Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the personification of the river as a goddess. The holiness of the Ganges is enshrined in nu-
merous Hindu epics and scriptures, including the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Vedas,
and the Puranas. The story of the river's arrival on Earth from the heavens has it that the
feat was achieved by a sage, known as Bhagiratha, who went to the Himalayan mountains
and managed to persuade the river to descend. In several versions of the story, it is the god
Shiva who controls the flow of the river, and Gangadhara, or 'Bearer of the Ganges', is one
of Shiva's other names.
The water of the Ganges has numerous auspicious properties for Hindus. It acts as a
medicine for every ailment, and bathing in it cleanses the devoted from all sin. Crucially,
however, when a person's ashes or bones are entrusted to the river, the soul will be released
for rebirth. For many Hindus, the holy city of Varanasi is the preferred place for this final
transformation. The west bank of the Ganges at Varanasi is divided into many sections of
river frontage each consisting of a series of long steps down to the water, the 'ghats' where
people come to bathe, wash their clothes, and cremate the dead. About 80 corpses a day are
burned at the two main ghats in Varanasi, most of these brought to the river from outside
the city. The ashes of many more people are brought for final immersion in the Ganges.
Some corpses that are not cremated, such as those who had smallpox in the past or who
died of cholera, are simply weighted down and submerged in the holy waters. Among the
most important ghats that specialize in cremation is Manikarnika, which contains the well
dug at the beginning of time by Vishnu, one of the most significant Hindu deities who is
sometimes depicted as a man-fish. This is the place where all creation, or the cosmos, will
burn at the end of time.
Another of the Ganges' most sacred places occurs at its confluence with the Yamuna River,
a pilgrimage site popularly known as Prayag, near today's city of Allahabad. This is one of
four sites of the mass Hindu pilgrimage Kumbh Mela. According to legend, this is also the
place where the mythical Saraswati River joins the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers, thus lend-
ing the confluence an additional level of sanctity. The full Kumbh Mela, in which many
millions of devotees bathe in the Ganges to purify their sins, takes place every 12 years.
The event in 2001 was thought to have been attended by some 60 million people, making
it the world's largest gathering in recorded history.
Sacred river creatures
Given the reverence with which numerous rivers are viewed by peoples all over the world,
it should come as no surprise to learn that some of the creatures found in rivers have also
