We all know a lot about Ganga, the river who is a goddess in Hinduism. But, do we know all the mythological references and the significance?
River Ganga flowing in Varanasi, India
DESCRIPTION
The Ganga is a trans-boundary river in Asia flowing through India and Bangladesh. The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism.
LOCATION
The Gangotri Glacier in Uttaranchal is the origin of the Bhagirathi River, which joins the Alaknanda River at Devprayag, also in Uttaranchal, to form the Ganga River. It then flows through the Himalayan valleys and emerges into the north Indian plain at the town of Haridwar. From there it meanders on to finally reach the Bay of Bengal at the Sundarbans Delta. It is fed by a lot of tributaries from the beginning till the end, and hence the entire belt of Ganga is full of fertile plains.
GANGA IN THE VEDAS
The Ganga is mentioned in the Rig-Ved in ‘Nadi-stuti’ (RV 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west, the earliest of the Hindu scriptures. In Rig-Ved 6.45.31, the word Ganga is also mentioned, but it is not clear if the reference is to the river. During the early Indo-Aryan Ages, the ‘Sindhu’ and the ‘Saraswati’ were the major rivers, not the Ganga. But the other three Vedas seem to give much more importance to the Ganga, as shown by its numerous references.
MYTHOLOGY
There are many fables regarding the ‘Avataran of Ganga’ as per Hindu mythology. However, it is the one involving Lord Shiv that is the most widely known. Finding mention in the Ramayan, the Mahabharat and several Purans, the story goes like this. Once sage Kapil, engrossed in an intense meditation was disturbed by the sixty thousand sons of King Sagar. Livid at being disturbed, Kapila burnt them with his angry gaze, reducing them to ashes and banishing them to the nether world. Only the waters of the Ganga, then in heaven, can bring about their salvation. King Bhagirath, anxious to restore his ancestors, undertakes rigorous penance and is eventually granted the boon for Ganga’s descent from heaven. As her turbulent force could shatter the earth, Bhagirath persuades Shiv to receive the Ganga in the coils of his tangled hair and break her fall. The Ganga’s descend, is tamed in locks of Shiv, and arrives in the Himalayas. She is then led by the waiting Bhagirath down into the plains at Haridwar, across it first to the confluence with the Yamuna at Prayag and then Ganges Sagar, where she meets the ocean, sinks to the netherworld, and saves the sons of Sagar. In honour of Bhagirath’s pivotal role in the avataran, the source stream of the Ganga in the Himalayas is named Bhagirathi.
In the Vedic version, Indra, the Lord of Swarg slays the celestial serpent, Vritra, releasing the celestial liquid, som, or the nectar of the gods which then plunges to the earth and waters it with sustenance. In the Vaishnava version of the myth, as the avatar of Lord Vishnu Vamana completes his celebrated three strides —of earth, sky, and heaven— he stubs his toe on the vault of heaven, punches open a hole and releases the Vishnupadi, which until now had been circling the cosmic egg. In the Mahabharata, she is the wife of Shantanu, and the mother of heroic warrior-patriarch, Bhishm.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Ganga is the lifeblood of the Hindu tradition. She is worshipped and personified as a goddess. As such, her worship does not require the usual rites of ‘avahan’ at the beginning and ‘visarjan’ at the end, required in the worship of other gods. Her divinity is immediate and everlasting.
Hindus also believe life is incomplete without bathing in the Ganga at least once in their lifetime. In most Hindu families, a sealed copper pot of water from the Ganga is kept in every house. This is done because it is auspicious to have water of the Holy Ganga in the house, and also if someone is dying, that person will be able to drink its water.
As the Ganga had descended from heaven to earth, she is also considered the vehicle of ascent, from earth to heaven. It is for this reason that the story of the ‘avataran’ is told at Shraddh ceremonies for the deceased in Hinduism, and Ganges water is used in Vedic rituals after death.
Hindus also perform ‘pind-dan’, a rite for the dead, in which balls of rice and sesame seed are offered to Ganga while the names of the deceased relatives are recited. The Mahabharat, in one of its popular shloks, says, “If only one bone of a person should touch the water of the Ganges, that person shall dwell honoured in heaven.”
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF GANGA
Central to the goddess’s visual identification is the makara, which is also her vahana, or mount. An ancient symbol in India, it pre-dates all appearances of the goddess Ganga in art. The makara is often accompanied by a gan, a small boy or child, near its mouth. The gan represents both posterity and development. The purna-kumbha is the second most discernible element of the Ganga iconography. It appeared frequently as the theme of the goddess matured. Worshipped even today, the full pot is emblematic of the formless Brahman, a woman, the womb, and of birth. Furthermore, the river goddesses Ganga and Saraswati were both born from Brahma’s pot, containing the celestial waters.
HISTORY
The first European traveller to mention the Ganges was the Greek envoy Megasthenes (ca. 350–290 BCE). He did so several times in his work Indica: “India, again, possesses many rivers both large and navigable, which, having their sources in the mountains which stretch along the northern frontier, traverse the level country, and not a few of these, after uniting with each other, fall into the river called the Ganges.” (Diodorus II.37).
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