Ganga is Great River of the
plains of North India, holds sacred by people of Hindu faith. India owes much to the River
Ganga for her material prosperity and cultural evolution. Starting the career
with the Indus Valley Culture, they gradually gained importance, soon eclipsed
the popularity of the Rivers Yamuna and Sarasvati and ultimately became the
symbol of Indian Culture, With scores of tirthas and centres of learning,
springing up on their banks and attracting pilgrims and scholars from all parts
of the country, these rivers became the nerve - centres of socio religious and
intellectual activities of the people. They inspired a unique sense of national
unity and realisation of the higher ideals of Hindu life, Sanskrit literature
abounds in description of these two rivers. Inscriptions and foreign works
contain numerous allusions to them, Indian art, being the true reflection of
the society, could not ignore these life-streams of Indian thought. The
adoption of the Ganga as motifs was an important event in the history of Indian
art providing new openings to Indian genius.
In Vedic literature the stories
regarding the brigin of the Ganga are not found. In the tenth mandala of the
Rgveda. The Nadi-Sukta contains mention of the Ganga and the Yamuna. At another
place the word Gangya has been used as an adjective of the Urukaksha. In later
Vedic literature, however, the mention of the Ganga, Bhagiratha, Kapila, Jahnu,
Santanu and Gautama, etc., is found. In
the Valmiki Ramayana the birth of Kartikeya and the descending of Ganga from
the heaven on the earth by the efforts of Bhagiratha, are described. Rshi Visvamitra is said to have told these
stories to Rama and Lakshmana. The first story is found before the second one
as a background. The Valmiki Ramayana also deposes that while crossing the
Ganga and the Yamuna on her way to the forest, Sita promised to propitiate both
the river goddess with numerous gifts, should they ensure her safe return along
with Rama and Lakshmana to Ayodhya. In
the work Yoga Vaasiahtha Ramayana, the origin of the Ganga by the efforts of
Bhagiratha is mentioned in a different way. The story regarding the origin of
the Gariga is described by Vasishtha at the request of Rama. In the Ramayana,
however, the story is told by Visvamitra. The stories regarding the Ganga are
found in the Mahabharata also. According to the first story the Ganga came on
the earth as the result of the curse of Brahma and there she got married to
Santanu. Ganga gave birth to Bhishma.
She helped Bhishma in his fight against Parasurama and cursed Amba. Again when
Bhishma was lying on the arrows after his final battle with the Pandavas, she
sent Munis to see him in the guise of geese. She cried bitterly on the death of
Bhishma. According to the second story of the Mahabharata. River Ganga came
here on the earth for the welfare of the people due to Bhagiratha'a penance.
The deity-cum river form of the Ganga is represented in this story. The
representation of the Ganga as a river is also depicted in Anusasana Parva. The
seven streams of the River Ganga are mentioned in the Bhishma Parva,
Alakananda, Bhagirathi,
Mandakini, Dhauli-Ganga and Pindara are five head-streams of the River Ganga
all rise in the Uttarkhand division of the Indian State. On its 1,557 –
mi (2,506-km) course the River Ganga flows in a southeasterly direction across
Uttar Pradesh through the Indian states of UttaraKhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Its major tributaries include
Yamuna, Ramaganga and Ghaghara rivers in Uttar Pradesh; and the river Gandaki,
Burhi Gandaki and Kosi rivers in Bihar. In central Bangladesh River Ganga
is joined from the north by the Great River Brahmaputra near Goalundo Ghat and
from the north east by the Meghna River above Chandrapur. Their combined waters empty into the Bay of
Bengal through innumerable channelsthat traverse a delta measuring 200 mi (320
km) from east to west.
The Plain of the River Ganga
is one of the most fertile and densely populated territories in the world, the
river Ganga, for most of its course, is a wide and sluggish stream. Its
total drainage basin covers an area of about 376,800 sq mi (975,900), or
roughly a quarter of the territory of India, and supports more than 300,000,000
people. Most of the original natural
vegetation and wild animals have disappeared from the basin as a whole, and the
land is now intensely cultivated to meet the needs of a growing population.
Use of water for irrigation,
either when the Ganga River floods or by means of gravity canals, has been
common since early times. Irrigation has increased the production of such
food and cash crops as wheat, sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds in Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarkahnd and Bihar. River traffic is insignificant above the Middle
Ganga Basin around Allahabad, where railways serve region, but the rural people
of West Bengal and Bangladesh continue to rely on the waterway to transport
jute, tea, grain and other agricultural products.
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Ganga - A huge water body! The ghats are much better than earlier times. I have been to Haridwar recently.
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