Talk:Ganga

Gaṅgā (‘one who descended to this earth’) The rivers of a country are its life¬line. Hindu India has always looked upon its rivers, not as just physical or natural objects but as divinities, goddesses of prosperity.

Of all the rivers of India, no river has captivated the minds and the hearts of the people more than the river Gaṅgā. For many a Hindu, a bath in it is a life-time’s ambition. No religious act can be ceremonially complete without its water being used in some form or the other. A few drops of its water poured into the mouth of a dying person will remove all the sins. Immersion of the ashes of a dead person’s body in it will give him liberation. Gañgā, in the Scriptures Though the river Gaṅgā has been mentioned in the Rgveda only once (vide Nadlstuti 10.75.5 and 6), it is the first in the list. There are references to it in other places also such as the Rgveda (6.45.31), the Satapatha Brāhmana (13.5.4.11 and 13) and also the Aitareya Brāhmana (39.9). The Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata (Anuśāsanaparva) and many purāṇas such as the Padma, the Nāradīya, the Agni and the Matsya contain hundreds of verses eulogising the greatness and the sanctify¬ing power of the Gaṅgā river. In the Bhagavadgītā (10.31) Srī Kṛṣṇa identifies himself with it among all the rivers. Gañgā, the Goddess Almost all the well-known rivers of (undivided) India have a dual form and have been described in the mythological literature as deities or goddesses. Icono- graphical works even ascribe to them specific forms and give detailed descrip¬tions. For instance the river goddess Gaṅgā is pictured as a beautiful lady of white complexion riding a crocodile and holding a pot and a lotus in her two hands. If shown with four hands, she may be exhibiting the abhaya (protection) and the varada (boon-giving) mudrās also. Pāśa (noose) and aṅkuśa (goad) are also shown sometimes, instead of the pot and the lotus. As per the account in the Mahābhārata (Ādiparva 96-98) Gañgā, the river-goddess was cursed to be born as a human being in this world. The king Mahābhiṣa who had attained heaven was also cursed similarly. He was reborn as the king Sāntanu. Sāntanu married Gaṅgā. Bhīṣma of the Mahābhārata fame was their last son. Gañgā, the Celestial River The river Gaṅgā is said to have been born out of the left foot of Viṣṇu in his incarnation as Vāmana-Trivikrama. (Hence the name ‘Viṣṇupadi.’) It was then confined to the celestial region only. When the 60,000 sons of the king Sagara of Ayodhyā were reduced to ashes by the curse of the sage Kapila, a way had to be found to redeem them from their sins. Bringing the celestial river Gaṅgā to this earth and making it flow on their ashes was the solution. King Bhagīratha, a descendant of Sagara, achieved this stupendous task by pleasing Siva through severe austerities. Thus she came to be known as ‘BhāgirathF. Siva captured the celestial river that started to jump down with a terrific speed, in his matted locks and then allowed her to stream out. While flowing through the hermitage of the sage Jahnu, she flooded it, thereby provoking him to swallow it up. At the earnest entreaties of Bhagīratha she was allowed to emerge from the ear of the sage. (Hence the name ‘Jāhnavī’.) She finally flowed over the ashes of Sagara’s sons thereby liberating them. Gañgā, the River as We Know It Geographically speaking, the river Gaṅgā takes its birth near Gaṅgotri in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh. It is then known as BhāgirathF Alakanandā is the second rivulet born near the Tibetan border which joins the former near Devaprayāga about 64 kms. (40 miles) from the well-known place of pilgrimage, Haridvāra. At this place it enters the plains, and is called ‘Gaṅgā’ hereafter. The various tributaries that join the Gaṅgā over its long course are: Mandākinī, Yamunā, Ghāgrā (Sarayu), Sone, Dāmodar, Gaṇḍak and Kosī. Near the sea—the Bay of Bengal—another mighty river, the Brahmaputra, joins it. The total length of the river is 2500 kms. (1557 miles). It breaks into a number of branches near the sea. Hoogly and Padmā are the major branches. A good number of pilgrim centres are situated on the banks of the Gaṅgā and its tributaries. They are: Devaprayāga, Rudraprayāga, Karṇaprayāga, Badari- nātha, Kedāranātha, Hṛṣīkeśa, Haridvāra, Prayāga and Kāśī (Vārāṇasī). To this list may be added Gaṅgotri and Gaṅgāsāgara, where it joins the sea, the Bay of Bengal. Gañgāsnāna or Ritual Bath in the Gañgā A bath in any river cleanses the body. But a bath in the holy river Gaṅgā, that too when the proper procedure prescribed in the religious treatises is followed, purifies the mind too. The following are the various steps given in such works (vide Matsyapurāna 102), to be followed by an earnest pilgrim who wishes to take a ritual bath in the holy river: Saṅkalpa (pious resolve indicating the desire to destroy one’s sins and acquire religious merit), selecting a suitable spot in the river for taking bath uttering the famous aṣṭākṣarī-mantra (Om namo nārāyanāya), ācamana (ceremonial sipping of water), āhvāna (invitation to the river goddess to be present at that particular spot by uttering her various names such as Dakṣā, Pṛthvī, Vihagā, Amṛtā, Sivā, Kṣemā, Jāhnavī, Śāntā and so on), prokṣaṇa (sprinkling the river water on one’s head), mṛttikālepana (applying clay taken from the bottom of the river, with appropriate mantras), snāna (bath), ācamana, wearing of clean white clothes, tarpaṇa (satiating the manes and other beings in all the three worlds), arghya to Surya (offering of water taken in the joined palms of the hand) and visiting a temple of Viṣṇu and returning home. For the benefit of those who have cherished a strong desire to take a bath in the Gaṅgā river, but are unable to do so due to reasons like serious illness, old-age or poverty, the purāṇas and the dharmaśāstras have suggested an in-genious method, the ‘pratinidhi’ system. On the request made to a pilgrim who is actually going to take the bath, this pilgrim can make a small effigy of kuśa grass and give it the bath with appropriate mantras that include the name of the solicitor. The latter then gets one-eighth of the religious merit he would have got if he had actually taken the bath himself. Taking bath in the river Gaṅgā on certain special days is supposed to give infinitely great religious merit. Some of these are: amāvāsyā (new-moon day); saṅkrānti (days of the apparent passage of the sun from one zodiacal sign to the next); days of lunar and solar eclipses; days of #puṣkara (the day on which the planet Brliaspati or Jupiter enters the zodiacal sign assigned to the river Gaṅgā viz., Meṣa, or Aries). The puṣkara day for any river comes once in twelve years and the auspicious moment for a few minutes only. Festivals Related to the Gañgā An important day on which a festival called ‘Daśaharā’ is celebrated in North India, falls on Jyestha śukla daśamī (the 10th day in the bright fortnight of the month of Jyeṣtha, usually in May). It is said to be the day on which the river Gaṅgā descended to this earth. Since a bath in the river on this day, especially at the Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭ of Kāśī (Banaras), destroys ten types of sins it is christened ‘daśaharā’ (daśa = ten; harā = destroyer). The biggest bathing festival con¬nected with the river Gaṅgā is the Kumbhamelā and the Ardhakumbhamelā, held respectively once in twelve years and six years at Haridvāra (Hardwar) and at Prayāga (modern Allahabad), in the States of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. Millions of people take bath in the river on these occasions. Death, Last-rites and the Gañgā With a rare insight into the human problem of suffering, the dharmaśāstras have permitted religious suicide in certain cases such as decrepitude brought by old-age, incurable diseases with great pain or as voluntary punishment for mortal sins. This has to be normally done by drowning oneself in the sacred river Gaṅgā, especially at the Triveṇī-saṅgama of Prayāga (Allahabad). Ceremonial immersion of either the body or the ashes after cremation is another practice in vogue that is said to bring great religious merit to the soul of the dead person. Conclusion Thus it is seen that the Gaṅgā has been one of the major aspects of Hindu religion and culture that has helped it to be not only alive but also vigorously active. That is why a popular saying has identified it with one of the three legs of the tripod upon which Hinduism stands the other two being the Gltā and the Gāyatrī.