At Bhagalpur, the river meanders past the Rajmahal Hills, and begins to change course southwards. On its way it passes the towns of Mirzapur, Varanasi, Patna and Bhagalpur. Joined by numerous rivers such as the Kosi, Son, Gandak and Ghaghra, the Ganges forms a formidable current in the stretch between Allahabad and Malda in West Bengal. According to ancient Hindu texts, at one time a third river, the Sarasvati River, met the two rivers at this point. This point, known as the Sangam, is a sacred place in Hinduism. The Ganges which till this point flows in a south-western direction now begins to flow in a south-eastern direction through the plains northern India.įrom Haridwar the river follows an 800 km (500 mi) winding course passing through the city of Kanpur, before being joined by the Yamuna from the southwest at Allahabad. At Haridwar, a dam diverts some of its waters into the Ganges Canal, which links the Ganges with its main tributary, the Jamuna. The streams are fed by melting snow and ice from glaciers including glaciers from peaks such as Nanda Devi and Kamet.Īfter travelling 200 km through the Himalayas, the Ganges emerges at the pilgrimage town of Haridwar in the Shiwalik Hills. Out of the five, the Bhagirathi is held to be the source stream originating at the Gangotri Glacier at an elevation of 7,756 m (25,446 ft). The Ganges originates in the Himalayas after the confluence of six rivers – Alaknanda meets Dhauliganga at Vishnuprayag, Mandakini at Nandprayag, Pindar at Karnaprayag, Mandakini at Rudraprayag and finally Bhagirathi at Devaprayag (from here onwards, it is known as Ganga) in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India's civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man … " "… The Ganges, above all is the river of India, which has held India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. In his book Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru says: The Ganges and its tributaries drain a large and fertile basin with an area of about one million square kilometres that supports one of the world's highest density human populations. It has enjoyed a position of reverence since millenia among India's Hindus, by whom it is worshipped in its personified form as the goddess Ganga (see below). The 2,510 km (1,557 mi) long river begins at the Gangotri Glacier in the Indian state of Uttarakhand in the central Himalayas and drains into the Bay of Bengal through its vast delta in the Sunderbans. The Ganges (also Ganga Devanāgarī: गंगा) is a major river in the Indian subcontinent flowing east through the eponymous plains of northern India into Bangladesh. In Hindu households, spoons decorated with symbols and images of deities are used to ladle holy water over family icons.Map showing the course of the Ganges and selected tributaries Water is the most essential of all offerings in puja, the act of showing reverence to a god or spirit through prayers, invocations, songs, and rituals. While many of the faithful remain convinced of the water's essential purity, others feel a sense of loss at its pollution. Yet for much of its length the river is contaminated by industrial, agricultural, and human waste. The millions of pilgrims who visit holy sites like Varanasi each year feel spiritually cleansed by bathing in it. In addition, humans divert much Ganges water for their own uses.īut the river-called Ganga by most Indians-is more than a water source. Climate change is shrinking the glaciers that feed the river high in the Himalayan mountain chain, reducing its flow. Physical scarcity is one: Today, in dry seasons, the Ganges no longer reaches the sea. India's great river, the Ganges, is facing several kinds of problems. Uddharane (ritual spoon), bronze, late 1900s Bangalore, India
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