Prince Charles visits India

This will be the Royal couple's third official visit to India together and their most extensive yet, which will see them spending nine days in India and afterwards visiting Sri Lanka in order to attend the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The royal pair wore strings of jasmine and marigold flowers at a welcoming ceremony on Wednesday evening in the northern city of Rishikesh, where The Beatles learnt transcendental meditation in the Sixties.

Camilla and the heir to the British throne, wearing a grey suit, were blessed in front of a fire by their host, a heavily bearded and long-haired local holy man called Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji. (AFP)