely — the night of light is about to begin.