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About Ganga

Ganga is a holy river for hindus. But itwas not always like this. In old vedic times the ost sacred river was Sarasvati, its source is also in Himalayas. This river inspired arian culture and religion. Later this river run dry but it was predicted that n blossom time of Satya Yuga it will be deep again.

One shouldn't think that hindu attitude towards Ganga akin to, for example, catholic attitude towards church in Western Europe. It is much more romantic and universal, it influence all lifestyle of devotees and is closer to a Moon worshiping in Japan poetry.

Generally eastern people treat religion fundamentally different - it enters in its life, directing their spirit towards Himalayas, while in Western culture people do the opposite - they attract spiritual to a prosaic level.

The main worshipping place of a Ganga are Goumukh, Gangotri, Suryakund, Devprayag, Allahabad, Varanasi (Banares) and Kolicatta.

On the following photographs Goumukh, Devprayag and Gangotri are shown.



Ganga source is in Goumukh cave, not far from Gangotri city. River, which flow out from this cave, is called Bhagirathi, after great king Bhagirathi, who petition Shri Shiva for a river. Lower, in Devprayag, Bhagirathi coalesces with Alaknanda. Alaknanda rivers comes from Rudraprayag, where it is formed by two rivers - Mandakin (which comes from Kedarnath) and Mahaalaknanda (comes from Badrinath).

Therefore "officially" Ganga starts in Devprayag, but it is only a transitional poligrimage center for those, who are going upper, to the sources of these sacred rivers. Its outflow is in Bangladesh and, partial, in Kolicatta.

Ganga flow into the bay of Bengal.

These are Ganga photos in segment from Uttarkashi to [Gangotri]: