Ganga in Hinduism

Ganga is described as the melodious, the fortunate, the cow that gives much milk, the eternally pure, the delightful, the body that is full of fish, affords delight to the eye and leaps over mountains in sport, the bedding that bestows water and happiness, and the friend or benefactor of all that lives.

Since time immemorial, the Ganga River has been considered the holiest of all rivers by Hindus. Ganga is also personified as a goddess and worshipped as Goddess Ganga. She holds an important place in the Hindu pantheon. Ganga is represented as a fair-complexioned woman, wearing a white crown and sitting on a crocodile. She holds a water lily in her right hand and a lute in her left. When shown with four hands she carries a water-pot, a lily, a rosary and has one hand in a protective mode. The Rig Veda mentions Ganga but more of her is said in the Puranas.

Ganga is depicted four-armed and mounted on a crocodile or enthroned surrounded by crocodiles. In one of iconography in Maha Virat-rupa she holds jar of amrita, rosary, lotus or shivalinga and varada mudra. She may be depicted in other ways holding only a kalash (or 2 replacing lotus) and lotus, while other 2 hands in varada and abhaya mudra. Another one shows her holding kalasha, trident, shivalinga and varada mudra.

Another depiction popular especially in Bengal shows her holding shankha , chakra (discus) , lotus and abhaya mudra , with Kalash releasing her holy water.

Bhagavata Purana depicts the birth of the Ganga. According to the text, Vishnu in one of his incarnations appeared as Vaman in the sacrificial arena of Asur King Mahabali. Then in order to measure the universe, he extended his left foot to the end of the universe and pierced a hole in its covering with the nail of his big toe. Through the hole, the pure water of the Causal Ocean (Divine Brahm-Water) entered this universe as the Ganges River. Having washed the lotus feet of the Lord, which are covered with reddish saffron, the water of the Ganga acquired a very beautiful pink colour. Because the Ganges directly touches the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu (Narayana) before descending within this universe, it is known as Bhagavat-Padi or Vishnupadi which means Emanating from the lotus feet of Bhagavan (God). It finally settles in Brahmaloka or Brahmapura, abode of Lord Brahma before descending to planet Earth at the request of Bhagiratha and held safely by Lord Shiva on his head to prevent destruction of Bhumi Devi (Mother Earth). Then, Ganga was released from Lord Shiva's hair to meet the needs of the country according to Hinduism.

Descent of Ganga – painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Several years later, a king named Sagara magically acquired sixty thousand sons. One day, King Sagara performed a ritual of worship for the good of the kingdom. One of the integral parts of the ritual was a horse, which was stolen by the jealous Indra. Sagara sent all his sons all over the earth to search for the horse. They found it in the nether-world (or Underworld) next to a meditating sage Kapil tied by Lord Indra (the king of Swarg). Believing that the sage had stolen the horse, they hurled insults at him and caused his penance to be disturbed. The sage opened his eyes for the first time in several years and looked at the sons of Sagara. With this glance, all sixty thousand were burnt to death.

The souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not been performed. For the moksha of all the sons of Sagar, Anshuman (nephew of those 60,000 sons) started to pray Brahma to bring Ganga to the earth till the end of his life, but was not successful. Then his son Dilip did the same but did not succeed. When Bhagirathi(Means, one who does great hard work- he got his name from his great hard work for bringing Ganga to earth), one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learnt of this fate, he vowed to bring Ganga down to Earth so that her waters could cleanse their souls and release them to heaven.

Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga comes down to Earth. Brahma agreed and he ordered Ganga to go down to the Earth and then on to the nether regions so that the souls of Bhagiratha's ancestors would be able to go to heaven. Ganga felt that this was insulting and decided to sweep the whole Earth away as she fell from the heavens. Alarmed, Bhagiratha prayed to Shiva that he break up Ganga's descent.

Ganga arrogantly fell on Shiva's head. But Shiva calmly trapped her in his hair and let her out in small streams. The touch of Shiva further sanctified Ganga. As Ganga traveled to the nether-worlds, she created a different stream to remain on Earth to help purify unfortunate souls there. She is the only river to follow from all the three worlds – Swarga (heaven), Prithvi (Earth) and Patala (netherworld or hell). This is called Tripathagā(one who travels the three worlds) in Sanskrit language.

Because of Bhagiratha's efforts, Ganga descended to Earth and hence the river is also known as Bhagirathi and the term Bhagirath prayatna is used to describe valiant efforts or difficult achievements.

Another name that Ganga is known by is Jahnavi, Story has it that once Ganga came down to Earth, on her way to Bhagiratha, her rushing waters created turbulence and destroyed the fields and the sadhana of a sage called Jahnu. He was angered by this and drank up all of Ganga's waters. Upon this, the Gods prayed to Jahnu to release Ganga so that she could proceed with her mission. Pleased with their prayers, Jahnu released Ganga (her waters) from his ears. Hence the name Jahnavi(daughter of Jahnu) for Ganga.

It is sometimes believed that the river will finally dry up at the end of Kali Yuga, the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas (the era of darkness, the current era) just as with the Sarasvati river and this era will end. Next in(cyclic) order will be the Satya Yuga or the era of Truth.

Ganga presenting her son Devavrata (the future Bhisma) to his father, Santanu

Ganga married Shantanu in Mahabharata. According to shiva purana, Ganga married Shiva. Some scriptures says, Shantanu married an incarnation/human form of Ganga but not actual Goddess Ganga.

The Ganga is also the mother, the Ganga Mata (Mata="mother") of Hindu worship and culture, accepting all and forgiving all.[1] Unlike other goddesses, she has no destructive or fearsome aspect, destructive though she might be as a river in nature.[1] She is also a mother to other gods.[2] In the Mahabharata, she is the wife of Shantanu, and the mother of heroic warrior-patriarch, Bhishma.[2] When Bhishma is mortally wounded in battle, Ganga comes out of the water in human form and weeps uncontrollably over his body. Bhishma brought about his own downfall by abducting and disgracing a princess named Amba whose only wish was to be married.[2]

The Ganga is the distilled lifeblood of the Hindu tradition, of its divinities, holy books, and enlightenment.[3] As such, her worship does not require the usual rites of invocation (avahana) at the beginning and dismissal (visarjana) at the end, required in the worship of other gods.[3] Her divinity is immediate and everlasting, but only for as long as the river survives.[3]

Ganga is mentioned in the Rig Veda, the earliest and theoretically the holiest of the Hindu scriptures. Ganga is mentioned in the nadistuti (Rigveda 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west. In RV 6.45.31, the word Ganga is also mentioned, but it is not clear if the reference is to the river.

RV 3.58.6 says that "your ancient home, your auspicious friendship, O Heroes, your wealth is on the banks of the Jahnavi(JahnAvyAm)". This verse could possibly refer to the Ganga. In RV 1.116.18–19, the Jahnavi and the Ganga River Dolphin occur in two adjacent verses.

Ganga Talao in Mauritius is considered by the Mauritian Hindus equivalent to Ganga.In 1972,the then Prime Minister of Mauritius, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam brought Holy water from the Ganga from Gomukh in India and mixed it with the water of Grand Bassin and renamed it as Ganga Talao.[4]

• Shiva
• Ganesha
• Yami/Yamuna
• Gangaputra Brahmin – a Hindu community who officiate at religious ceremonies along the river

• Eck, Diana L. (1982), Banaras, city of light, Columbia University, ISBN 978-0231114479, retrieved 26 July 2011CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Eck, Diana (1998), "Gangā: The Goddess Ganges in Hindu Sacred Geography", in Hawley, John Stratton; Wulff, Donna Marie (eds.), Devī: Goddesses of India, University of California / Motilal Banarasidass, pp. 137–53, ISBN 8120814916CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Vijay Singh: The River Goddess (Moonlight Publishing, London, 1994)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ganga.

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• The Life Of Ganga
• Ganga Ma: A Pilgrimage to the Source a documentary that follows the Ganges from the mouth to its source in the Himalayas.