Ganges

We were sitting at the corner of a huge bridge called the Laxman Jhoola at the holy city of Rishikesh (translated: Where Rishis Live), in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. This bridge is strung out of iron girders and ropes that swing with every single footstep and connects the holy cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh.

Local folklore says that the bridge has been there for the last 5000 years. It has exited through turbulence, through floods, drought and wars. Below us flowed the pristine White River the mighty Ganga, placid at some places, gently caressing the rocks at others and sweeping downstream with a deafening roar at some other points.

On both sides of the bank, I could see tiny villages that have existed since the time Ganga has existed on earth. Like the Avani village, a little upstream of Ganga, which traces its history back to almost 5000 years. The oldest man in this village is Shekhar Dubey, the sarpanch or the head. 95 years old, stooped, deep lines marking his face.

"My father used to say that we trace our roots back to when Lord Rama (the legendary King of Ayodhya Sri Rama) lived. We have grown up on stories about Ram ji and his brave exploits. For us, Ganga maiya (mother) is the only source of livelihood. We have our boats running between Haridwar and Rishikesh, we get our water from Ganga, she even nourishes our fields of paddy."

Everything around Ganga is steeped in history. There are rock-strewn banks and their ghats where men and women wash their sins, and pray that they go to heaven. Behind that are dark, looming mountains, through which the Ganga flows.

On that dew drenched, cold morning, sitting with an orange lungi-clad Sadhu, who had very little besides that piece of cloth to protect him from the biting cold, I glimpsed what it may mean to be the river of consciousness. What it may mean to be a symbol of an entire civilization.

Further ahead, upstream, at the holy city of Haridwar, a puja is performed every evening on the banks of Ganga. As the sun sets, millions of lamps are lit in the temples around the riverbank. Devotees float diyas on the river, asking the Mother Goddess for a wish.

Legend has it that the ruler of Ayodhya, King Sagar, an ancestor of the legendary King Rama, performed the Aswamedh Yagya 99 times. During the sacrifice, a horse was let loose. The area the horse covered before he returned, rightfully belonged to the King. And if the horse was caught by in any other kingdom, the King of that region would have to defeat the one who was organising the Yagya in order to retain his land.

Each time King Sagar sent a horse, it returned to his kingdom unchallenged. But at the last Aswamedha sacrifice, Indira the King of Gods, in an act of jealousy, kidnapped and hid the horse in the hermitage of the sage Kapila Muni.

Sixty thousand sons of King Sagar came to the hermitage in search of the horse, and mistaking Kapila Muni to be the abductor, attacked him. An enraged Kapila Muni burnt the princes to ashes.

One of the grandchildren of King Sagar, hearing about the plight of his father and uncles, begged the powerful Muni to bring his family back to life. The sage advised the prince that the waters of the river Ganga, which flowed in the heavens, would miraculously bring back the dead princes to life.

A descendant off King Sagar, Bhagiratha offered penance and prayers. These were rewarded and the Ganga rushed to the earth. However, the might of the river was too much for the earth to withstand.

Fearing a catastrophe, Bhagiratha prayed to Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva held out his matted hair to catch the river as she descended, and thus stopped the Ganga from flooding the earth.

Bhagiratha patiently led the river down to the sea from the mighty Himalayan mountains. However, being unable to locate the exact spot where the ashes lay, he requested Ganga to follow her own course.

Ganga divided herself into a hundred mouths that form the Ganges delta. One of these streams washed the ashes, and offered salvation to the souls of the 60, 000 dead princes. The island, where the ashes lie, is referred to as Sagar Islands, just beyond Haridwar.

The perennial river originates in the mighty Himalayas, flows through the Northern Plains of India and drains into the Bay of Bengal. Upstream, the river dons several names. It is Mandakini, it is Alaknanda, it is Bhagirathi and it is Vishnu Ganga.

As the road upstream rises higher, the Ganga shelters in narrower valleys, places one can't even see, within the confines of dense jungle where only wild animals are its companions.

The river originates at Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier right at the top of the Himalayas, drop by drop, in trickles. Gaumukh is the snout of the Gangotri glacier, shaped like a cow's mouth, hence the name. Beginning at an altitude of 14, 100 feet above sea level, the glacier runs down 30 kms to an altitude of 1000 feet above sea level.

The Ganga flows through the state of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, through the ancient pilgrimage towns of Benares and Prayag that marks the confluence of the river Yamuna with the Ganga. This place is considered so holy, that it is believed that if one bathes here all his sins are wiped away. It is also believed that a dip taken during the Kumbh Mela helps one attain Moksha (freedom from the cycle of life and death).

About 250 kms, before merging with the ocean, the river divides itself into several streams and drains into the Bay of Bengal. Also merging with the Ganga here is the river Brahmaputra. The Ganga assumes other names here, such as the Padma and the Meghna.

There was a time when the only way to reach Gangotri was by walking over mountains and across plains. Now, a road takes you to the doorstep of Gangotri. And with the road have come modern civilization and its vices.

On the road you find Pepsi stalls, idli dosa counters, a couple of run down restaurants and a few luxury buildings. Here you see the decay. All around you have Pepsi cans and all sorts of plastic bags.

Ganga is dying at the place it was born. The glacier is receding. Several years of geological research shows that the snout, the Gaumukh, has been shrinking at a rate of 20 meters per year thanks to the phenomenon of global warming and the effect of the greenhouse producing gases. Geologists fear that Ganga would be dead in the next thousand years, if this trend continues.

Ganga is also dying because of the pollution and the dirt in it. A few million bathe in the river every year. They even burn their dead at the riverbank. You will see several half-burnt corpses floating in the river at some places. They bathe their animals in the river. And throw garlands and ash wrapped in plastic bags into what they consider their mother.

There are other signs of doom. The travelers and the devout, who come to the holy cities situated along the Ganga, bring with them plastic bags, petrol fumes, and other dregs of modernity. Behind the shops and hotels are huge mountains of garbage that seep into the river.

To add to that there are a few hundred thousand of small industries along the riverbank that dump their industrial waste into the river.

The once verdant jungles lie stripped of their thick pines and conifer trees at places. The valley through which the Ganga flows is no longer green, and at some points dead wood and shrubs mark the graveyard of the once lush Devdar trees. The wood has been cut to make houses and is used as fuel.

At Rishikesh, the Ganga waters are blue and white, pristine clear. You can actually look at the bottom of the river and see the marine life that exists. 20 kms away, in Haridwar, the river turns muddy red and carries the stench of civilization. The water is still cool and refreshing, but only at the surface. Ganga at Haridwar is polluted and starved of oxygen.

Amongst the apparent doom, there is still hope. For years, the Ganga Pollution Control Board has been struggling to save the river. It has launched the Ganga Action Plan, heavily funded by international funding agencies. The plan is divided into 261 programmes across the entire length and breadth of the river. Under the plan, the upper regions of Gangotri glacier are being reforested. And the river is being cleaned with the help of cleansing agents.

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