The
Ganges ( ; , , as in most Indian languages) is one of the major
rivers of the Indian
subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India
into
Bangladesh
. The river rises in the western Himalayas
in the Uttarakhand
state of India, and drains into the Sunderbans
delta in the Bay of Bengal
. It has long been considered a holy river by
Hindus and worshiped as the goddess
Ganga in
Hinduism.
It has also been important historically: many
former provincial or imperial capitals (such as Patliputra
, Kannauj
, Kara, Allahabad
, Murshidabad
, and Calcutta
) have been located on its banks. The
Ganges Basin drains and supports one of
the world's highest density of humans. The average depth of the
river is , and the maximum depth, .
The many symbolic meanings of the river on the
Indian subcontinent were spoken to in
1946 by
Jawaharlal Nehru in his
Discovery of India,
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.
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…
Course
Although many small streams comprise the
headwaters of the Ganges, the six longest
headstreams and their five
confluences are given both cultural and
geographical emphasis (see the map showing the headwaters of the
river).
The Alaknanda river
meets the Dhauliganga river
at Vishnuprayag, the
Nandakini river at Nandprayag
, the Pindar
river
at Karnaprayag
, the Mandakini river
at Rudraprayag
and finally the Bhagirathi river at Devprayag
, to form the mainstem, the Ganges.
The
Bhagirathi is the source stream; it rises
at the foot of Gangotri
Glacier
, at Gaumukh
, at an
elevation of . The headwaters of the Alaknanda are formed by
snowmelt from such peaks as Nanda Devi
, Trisul
, and
Kamet
.
After
flowing 200 km through its narrow Himalayan valley, the Ganges
debouches on the
Gangetic Plain at the pilgrimage town
of Haridwar
. There, a dam diverts some of its waters into
the Ganges Canal, which irrigates the
Doab region of Uttar Pradesh
. The Ganges, whose course has been roughly
southwestern until this point, now begins to flow southeast through
the plains of northern India.
Further,
the river follows an 800 km curving course passing through the
city of Kanpur
before being
joined from the southwest by the Yamuna
at Allahabad. This point is known as the
Sangam at Allahabad. Sangam is a sacred
place in Hinduism. According to ancient Hindu texts, at one time a
third river, the
Sarasvati, met the
other two rivers at this point.
Joined by
numerous rivers such as the Kosi,
Son, Gandaki
and Ghaghra, the Ganges forms a
formidable current in the stretch between Allahabad and Malda
in West Bengal
. On its way it passes the towns of Mirzapur
, Buxar
, Varanasi
, Patna
and Bhagalpur
. At Bhagalpur, the river meanders past the
Rajmahal Hills, and begins to run
south.
At
Pakur
, the river begins its attrition with the branching
away of its first distributary, the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly
, which goes on to form the Hooghly River. Near the border with Bangladesh the Farakka Barrage
, built in 1974, controls the
flow of the Ganges, diverting some of the water into a feeder canal
linking the Hooghly to keep it relatively silt-free.
After
entering Bangladesh, the main branch of the Ganges is known as the
Padma River until it is joined by the
Jamuna River, the largest distributary
of the Brahmaputra
. Further downstream, the Ganges is fed by the
Meghna
River
, the second largest tributary of the Brahmaputra,
and takes on the Meghna's name as it enters the Meghna Estuary. Fanning out into the
350 km wide Ganges Delta, it
finally empties into the Bay of Bengal. Only two rivers, the Amazon and the Congo
, have
greater discharge than the combined flow of the Ganges, the
Brahmaputra and the Surma-Meghna river
system.
File:Bhagirathi River at Gangotri.JPG|The
Bhagirathi river, the source stream of
the Ganges, in Gangotri
, Uttarakhand, India.File:Bhagirathi alaknanda ganges
devprayag2008.jpg|The Bhagirathi river (foreground) soon to meet
the Alaknanda
, at Devprayag, and to flow on as the Ganges.File:Bend in ganges
garhwal2008a.jpg|A bend in the Ganges river, Garhwal
hills, Uttarakhand.File:Ramjhula - bridge over the
Ganga.jpg|Ramjhula bridge over the Ganges in Rishikesh
.
Religious significance
File:Haridwar india ganges leaving
mountains2008.jjpg.JPG|The Ganges in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, as it leaves the Siwalik
Hills for the Gangetic plain.File:Cawnpore.jpg|An
1810 engraving of the town of Cawnpore
(now Kanpur) as seen from the Ganges
river.File:GangesInDalmau-Daniell1804.jpg|Aqua
tint (1804) of the Ganges river in the town of Dalmau
, near
Raebareli
, in present-day central Uttar Pradesh.File:GangesBelowKara-Salt1803.jpg|Pen-and-ink
and wash drawing (1803) of the Ganges below the town of Kara, a major provincial capital during the
rule of the Delhi
Sultanate.
Situated
on the banks of River Ganges, Varanasi is considered by some to be the most holy city in
Hinduism. The Ganges is mentioned in the Rig-Veda, the
earliest of the Hindu scriptures.It appears in the
Nadistuti sukta (Rig Veda 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 whether this reference is to
the river. Also, people scatter ashes of loved ones here.
According to Hindu religion a very famous king
Bhagiratha did
Tapasya for
many years constantly to bring the river Ganga, then residing in
the
Heavens, down on the Earth to find
salvation for his ancestors, who were cursed by a seer. Therefore,
Ganga descended to the Earth through the lock of hair (Jata) of god
Shiva to make whole earth pious, fertile and
wash out the sins of humans. For Hindus in India, the Ganga is not
just a river but a mother, a goddess, a tradition, a culture and
much more.
Some Hindus also believe life is incomplete without bathing in the
Ganges at least once in one's lifetime. Many Hindu families keep a
vial of water from the Ganges in their house. This is done because
it is prestigious to have water of the Holy Ganga in the house, and
also so that if someone is dying, that person will be able to drink
its water. Many Hindus believe that the water from the Ganga can
cleanse a person's soul of all past sins, and that it can also cure
the ill. The ancient scriptures mention that the water of Ganges
carries the blessings of Lord Vishnu's feet; hence Mother Ganges is
also known as
Vishnupadi, which means "Emanating from the
Lotus feet of Supreme Lord Sri Vishnu."
Some of the most important Hindu festivals and religious
congregation (worship) happen here. Congregations are celebrated on
the banks of the river Ganges, such as the
Kumbh Mela every twelve years at Media:Allahabad
and the Chhath Puja.
Varanasi has hundreds of temples along the banks of the Ganges
which often become flooded during the rains. This city, especially
along the banks of the Ganges, is an important place of worship for
Hindus as well as a cremation ground.
Dams
There are two major dams on the Ganges.
One at Haridwar diverts much of the Himalayan snow-melt into the
Upper Ganges Canal,
built by the British in 1854 to irrigate the surrounding
land. This caused severe deterioration to the water flow in
the Ganges, and is a major cause for the decay of Ganges as an
inland waterway.
The other
dam is a serious hydroelectric affair at Farakka
, close to the point where the main flow of the
river enters Bangladesh, and the tributary Hooghly (also known as
Bhagirathi) continues in West Bengal past
Calcutta. This barrage, which feeds the Hooghly branch of
the river by a 26 mile long feeder canal, and its water flow
management has been a long-lingering source of dispute with
Bangladesh, which fortunately is likely to be resolved based on
discussions held with the new Hasina government in Bangladesh in
1996 when I.K. Gujral was the Foreign Minister in India, Failure to
resolve this has caused harm to both sides of the border for nearly
two decades now. Bangladesh feels that the lack of flow in the
summer months causes sedimentation and makes Bangladesh more prone
to flood damages. At the same time, proposals for linking the
Brahmaputra to the Ganges to improve the water flow in the Ganges
is hanging fire. Also, the water management problem may actually
involve a number of other riparian countries such as Nepal, where
there has been tremendous deforestation, leading to greater silt
content.
It is likely that Ganges carried more water around the time of the
Roman Empire, when Patna was the major port city of Pataliputra.
Even in the eighteenth century the ships of the East India Company
would come to call at the port city of Calcutta, and the British
ran a steamer line all the way to Allahabad. Now only smaller ocean
traffic can make it through the Hooghly to Calcutta, beyond which
the silting prevents all deep-draft vessels.
A branch of the Hooghly, the Damodar, flows south and enters the
Bay of Bengal at the growing port of Haldia. It has the large
hydroelectric dam called Damodar Valley Project, built on the lines
of the Tennessee Valley Authority. There is also a controversial
dam at Tehri, on the Bhagirathi, one of the main source rivers of
Ganges.
Another dam is proposed to be built on the upper reaches of a
tributary of the Ganges, Mahakali, This Indo-Nepal project, the
Pancheswar dam, proposes to be the highest dam in the world and
will be built with US collaboration.
The upper and lower Ganga canal, which is actually the backbone of
a network of canals, runs from Haridwar to Allahabad, but
maintenance has not been very good.
History
File:NorthIndiaCircuit 250.jpg|The Triveni confluence, of the Ganges
and the Yamuna
, in
Allahabad, Uttar
Pradesh.File:Gandhi Setu Patna.JPG|A view from the
Gandhi Setu Bridge on the Ganges in Patna, Bihar
.File:AkbariMosqueOverlookingGanges-Sita-Ram1804.jpg|Watercolor
(1804) Akbari mosque on the banks of
the Ganges in Rajmahal
(in present-day Jharkhand
state) the capital of Mughal province of Bengal from 1592 to
1607.File:Bangladesh LOC 1996 map.jpg|Final
course(s) of the Ganges; at the Farakka Barrage, a small channel is widened and diverted towards
Kolkota
as the Bhagirathi-Hoogly
river.
During
the early Vedic Ages, the Indus
and the
Sarasvati River were the major
rivers, not the Ganges. But the later three Vedas seem to
give much more importance to the Ganges, as shown by its numerous
references.
Possibly the first Westerner to mention the Ganges was
Megasthenes. He did so several times in his work
Indika: "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. Now this river, which
at its source is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south,
and empties its waters into the ocean forming the eastern boundary
of the
Gangaridai, a nation which
possesses a vast force of the largest-sized elephants." (Diodorus
II.37)
In
Rome
's Piazza
Navona
, a famous sculpture, Fontana dei
Quattro Fiumi
(fountain of the four rivers) designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was built
in 1651. It symbolizes four of the world's great
rivers (the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, and the Río de la Plata
), representing the four continents known at the
time.
Economy
File:NizaamatQilaMurshidabadPrinsep1840.jpg|Watercolor
(1840) of the Nizaamat Qila (Criminal Court) of the Nawab of Bengal
along the banks of the Bhagirathi-Hoogly river in Murshidabad.File:Kolkata Bagbazar Ghat.jpg|The Bhagirathi-Hoogly river, shown here at the Bagbazaar Ghat, Kolkota.File:Boat Sailing up Padma River
Bangladesh.jpg|The main channel of the Ganges in its penultimate
form as the Padma river in
BangladeshFile:MeghnaRiver.jpg|The Ganges in its final form as the
Meghna river in Bangladesh.
The
Ganges Basin with its fertile soil
is instrumental to the agricultural economies of India and
Bangladesh. The Ganges and its tributaries provide a perennial
source of irrigation to a large area. Chief crops cultivated in the
area include
rice,
sugarcane,
lentils,
oil seeds,
potatoes, and
wheat. Along the banks of the river, the
presence of
swamps and
lakes provide a rich growing area for crops such as
legumes, chillies, mustard, sesame, sugarcane, and jute. There are
also many fishing opportunities to many along the river, though it
remains highly polluted.
Tourism is another related activity.
Three towns holy to
Hinduism Haridwar, Allahabad, and Varanasi attract thousands of pilgrims to its waters.
Thousands of Hindu pilgrims arrive at these three towns to take a
dip in the Ganges, which is believed to cleanse oneself of sins and
help attain salvation. The rapids of the Ganges also are popular
for
river rafting, attracting hundreds of
adventure seekers in the summer months.
Muslims from India & Bangladesh often do
wudu, a religious cleansing of the body for prayer in
the Ganges River.
People
Chars are temporary islands formed by the
deposition of sediments eroded off the banks of the river in the
State of West Bengal. They each provide dwelling ground to up to
20,000 destitute people.
The soil they are made of is very fertile,
thus suitable for growing crops and pastures to feed cattle on, but
it may disappear in a matter of a few hours, following any river
water surge, particularly during the Monsoon
season.The people living on chars are either Bangladeshi refugees or
Bengalis, therefore the Government of
West
Bengal does not acknowledge their de facto
existence, nor does it issue the ID cards
they would need aged 14 to emigrate and find jobs on the
mainland. Sanitation on the
islands is very poor and char-dwellers do not benefit from
health care; moreover, schooling is not
provided, so
illiteracy is widespread.
The Inland revenue demands nevertheless they pay tax.
Pollution and ecology
The Ganges river has been considered one of the dirtiest rivers in
the world.The extreme
pollution
of the Ganges affects 400 million people who live close to the
river.The river waters start getting polluted right at the source.
The commercial exploitation of the river has risen in proportion to
the rise of population.
Gangotri and Uttarkashi
are good examples too. Gangotri had only a
few huts of Sadhus until the 1970s and the population of Uttrakashi
has swelled in recent years.As it flows through highly populous
areas the Ganges collects large amounts of human pollutants, e.g.,
Schistosoma mansoni and
faecal coliforms, and drinking and
bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection.
While proposals have been made for remediating this condition,
little progress has been achieved. Along the stretch of terraced
bathing
ghats in the holy city of
Varanasi, the water of the Ganges is a "brown soup of excrement and
industrial effluents."
"India and pollution: Up to their necks in it",
The Economist, 27 July 2008.
The water there contains 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100
ml, 120 times the official limit of 500 faecal coliforms/100ml that
is considered safe for bathing.
The Ganges river's long-held reputation as a purifying river
appears to have a basis in science. First of all, the river carries
bacteriophages that vanquish bacteria and more. As reported in a
National Public Radio program,
dysentery
and
cholera are killed off, preventing
large-scale epidemics. The river has an unusual ability to retain
dissolved oxygen, but the reason for this ability is unknown.
The effects of climate change on the river
The
Tibetan
Plateau
contains the world's third-largest store of
ice. Qin Dahe, the former head of the China Meteorological
Administration, said that the recent fast pace of melting and
warmer temperatures will be good for agriculture and tourism in the
short term; but issued a strong warning:
"Temperatures are rising four times faster than elsewhere in
China, and the Tibetan glaciers are retreating at a higher speed
than in any other part of the world....
In the short term, this will cause lakes to expand and bring
floods and mudflows.
.
.
.
In the
long run, the glaciers are vital lifelines for Asian rivers,
including the Indus and the
Ganges.
Once they vanish, water supplies in those regions will be in
peril."
A UN Climate Report issued in 2007 indicates that the Himalayan
glaciers that feed the Ganges may disappear by 2030, after which
the river's flow would be a seasonal occurrence resulting from
monsoons.
See also
Notes
-
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1581251,00.html
- [1]
- Swami Sundaranand Himalaya: Through
the Lens of a Sudu Published August 2001 ISBN
81-901326-0-1
- Swami Sundaranand,Himalaya: Through
the Lens of a Sudu Published August 2001 ISBN 81-901326-0-1
Page 252
- Self-purification effect of bacteriophage, oxygen retention
mystery: Mystery Factor Gives Ganges a Clean Reputation
by Julian Crandall Hollick. National Public Radio.
- Global warming benefits to Tibet: Chinese official.
Reported 18/Aug/2009.
- The Boston Globe
References
External links