In
Hindu myth, Ganga is the daughter of the Himalayas and she was persuaded
to come down to earth by King Bhagirath. His sixty thousand ancestors
had been burnt to ashes at the curse of Vishnu who they had slighted;
and the grieving kind begged Ganga to rescue their souls from eternal
damnation through her sacred waters. However, Ganga was not pleased
and descended to earth in such a torrential force that the gods feared
she would destroy everything that came in her way. So Lord Shiva broke
her fall by letting her flow through the tangled locks of his hair.
As
it travels through the 2400 kilometers of its journey to the sea, the
Ganga has many names. At Gangotri, it is Bhagirathi as it begins to
make a tumultous way down the hills. Along the way other hill rivers
flow in to Bhagirathi to swell its waters. At the site of these unions
are small places of pilgrimages called Prayags. At Devprayag, the Bhagirathi
coming from the west Garhwal Hills meets the Alaknanda flowing down
from the east. Earlier along the route to the pilgrimage of Badrinath,
the Mandakini river merges into the Alaknanda. From Devprayag the combined
waters of these three rivers become the mighty Ganga.
A huge tumultous torrent of water flowing down a deep gorge, crashing
against boulders, frothing against the hills on the sides and flowing
down in a roaring stream. Looking down at its mercurial swiftness, you
understand why Shiva had offered his unprotected head in her path, for
this primal force of nature could only destroy.
The
Ganga emerges from the Shivalik hills to enter the plains of Northern
India. Here it becomes calmer. First
Rishikesh welcomes
the seekers of spiritual peace, the swamis and rishis who come looking
for answers to numerous religious retreats. Further downstream is Haridwar
and by now the Ganga is earth bound and no longer a young rebellious
river. At
Haridwar the
river is worshipped with flaming oil lamps every morning and evening.
Then it flows through Allahabad
to
Varanasi.
At
Varanasi the Ganga is a wise old river that has seen an endless panoram
of life and death. Like a goddess, it is beautiful and kind but also
a bit detached, watching all our small victories and defeats with serenity.
The river flows on, through the plains of Bihar, past cities like Patna.
Once Bihar was the home of great religious thinkers like the
Buddha and
Mahavira
and the heart of great dynasties. Entering
Bengal,
the journey is coming to an end. It's tired pace moves through the marshes
of the
Sunderban jungles.
It is called the
Hooghly
as it flows through Calcutta,
where ships dock. On it goes past the island of Sagardwip
and it is now welcomed into the Bay
of Bengal.
The
daughter of the Himalayas now merges into the sea.
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