Gaṅgā

Gaṅgā is the most sacred river of Bhārata. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa says she rises from the dhruva-pāda of Nārāyaṇa (the celestial north-pole station). She goes down through the sphere of the moon, where the cool rays of candra purify her, and falls in a great torrent on the summit of Meru. There she divides into four streams that run to the four directions and feed the main varshas (regions) of Jambū-dvīpa.

Her southern stream, Alakanandā, becomes the Gaṅgā of the earth after Bhagavān Śiva receives her in his jaṭā (matted locks). She then flows in seven branches to the sea. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa teaches that bathing in the Gaṅgā and offering water to the ancestors with devotion washes away all pāpa (sin).

Origin in the highest world

Gaṅgā rises from Nārāyaṇa’s dhruva-pāda. This is the celestial north-pole station, the fixed point from which all creation is held up and around which the order of the worlds turns. She first enters the candra-maṇḍala (sphere of the moon), where the cool, nourishing rays of the moon purify her. She then comes down in a great fall on the summit of Meru, the golden mountain at the centre of Jambū-dvīpa.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 53, tells this.

The four streams from Meru

From Meru, Gaṅgā divides into four great streams that flow to the four directions and feed the four main varshas of Jambū-dvīpa.

Of the four streams, Alakanandā is the most famous. She is the one who becomes the Gaṅgā of the earth, flowing through Bhārata-varsha and reaching the southern sea.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 53, tells this.

Bhagīratha’s tapas and the coming down to earth

The Gaṅgā of the earth flows in Bhārata-varsha through the tapas (austerity) of Bhagīratha. He did severe tapas to make the Gaṅgā of the highest world come down to earth for the moksha (liberation) of his ancestors.

The force of her fall was so great that the earth itself would have been shattered if she had fallen with nothing to receive her. Bhagavān Śiva agreed to take her first in his jaṭā. She circled and swirled inside the tangled mass of his hair before he gently let her go. From Bhagavān Śiva’s locks she flowed in seven branches to the sea. She brought the power to purify, and the hope of liberation, for Bhagīratha’s ancestors and for all beings who would come after.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 53, tells this.

Sacred meaning

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa says that bathing in the Gaṅgā, and offering water to one’s ancestors with devotion, destroys all pāpa. Gaṅgā is thus a cosmic power of purity, carrying in her waters the holiness of her source in Nārāyaṇa’s dhruva-pāda. She is also the highest means for pitṛ-tarpaṇa, the offering of water to the departed. A person who comes to her banks with śraddhā (faith) in the heart is cleansed of the pāpa he has gathered and is turned toward dharma.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 53, tells this.

Gaṅgā in the Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa gives one whole chapter, Chapter 110, to the māhātmya (greatness) of Gaṅgā. It calls her the highest giver of both bhukti (worldly enjoyment) and mukti (liberation). Agni says that Gaṅgā must always be served, for she is the one highest refuge for those who seek the best goal (uttama-gati). Every land through which Gaṅgā flows is made holy by her passing.

Merit of Gaṅgā-sevā

The Agni Purāṇa lists the merit that comes from different ways of serving Gaṅgā.

• One month of Gaṅgā-sevā (service of Gaṅgā) gives the fruit of all yajñas.
• Bathing in Gaṅgā purifies both the mother’s line and the father’s line at once. Both families are freed by a single act of devotion.
• One thousand cāndrāyaṇa-vratas (vows) do not equal the merit of a single sip of Gaṅgā-jala (Gaṅgā water). So great is the holiness of her waters.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110, tells this.

Purification through contact

The Agni Purāṇa teaches that even the simplest contact with Gaṅgā has the power to change a person. Gaṅgā-darśana, Gaṅgā-sparśa and Gaṅgā-jala-pāna (seeing, touching and drinking her waters) purify one’s whole family line for thousands of generations. Even earth taken from a Gaṅgā tīrtha and worn on the body destroys all pāpa, as the sun burns away darkness.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110, tells this.

The bones in her waters

This chapter teaches that Gaṅgā keeps the departed in the higher worlds. As long as the bones of a dead person lie in Gaṅgā’s waters, that jīva (soul) lives in svarga. This teaching stands behind the practice of placing the bones and ashes of the dead in Gaṅgā after cremation. It shows this to be an act of great compassion for the ancestors.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110, tells this.

Nāma-saṅkīrtana of Gaṅgā

The Agni Purāṇa also says that nāma-saṅkīrtana of Gaṅgā, which is simply chanting her names with devotion, purifies countless thousands of generations of one’s family line. Even people who are blind and afflicted reach a state equal to that of the devas through Gaṅgā-sevā.

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110, tells this.

Gaṅgā in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa gives six chapters (6–11) to Gaṅgā-māhātmya. They hold some of the highest praise of Gaṅgā found in the Purāṇas. The main teachings are these.

• Prayāga, the highest tīrtha. The Gaṅgā-Yamunā saṅgama (meeting) at Prayāga is declared the greatest of all kshetras and tīrthas. Brahmā and all the great munis have done yajñas there. The Purāṇa says: “Just as Gaṅgā is the best of all tīrthas, so Prayāga, where the black and white waters meet, is the best of all kshetras.”
• Praise beyond measure. All the abhisheka (ritual bathing) of all the holy tīrthas of the world does not equal even one-sixteenth part of a single drop of Gaṅgā-abhisheka. Even a hundred yojanas away, a person who only says “Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā” is freed from all pāpa. The name of Gaṅgā, said just once, destroys all pāpa and brings Vishṇu-loka.
• Śiva’s forehead and the third eye. The sand (mṛttikā) of the Gaṅgā bank, when put on the forehead, shows in the same place as the third eye of Bhagavān Śiva, which blazes above the half-moon. This shows that the holiness of Gaṅgā equals that of Bhagavān Śiva’s own forehead.
• Vishṇu-sārūpya. Bathing in Gaṅgā gives Vishṇu-sārūpya (a form like that of Bhagavān Vishṇu). Even the devas find it hard to bathe in Gaṅgā. One who bathes in Gaṅgā rides a great vimāna (aerial car) and reaches the paramapada (highest place).
• Gaṅgā and tulasī. Gaṅgā, tulasī and steady Vishṇu-bhakti are these three things most hard for human beings to gain (durlabha). The earth from a guru’s feet, the earth from the Gaṅgā bank and the earth from the root of the tulasī: whoever wears these on the forehead with bhakti (devotion) reaches Vishṇu-loka.
• Even the worst wrong-doer is purified. A great wrong-doer who bathes in Gaṅgā throws off all his pāpa, boards a great vimāna and reaches the paramapada. One who bathes in Gaṅgā lifts up thousands of generations of his father’s and mother’s lines and reaches Vishṇu-loka.
• Kalmāshapāda’s freeing. A single drop of Gaṅgā-jala touched Kalmāshapāda, who had spent twelve years as a rākshasa. It dissolved the rākshasa body at once and gave him back his royal form, with a purified mind.
• Sacred rivers named. Godāvarī, Bhīmarathī, Kṛshṇā, Revā (Narmadā), Sarasvatī, Tuṅgabhadrā, Kāverī, Kāḷindī, Bāhudā, Netravatī, Tāmraparṇī and Sarayū. All are declared excellent, but all stand below Gaṅgā as the greatest.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 6–11, tells this.

Gaṅgā’s origin from the foot of Trivikrama

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa gives a separate account of how Gaṅgā came into the world. She entered the brahmāṇḍa (cosmic egg) when Bhagavān Vāmana took his second great stride as Trivikrama. His left foot rose with unmatched force through all the worlds and pierced the shell of the brahmāṇḍa at its highest point. Through that opening the divine waters, which lie above the brahmāṇḍa, flowed in. Having touched the lotus foot (pāda) of Bhagavān Vishṇu, these waters became supremely holy. For this reason Gaṅgā bears the name Vishṇu-pādodakī: she is the water made holy by touching the pāda of Bhagavān Vishṇu at the moment of his great stride.

The Nārada Purāṇa records that after Trivikrama’s stride the devas offered a great stotra (hymn of praise) to Bhagavān Vishṇu. In their hymn they sang of the origin of Gaṅgā from his pāda as one of the highest gifts of the Vāmana avatāra. The water that flowed from Vishṇu’s foot became the highest purifier in all the worlds. It can destroy the pāpa of all who come in contact with her, even by a touch, a name or a single drop.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 70–71, tells this.

Gaṅgā in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha

The Uttarārdha (Chapters 38–43) holds the fullest praise of Gaṅgā in the series of tīrthas told by Vāsu to Mohinī. The main teachings are these.

Gaṅgā as Vishṇu in the form of water. “Janārdana himself, who goes everywhere and is knowledge itself, dwells as Gaṅgā-jala in the form of water. There is no doubt about this.”

Where Gaṅgā dwells through the month.

• From Kṛshṇa-paksha amāvāsyā to Śukla daśamī (ten days): Gaṅgā is near the earth (bhūmi-sannihita).
• From Śukla ekādaśī to Bahula pañcamī (ten days): Gaṅgā is near svarga.
• On the remaining days: Gaṅgā is near Pātāla.

The yugas and Gaṅgā. In the Kṛta Yuga all tīrthas are equally pure. In the Tretā Yuga Pushkara is the highest. In the Dvāpara Yuga it is Kurukshetra. In the Kali Yuga Gaṅgā stands above all tīrthas. In the Kali Yuga all other tīrthas place their śakti (power) in Gaṅgā, while Gaṅgā never places her śakti anywhere else.

Jyeshṭha Śukla Daśamī (Gaṅgā Daśaharā). This is the day Gaṅgā came down from the mountains to the plains, her ādi-daśā (first state). Bathing on this day equals a hundred Aśvamedha yajñas times a hundred, ten thousand Aśvamedhas, in merit.

Named tīrthas along the Gaṅgā (Chapter 40).

• Haridvāra, also called Gaṅgādvāra: ten yojanas upriver from Kāśī. It equals many yajñas.
• Kuśāvarta, Nīla-parvata and Kanakahal: named ghāṭas at Haridvāra.
• Saukaraka tīrtha: where Varāha appeared as an avatāra. Bathing here gives the puṇya (merit) of śata-agni-chiti (building a hundred fire-altars).
• Veṇī-rāja tīrtha: where Gaṅgā meets the Sarayū, who was born from the left foot of Vishṇu and from Mānasa-sarovara.
• Gāṇḍava tīrtha: where Gaṅgā meets the Gaṇḍakī.
• Dakshinaprayāga: where Gaṅgā and Yamunā separate (as seen going upstream).
• Kāśī: Gaṅgā at Kāśī is especially meritorious, a hundred times more than Vindhya-Gaṅgā.

Rules for Gaṅgā-pūjā (Chapters 41–43).

• Dāna (gifts) at the Gaṅgā: every kind of dāna given on the Gaṅgā bank gives akshaya-phala (fruit that never ends).
• Guḍa-dhenu (a cow made of jaggery): a dāna set down especially for the Gaṅgā.
• Pūjā of Gaṅgā Devī: she is to be honoured with flowers, lamps and naivedya (food offering).

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 38–43, tells this.

Gaṅgā in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa: the descent and the four branches

The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 56, tells of the coming down of Gaṅgā as the end of Bhagīratha’s great tapas of sixty thousand years at Nādeśvara kshetra in the Himālaya. Bhagavān Vishṇu gave him a vara (boon) and sent him to Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagīratha then composed a long stotra to Parameśvara. In it he spoke of Bhagavān Śiva as the father of Skanda, the bearer of Gaṅgā in his jaṭā, the destroyer of the three cities, and the devotee of Vishṇu who is in the end not different from Vishṇu. Pleased, Bhagavān Śiva let Gaṅgā go from his matted locks.

The four branches. As Gaṅgā came down through Bhagavān Śiva’s jaṭā and reached the earth, she divided into four holy branches: Bhāgīrathī (flowing east), Nalinī (flowing south-east), Sucakshu (flowing west) and Sītā (flowing north). The Bhāgīrathī is the stream that Bhagīratha led through the Himālaya and down to Pātāla. There her waters touched the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara and at once purified them, sending them all to Vishṇu-loka as divine beings. From then on Gaṅgā in this region bears the name Bhāgīrathī, in lasting honour of the king whose unyielding tapas brought her to earth.

Gokarṇa under the waters. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa records one more detail from this time: the sacred tīrtha of Gokarṇa was covered by the waters during Gaṅgā’s descent.

The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 56, tells this.

Gaṅgā in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa

The crossing at Śṛṅgaverapura and Sītā’s prayer

The Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa tells of two episodes at the Gaṅgā. The first is the crossing at Śṛṅgaverapura, the capital of the Nishādas on the bank of the Gaṅgā. There Guha, the Nishāda king, served Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa with devoted hospitality. Rāma spent the night at Śṛṅgaverapura before crossing. Guha’s boatmen carried them over the Gaṅgā. On the bank Sumantra was given farewell, weeping, and sent back to Ayodhyā.

In the middle of the river, Sītā prayed to the Gaṅgā with folded hands. She vowed to do pūjā when she returned, victorious, with Rāma after the fourteen years. Her prayer was a vow of thanks and devotion. In it she named Gaṅgā as the sacred witness of the beginning of the exile and of the hoped-for return. She vowed to give ten thousand cows, and abundant wealth to the brāhmaṇas, after her prayers were answered.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 50–52, tells this.

The Śyāma banyan on the Yamunā

After crossing the Gaṅgā and reaching the Yamunā, Sītā prayed to the Yamunā at the crossing in the same way. She also prayed to the great Śyāma banyan tree on the south bank of the Yamunā. It is a sacred tree linked with the divine nature of the river. Then the party went on south toward Prayāga and the āśrama of Bharadvāja.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 55, tells this.

Foremost among the rivers: Umā’s counsel

In the Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda, Bhagavān Śiva asks Umā to teach strī-dharma (the duties of women). She first defers to the assembled rivers, who stand there as persons: Sarasvatī, Gaṅgā, Vipāśā, Vitastā, Candrabhāgā, Irāvatī, Śatadru, Devikā, Sindhu, Kauśikī and Gautamī.

Gaṅgā is named foremost among all these rivers, as the first to reach the ocean. On behalf of the assembled rivers, it is Gaṅgā who praises Umā’s wisdom and declares her alone fit to give the teaching herself.

The Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 146, tells this.

Gaṅgā’s grief for Bhīshma

At the death of Bhīshma, Gaṅgā appears as a grieving mother. After his funeral she rises weeping from her own waters at Kurukshetra, and Kṛshṇa and Vyāsa console her.

The Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168, tells this.

Sources

• Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 53
• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 6–11, 70–71
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 38–43
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 56
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 50–55
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 146
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 168