The Sacred Ganga: Mythological Narratives and Geographical Realities
India is a mythologically rich nation. One engaging approach to learn about Indian geography is through its mythological tales. This could be effectively demonstrated taking the Ganga River as a case study. Ganga is the longest Indian river that originates in India and as Goddess Ganga, she is the most sacred of all rivers. In 2008, it was declared as the National River of India. It is formed in Uttarakhand at the confluence of its two significant headstreams, viz. Bhagirathi and Alaknanda called Devprayag. The origin of the Bhagirathi is in the Gaumukha of the Gangotri glacier in Uttarkashi district which is the second largest glacier of India after the Siachin glacier in the Karakoram ranges of the Himalayan region. The mythological story of a Suryanvanshi (solar lineage) ruler named Bhagiratha of the Ikshvaku dynasty of the Koshala kingdom, ruling from its capital city Ayodhya provides a rationale for the name Bhagirathi. He is credited with penance so great that the celestial Ganga was sent to Earth from above. It was into the Gangotri Glacier that she descended first which is why the glacier is appropriately called Gangotri (descent of Ganga) where there is a temple dedicated to her and according to legend, the Bhagirathi is the source stream of the Ganga; as a result, this river is called the Bhagirathi; however, in terms of hydrology, the Alaknanda is recognized as the original stream since it contributes a considerably greater amount to the Ganga's flow than does the Bhagirathi. There will soon be further discussion about the fabled sovereign, Bhagiratha.
Ganga is considered as the daughter of Himavat, king of the Himalayas and the personification of the Himalayan mountains. Both of the Ganga's headstreams originate in the Garhwal Himalayas or Central Himalayas. The Alaknanda originates at the meeting point of the Bhagirathi Kharak and Satopanth glaciers in the northern part of the Chamoli district, close to Tibet. The Satopanth Tal, or Lake, is located near the Satopanth Glacier. The lake is referred to as Ksheer Sagar (literally, "ocean of milk") in Hindu traditions. The holy trinity—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—represents each of the tal's three corners, where the deities performed penance. As stated in the conclusion of the Mahabharata, the Pandavas used the legendary "path to heaven," known as the "swargarohini," to ascend to heaven after they renounced their kingdom. This road is located adjacent to the lake.
There are several temples, sacred sites and lores in the area and along the path traversed by the Alaknanda. For instance, as per the Mahabharata at Hanuman Chatti on the Badrinath Road in Chamoli, the Pandavas on their way to heaven met Hanuman here. Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers requested the elderly monkey to move away his tail which was obstructing their path. Hanuman asked Bhima to do it for him since he was too weak and old. However, Bhima found that it was too heavy for him to move when he attempted to do so. At that moment, he recognized the old monkey as none other than Hanuman. A Hanuman temple is built here. Badrinath Dham on the banks of the Alaknanda is one of the chaar dhams (4 pilgrimage sites) for Hindus, established by Shankaracharya during the 8th century.
The Alaknanda is also known for its Panch Prayag (Five Sacred Confluence) which are sacred for the Hindus. Vishnuprayag is the first sacred prayag where the Dhauli Ganga merges with the Alaknanda and this is the only prayag out of the five which has no human settlements. There's only a Vishnu temple at the confluence. It is believed that Narad (the son of Brahma and a devotee of Vishnu) worshipped Vishnu at this site.
Next is the Nandaprayag where the Alaknanda meets the Nandakini. The sangam, or confluence of the Alaknanda and the Pinder forms Karnaprayag. It is said that here Karna worshipped his father, Surya (Sun god) and it is also the place where Krishna is supposed to have performed the funeral rites of Karna after the conclusion of the Kurukshetra War. A Krishna-Karna temple is located here. At Rudraprayag, the Mandakini which originates from Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district and is the only Alaknanda's right bank tributary of all panch prayag tributaries joins with the Alaknanda. At this prayag, Narad worshipped Rudra, a form of Shiva after which he received the knowledge of sangeet shastra (music). The final prayag, Devprayag in Tehri district the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi come together to form the Ganga River. Rama performed a penance here in order to dissolve the sin of killing a Brahmin demon king, Ravana. Hindus therefore hold that bathing in the Ganga is a sacred way to wash away one's sins. One thing that is noteworthy about the prayag is that not a single crow can be spotted here as a crow was cursed by Rama.
Panch Prayag
- Alaknanda + Dhauli Ganga = Vishnuprayag
- Alaknanda + Nandakini = Nandaprayag
- Alaknanda + Pinder/ Pinderganga/ Karnaganga = Karnaprayag
- Alaknanda + Mandakini = Rudraprayag
- Alaknanda + Bhagirathi = Devprayag
In mythology, Alaknanda is regarded as a sister of Ganga and like her, she also flows through Shiva's hair. From Devprayag, the Ganga flows through the district of Tehri Garhwal and enters Dehradun, another district of Uttarakhand and at Rishikesh, the river joins its tributary, the Chandrabhaga after which it reaches Haridwar district and from Har ki Pauri it leaves the mountainous terrain and flows through the plain region and passes through various ancient and modern-day cities.
Th banks of the Ganga have witnessed the rise and fall of many significant historical dynasties and urban trade and political centers, including a renowned ancient learning center, the Vikramashila Vishwavidyalaya (University).
During the Early Vedic Period (1500-1000 BCE), the Aryans seem to be familiar with the Ganga as it has found its mention only once, but it was not considered to be the holiest. The Saraswati River is identified as the most sacred river as many hymns in the Rig Veda were composed on its banks and it is called Naditarna or the best of the rivers while the Indus is the most mentioned river in this age. The Yamuna River is mentioned thrice in the Rig Veda.
In the Later Vedic Period, when the Aryans moved towards the Ganga-Yamuna doab and colonized the region, we see the transformation of the janas, small tribe based political units of the Early Vedic Period into janapadas which became the first territorial kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent. The two major tribes merged to establish the Kuru Janapada. The Kurus settled down in the Ganga-Yamuna doab with two capitals: Hastinapur on the banks of the Ganga and Indraprastha on the banks of the Yamuna. The Mahabharata narrates the rivalry between the Pandavas and Kauravas of the Kuru clan. During the Age of the Mahajanapadas, some of the mahajanapadas (kingdoms or republics) such as Magadha, Anga, and Kashi were founded on the banks of the Ganga. Kashi's capital was Varanasi, one of the oldest cities in the world. It is also called Banaras as in Pali it was called Banarasi.
Varanasi is sacred to Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. It is the birthplace of three of the Jain Tirthankaras (spiritual leaders): Suparshvanath (7th Tirthankara), Shreyansanath (11th Tirthankara), and Parshvanath (23rd Tirthankara). Just about 10 km away from Varanasi is Sarnath where the Buddha delivered his first sermon, the dharmachakrapravartana.
Varanasi is also famous for its Manikarnika Ghat which is viewed as the most favourable place for any Hindu to be cremated. The ghat is on the banks of the Ganga where many dead bodies are cremated every day. After the cremation, the ashes of the cremated dead body are released into the river so that the soul achieve moksha or salvation. In fact, it is believed that releasing ashes into the Ganga from any of its ghat helps to attain moksha. The Puranas speak of a mythical Ikshavaku king of Ayodhya named Sagara who had two wives: Kesini, the first wife and Sumati. The second wife gave birth to 60,000 sons. The king performed an ashvamedha sacrifice (a horse sacrifice as part of the expansionist policy of ancient Indian rulers). Since Indra, a principal Rig Vedic god was displeased with the sons of Sumati, therefore he played a trick and disguised himself as a demon and stole and hid the horse where sage Kapila was meditating. Sagara sent his sons to find the horse. After so many endeavours when they found the horse near the sage, they assumed that it was stolen by him, and they attempted to teach him a lesson for that. But the sage in rage burned them to death. When the anxious Sagara could find no news of her sons, he directed his grandson, Anshuman to find them. Anshuman found the horse as well as the 60,000 mounds of ashes. He learnt from Garuda, a demi-god about the incident and the way to help his uncles to attain moksha. The remedy suggested was to bring the Ganga down from swarga and let her wash away their sins and release them from the cycle of death and rebirth. Though King Sagara finished the ashvamedha sacrifice but neither him nor Anshuman or the succeeding ruler Dilip could find a way to bring the Ganga down to earth. The following ruler Bhagiratha was determined to find a way to help his ancestors achieve moksha. Accordingly, he left his kingdom under the supervision of his ministers and went to the Himalayas where he performed a severe penance which finally pleased Brahma and granted him his wish but also warned him about the mighty Ganga and her capacity to destroy the earth. Brahma advised him to pray to Shiva to help him further. Shiva too pleased with his penance agreed to control the torrents of the untamed Ganga. It is said that she flows through his dreadlocks to the earth without destructing it. Thus, Shiva is also known as Gangadhar (Holding the Ganga).
But in Vaishnava traditions, Ganga is called Vishnupadi (the one that flows from the feet of Vishnu) and he is credited with bringing Ganga down to the mrityulok when as Vamana, he expressed his wish to a demon king, Bali to grant him a piece of land covered by him in three steps. The generous ruler granted him his wish. In one step, he covered the earth, in the second he covered swarga (heaven), but as he lifted his leg up to grab heaven, he hit the sky so hard that the Milky Way or Akash Ganga came down too with his leg. In other version, when he lifted his leg up, Brahma poured water from his kamandal (stoup) which touched Vishnu's feet and it flowed down as Ganga.
The Yamuna, originating in the Yamunotri Glacier is one of the tributaries of the Ganga. The mythology elucidates the link between the two. Yamuna is Ganga's sister who is also called Kalindi meaning 'the dark one'. She is one of the eight wives of Krishna. One myth explains that after the self-immolation of Sati, the devastated Shiva plunged into Yamuna and drowned his sorrows and anguish, turning her waters black. According to a different narrative, Krishna vanquished and exiled the Yamuna serpent Kaliya. The river turned dark when the dark serpent entered the waters. On the other hand, Ganga's portrayal is of a fair-skinned woman. Yamuna's vahana or mount is tortoise which is slow, and Ganga has dolphin and dolphins are considered to be fast swimmers. The water currents of the Yamuna River are slow while the Ganga has strong currents.
Thus, all these myths surrounding the Ganga aided in the development of several religious and cultural practices such as taking a ritual bath in the river, the performance of the celebrated Ganga aarti, releasing ashes in it, etc. Many Hindus fill jerry cans with the holy waters of the Ganga and keep them in their houses and use Gangajal on important occasions.
Finally, when the Ganga reaches West Bengal from Sahibganj in Jharkhand, it bifurcates into two distributaries: the Padma (flows to Bangladesh, one of its major rivers) and the Hooghly in the Murshidabad district. The capital city of West Bengal is located on the banks of the Hooghly. The celebrated Kalighat Temple, a shakti peetha where Shiva's consort, Sati's toe fell, used to be on the banks of the principal stream of the Hooghly till the 17th c. but eventually the stream dried up when the Hooghly (or the Ganga or Kati-Ganga as described in the Puranas) changed its course and now what used to be the most important stream of the Hooghly is Adi Ganga. The term adi in Sanskrit means first, primeval, ancient or the beginning. In the 18th c., Major William Tolly of the East India Company excavated it for the disposal of sewage into it as well as for the navigation purpose. It is now heavily polluted, but their firm religious beliefs make the devotees bathe in it as you can see in the picture below.
Another legend associated with the Ganga is the birth of Bhishma, one of the major characters in the Mahabharata. In Dwapar Yuga, Ganga is shown as a wife of King Shantanu of the Bharata clan of the Vedic Age- the same clan that gave India its name 'Bharat'. Before she married Shantanu, she made him promise her not to question any of her actions. After the marriage, she gave birth to eight sons. She drowned all her seven sons after their birth and when she was about to do the same with the eighth one, the father of the child stopped her and finally asked her the reason for killing her own children. She told him that their sons were actually the vasus, the dwellers of heaven in their past life but since they stole Nandi, a cow of Sage Vashishta, the sage cursed them to lose their place in heaven and go to mrityulok (the land of mortals), the earth. However, the curse was effective only for a year after their birth. So, Ganga would drown them into the Ganga River to liberate them. After this, Ganga spared the life of Bhisma on the insistence of her husband but left for heaven with her last son. She named him Devavrata who later came to be known as Bhisma. When he turned 10, Ganga sent him to his father.
Thus, Ganga in the Mahabharata is portrayed as married to a king, whereas in some versions she is called Vishnu's consort and yet, in others, she is one of the wives of Shiva. Some say that she is without a husband or a lord. She is an apsara (celestial nymph). The term apsara comes from the word aps meaning a water spirit. As per the Ramayana, they emerged from the Sagar Manthan or the Churning of the Ocean. And just as water flows and it cannot be controlled, apsaras too are free-spirited. This reminds me of what Bruce Lee once famously said,
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
Or for that matter, what Sayuri was told by her mother about water and her personality in The Memoirs of a Geisha written by Arthur Golden can aptly be applied to understand the concept of apsara who cannot be trapped.
Water can carve its way through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.
As a water spirit, an apsara belongs to everyone: gods, asuras, and mortals. Ganga as an apsara flows through the dreadlocks of Shiva or through Vishnu's feet, or becomes Brahma's kamandal, or passes through the cities and shrines since antiquity, supporting the ecosystem and the civilizations. Sanctifying natural resources such as water bodies creates a strong bond between humans and the environment, which makes it an effective conservation technique. However, the Ganga in today's time is one of the most polluted rivers owing to the disposal of untreated industrial waste, sewage and also, because of the presence of human and animal carcasses in the river at various stages of decomposition, owing to the belief that Goddess Ganga is the source of salvation. During the COVID pandemic, many shocking images of corpses dumped into the sacred river were found. I wonder if our religious convictions really promote our Goddess Ganga to breathe and thrive who came down from heaven to save us.
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