A dispute has broken out at the world's largest religious fair in northern India, with Hindu priests demanding the closure of luxury tents for celebrities and wealthy visitors.
Organisers of the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival near Allahabad have threatened to close down the 74 Swiss cottagestyle tents, built over five acres by the Indian arm of the British-based tour operator, Cox and Kings.
The temporary resort, where charges for a tent start at 23,000 rupees (£411) for two nights, is fully booked for the duration of the 42-day pilgrimage which began on Tuesday.
"Our lawyers are meeting with the Kumbh commissioners now", said Mr Bhaskar Bhattacharya, a consultant who set up the Cox and Kings camp.
The controversy arose after reports that the camp was serving alcohol and non-vegetarian fare, taboo at Hindu pilgrimages. Mr Bhattacharya dismissed the charges as unfounded rumour.
"We made it clear months ago that only vegetarian food would be served and alcohol banned," he said, adding that the Kumbh administrators and sadhu leaders (Indian holy men) had visited the camp several times and raised no objections.
The Kumbh Mela, where Hindus bathe in the Ganges to absolve their sins, is expected to draw 70 million pilgrims, as well as a host of celebrities, including Madonna, Paul McCartney and singer Courtney Love.
Expected visitors from Hollywood include Pierce Brosnan, Demi Moore, Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. Tourism sources had said they expected them to stay at the Cox and Kings camp.
Mr Sadakant, a local official overseeing the arrangements for what has been touted as the biggest gathering of humanity in recorded history, said the feelings of the sadhus could not be bypassed.
"Sadhus are holy men whose sentiments cannot be ignored. The five-star accommodation went against the true Kumbh spirit, the sages felt, and their thoughts had to be respected."
The Akhada Parishad, or Council of Sages at the Kumbh festival, had raised the issue with the civic organisers.
"There is a provision that states that if any activity goes against the basic character of this religious congregation, it should be at once done away with," said the Kumbh Mela's main administrator, Mr Jeevesh Nandan.
Besides opposition from the sadhus, a public interest case has also been filed in the Allahabad High Court against the tour operator on the same grounds.
Apart from Cox and Kings, a local businessman, Mr Anil Agarwal, has also been asked to strike his luxury tents.
The organisers, who were braced for the arrival of millions of pilgrims yesterday, were also grappling with erosion on the banks of the Ganges as the next auspicious bathing day approaches.
Hundreds of men, known as sadhus arrived in Allahabad with entourages of disciples, holding up traffic with their raucous processions of elephants and conch-blowing devotees.
They settled into a vast township of fabulously decorated pavilion tents on the flood plain beside India's holiest river, according to the akhara (monastic order) to which they belong.
These brotherhoods of militant sadhus jealously guard their right to march to the sangam (the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and a third mythical river) and take a sin-cleansing dip before any other pilgrims on big bathing days of the festival.
Officials said there had been some erosion of the banks at the sangam in the past 48 hours, obliging them to shift barricades which hold bathers back from the swirling depths of a river that flows from a glacial cave in the Himalayan mountains to the Bay of Bengal.
"The river course has not changed, but there has been a bit of erosion of the banks at some places", a festival officer, Mr Jeevesh Nandan, said.