The Ganges is a special Indian river loved by its people, around which the most diverse memories of India have intertwined: its hopes and fears, triumphant songs, victories and defeats. The Ganges is a symbol of India’s long-standing culture and civilization, constantly changing and flowing, yet always remaining the same Ganges.
Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India
The River Ganges holds a unique place in the everyday life, consciousness, and tradition of the Indian people. Hindus worship her as a goddess and mother under a thousand names, as the one who takes away all human impurities and sins, because according to Hindu beliefs, the waters of the Ganges purify everything they touch. Just as the Ganges River descends from the Himalayas, so does the goddess Ganga descend from the Himalayas – the land of gods.
The descent of the Ganges onto the earth is depicted on a relief in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu; it was carved in the 7th century on a monolithic granite rock measuring 25×7 meters.
The Descent of the Ganges
The Ganges was a celestial river and its waters did not mix with any other. With the waters of earthly rivers. How did the heavenly Ganges descend to earth? Long ago, the angry god Vishnu burned sixty thousand sons of King Sagara with his gaze because their bad deeds disturbed and offended both humans and gods. Turned into dust, they could not enter the heavenly kingdom until, according to prophecy, their dust touched the holy waters of the Ganges. The righteous King Bhagiratha, Sagara’s grandson, underwent severe penance to appease Ganga to come down to earth. Ganga agreed, but according to one version of the myth, she descended so violently that there was a danger of destroying everything on earth. The rescue came in the form of the god Shiva, who unravelled his thick hair and allowed Ganga’s waters to fall down it, thus dividing her mighty waters into thousands of streams. In Mahabalipuram, there is a relief from the 7th century depicting this dramatic event.
Source of the Ganges
Although there is not just one source of the Ganges, as it is formed by the merging of countless streams, the source is considered to be a stream that rises from the icy. In the cave of Gomukh (Cow’s Snout), at the foot of the Gangotri glacier in the Indian Himalayas. There, as the glacier melts, it first appears in the form of the Bhagirathi torrent (named after the king Bhagirathi), and along its path numerous tributaries join it, until it meets the Alaknanda in Devaprayag, where they continue together under the name Ganga.
Mountain river
Of the approximately two and a half thousand kilometers of its course from its source to its mouth, one tenth falls within the mountainous region of the Himalayas. There, it carves canyons and creates valleys where the snow leopard hunts for blue sheep. In its cold waters, the largest carps in the world live, and high up in the mountains, like the Andean condor, the cinereous vulture circles in search of carrion with a wingspan of three meters. Some of the valleys through which the Ganges flows are true biological wonders, with their wealth of plants, insects, and birds – true heavenly gardens.
The holiest of the holiest cities is Varanasi (Benares), one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities. In general, tradition says that it was founded by the god Shiva. This is where the rivers Varuna and Asi meet with the Ganga. Thousands of temples and sculptures have been built along the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi, earning it the nickname “the city of a thousand temples,” with the most famous one being Kashi Vishwanath dedicated to Shiva. For several thousand years, the city has been a cultural and religious center of northern India; many philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians have lived in Varanasi. It is also where Buddha delivered his first sermon, and it is home to four universities today. Its culture is closely connected to the river Ganges and its religious significance. All roads in the city lead to the Ganga ghats, of which there are over a hundred, where an incredible hustle and bustle of pilgrims can be seen from morning until night, and where funeral pyres burn continuously.
A lowland river
Leaving the slopes of the Himalayas, the Ganges becomes a mighty lowland river. The Ganges Basin covers 1.6 million square kilometers. It receives numerous Himalayan streams and major tributaries such as Ghangharu and Yamuna. The famous Taj Mahal is located on the Yamuna river, and the Himalayas… The tributary of Kali Gandaki flows through the deepest valley in the world – it is 4400 meters deep.
Ganges irrigates endless fields, bringing life and blessings because Ganges, like the Nile, floods the land, and when it recedes back into its bed, it leaves behind fertile silt in the fields. And so, for thousands of years, it has been nourishing the most densely populated area in the world.
When the waters of the Himalayas dry up, Ganges weakens and, like all of thirsty India, waits for the monsoon rains. When the rains finally come, they last for months, and their intensity is such that within a few days, the river’s water level rises by an incredible eight meters.
And the poem says:
…a goddess made of sapphire
whose slender waist bends under the weight of ripe
fruits of her breasts,
and still swells into jewel-like hips, heavy with the promise
of endless motherhood.
Although now like a mature woman, Ganges plays in the plains, changing its course, creating branches, building river islands and marshy areas. Once famous ports like Hastinapura and Tamralipta are now far from the dead shore in the marshy. lu.
Throughout history, many cities and settlements have sunk into the mud of its shores, whose origins are lost in the mist of myth and legend. (Vesna Krmpotić)
The Holy River
From the source to the mouth, along the entire course of the Ganges, there are numerous ghats, or “crossings”. On these ghats, Hindu believers have been performing ritual baths since Vedic times, symbolically purifying and renewing themselves in the holy waters of the Ganges. Ancient records show how little has changed over the centuries – the holy cities seem eternal: Haridwar, Allahabad (Prayag), Patna (Pataliputra), and the holiest of them all, Varanasi (Benares). All roads lead to its shores, where all the most important events take place. For thousands of years, the day begins for Hindu believers with a greeting to the river.
The connection between the Ganges and the Indian people is fateful. She is a goddess and a mother. With hymnic enthusiasm, Shankara sings:
Oh, You, who are dressed in a golden gown,
Adorned with many different jewels, and whose breasts are round like water jugs
in the shimmer of a pearl necklace.
You are the one who shines with the brightness
of a million suns, moons, and fires.
You are the pillar of all beings, invisible,
Your belly is a vessel that contains the universe.
The seal of history and cultures
Because of the abundance it brought to its shores, many nations and great conquerors came: Dravidians, Aryans, Mughals, Arabs, Turks, British, and Alexander the Great.
Ghat Dashashwamedh, next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, is the most renowned ghat in Benares. Every evening, priests ceremoniously worship the Ganges through the aarti ceremony, where containers with fire and fragrances are raised towards the river, accompanied by songs, mantras, and the sound of gongs. In addition to the daily worship of the river, its descent to the earth is also celebrated on its birthday, Ganga Dashami in the month of Jyesthi (May/June). The celebration begins with the new moon and lasts for ten days; the most festive day is the tenth day, which includes ritual bathing, meditation, mantras, and songs dedicated to Ganga. The Festival of Lights, Dev D, is particularly popular. Deepavali, celebrated throughout India, marks the victory of light over darkness. It takes place during the full moon in the month of Kartik (October/November), when, according to Hindu tradition, deities descend to earth to bathe in the Ganges. As a tribute to them, offerings in the form of earthen lamps with flowers are floated in the Ganges.
The Delta
Before flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges merges with the Brahmaputra River, forming a delta with countless distributaries. In its lower course, it is also known as the Padma (Lotus) because it forms the largest delta in the world. It begins 500 kilometers before its mouth, is 350 kilometers wide, and covers an area of 57 thousand square kilometers (the size of Croatia!). It is home to one hundred million people due to its exceptionally fertile land. However, during the monsoon season, when the Ganges swells, it erodes shores, destroys entire settlements, and forms new shores and islands.
The Fate of the River
The Ganges River, a divine gift and the source of life, nourishes hundreds of millions of people. People, today one of the most endangered rivers in the world is threatened by humans themselves: explosive population growth, urbanization, and industrialization are too much of a burden for the river. Humans take excessive amounts of water from it for irrigation, while all the wastewater ends up in the river. Additionally, global warming could cause the saltwater from the Bay of Bengal to flood the delta.
After millennia of providing for humanity, will the Ganges receive help from humans or, having fulfilled its entrusted role on Earth, will it seek to return to its heavenly abode from Brahma?