The Hindu Business Line : A dip in the Ganges mystique

The Ganges is more than just a river. She is a Mother Goddess revered since times immemorial. Not many rivers are celebrated quite in the manner that the Ganges is. The aura of a great river, be it the Amazon, Mississippi, Danube, Seine, Thames or the Bosphorus, to name only a few, is undeniable. Each of these rivers has for eons sustained lives and civilisations, given birth to myths and legends, underlined cultures and economies. But none is quite like the Ganges, probab ly the most fabled of all the world’s major rivers. It is a river that touches every aspect of the existence of the people and animals living around it: from life to death, from livelihood to meditation, and from pleasure to salvation.

For the majority of the teeming millions who populate the subcontinent, the Ganges is a merciful and forgiving divine force that cleanses mankind of its sins and, for all mortals who come to its banks to seek its benison, paves the way for a smooth passage to a heavenly-afterlife. The devout believe that a single dip in the Ganges and an invocation of the river’s holy name ensures permanent liberation of the human soul: it becomes one with the celestial power that governs the universe.

Embedded in the river’s mystical flow are a plethora of myths and legends that have inspired the sages and seers over the centuries. The inexhaustible Ganges is not only the bedrock of faith for Hindus who reside in India and elsewhere in the world, it has also inspired the imagination of many travellers and sages who have traversed up and down its course in their search for the true meaning of human existence. Many have gone back totally transformed; others have found solace by settling down along its banks.

The Ganges is indeed no ordinary river: it supports a wide variety of economic activities along its banks, buttresses an intricate and rich eco-system and has over the years inspired holy men, writers, musicians, photographers and filmmakers. It is almost as if the river runs through the veins of India.

As the Ganges flows down from its origins in the picturesque mighty Himalayas in the north of India all the way to the Bay of Bengal in the east, it helps a wide variety of flora and fauna flourish in the lush Gangetic plains. The plains embrace the habitats of many wonderful wildlife species. Most of India’s best-known wildlife sanctuaries draw their sustenance from rivers like the Ganges.

The Ganges is a naturally perennial river, fed as it is by accumulated rainwater along its banks during the monsoon and melted snow from the Himalayas during the summer months. Periodically, the Ganges replaces its old channels with new ones, especially in the alluvial basin of its lower reaches. The never-ending flow of this great river through the heartland of India in a way represents the concept of the continuity of the cycle of life and death that constitutes the bedrock of Hindu philosophy.

As India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru famously wrote: “The Ganga… is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats.

She has been a symbol of India’s age-long culture and civilisation, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga.” Such was the affinity that he felt with the sacred river that he went to the extent of making a special appeal to his admirers: “As a last homage to the cultural heritage of India… I request that a handful of my ashes be thrown in the Ganga at Allahabad so that they may be borne to the vast ocean that bears on the shores of India.”

All forms of life that thrive along its banks reflect the remarkable element of unbreakable perpetuity referred to by Nehru. The Sundarbans in the east and the Corbett National Park in the north are two thriving symbols of the endless bounty of the Ganges. The Sundarbans is a vast swampy delta of the two great Indian rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.

It spreads across a wide swathe comprising mangrove forests and stretches of dense vegetation interlinked by a network of small rivers and rivulets. The Sundarbans is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger. But there are other wildlife species here — chital deer, crocodiles, barking deer, Ridley sea turtle, red Fiddler crabs and a wide variety of fish. The Corbett National Park, located on the banks of the Ramganga, is just as rich in its biodiversity. Animals of the Himalayas as well as those that belong to the great Indian peninsula — over 50 mammal species and 25 different kinds of reptiles — roam free in this protected sanctuary.

But it obviously isn’t just wildlife and forest covers that the Ganges sustains. Cities, towns and thriving commercial centres along its course — Gangotri, Devaprayag, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Allahabad, Benaras, Patna and finally, Kolkata — owe their existence and prosperity to the river. For holy men, boatmen and entrepreneurs of all hues, the Ganges is the divine life force that gives generously but asks for nothing in return.

Hence in Indian mythology and folklore, the Ganges is equated with a mother, the giver of life. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Ganges crops us repeatedly as much in India’s religious texts as in its movies and literary works. Gangajal, the water of the river Ganges, is stored in homes as “sacred water” that can cleanse and purify anything that it is sprinkled on.

In every conceivable respect, the Ganges is the lifeblood of India. It isn’t, therefore, without reason that government agencies and private environmental activists have in recent years launched an all-out campaign to save the river from the ill effects of pollution. The conservation efforts have begun to yield positive results, reversing the impact of years of neglect and abuse of the river by people who live and work in towns and cities located along its course. That is a happy augury indeed. The Ganges is after all an eternal river. India wouldn’t be the land that it is without it.

The three-part series ‘Ganges’ will air on Discovery Channel every Wednesday at 8 p.m. from October 24.

The author is EVP & Managing Director, Discovery Networks India