Photos: Holi, the 'festival of colours', celebrated across India

Millions of Indians celebrated Monday, the Hindu Holi festival, dancing to festive music, exchanging food and smearing each other with red, green, blue and pink powder, turning the air into a joyful kaleidoscope of colour.

Widely known as the Hindu festival of colours, Holi marks the arrival of the spring season in India, Nepal and other South Asian countries, as well as the diaspora.

Girls spray water on each other during the Holi festival in Agartala.

Across the country, people dressed in all white celebrated the festival by drenching one another in coloured powder while others flung water balloons filled with coloured pigment from balconies. Some used squirt guns to chase down fellow revellers in parks, and others danced on the streets to music blaring from speakers.

A man is smeared with colours as he celebrates Holi in Hyderabad.

Women celebrate Holi in Chennai.

A girl smeared with colours during the Holi celebrations, in Agartala.

Celebrations in Kolkata.

Hindu devotees pray as they are sprayed with coloured water at a temple's premises during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad.

A man reacts as coloured powder is thrown on his face during Holi celebrations in Mumbai, India.

Women smear colours on each other's faces during Holi celebrations in Kolkata.