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The Holy Ganga
The author Kishore, a known environmentalist and a
Ganga activist, discusses the Ganga as a goddess and as the lifeline
of India, its pollution problems and solutions.`A0Each segment of the
book tackles various issues related to the Ganga which is more than a
mere river for the Hindus, although water worship has been known to be
practiced in many civilisations, except at a stage in Christianity,
that too as late as in the 14th century. But this reviewer finds it
more relevant to talk about Ganga’s boons, curses and contamination.
A few mythological inputs from the book are worth mentioning. Another
legend has it that Ganga’s birth was a result of a curse, when
during a Raas (dance of devotion and love) performed by Radha
and Krishna, they melted, merged and liquidised in the purest form of
love, that was Ganga herself. Lord Shiva himself was a witness to this
dance. Later, when in another Raas, Radha, not recognising her own
daughter Ganga, whose bewitching beauty had Krishna eye and ogle at
her, cursed her to fall on Earth. When Krishna explained to Radha that
it was being a natural part that he answered Ganga’s glances, Radha
gave a boon to Ganga to be known as the purest in all times to come. Ganga’s
story of the curses and boons doesn’t stop here. Once when Ganga,
the most beautiful and capricious, visited Lord Brahma, she had her
thinly clad youthful richness exposed, when all other present turned
their eyes away from her, but not King Mahabhisha. For his
"harassing and offending" the honour and grace of Ganga,
Brahma ordained he shall have to go to Bhoolok (Earth) to
redeem himself, by being instrumental in Ganga’s matrimony, in a way
that his son Shantanu would marry her. Yet, another legend has it
that Ganga once annoyed the angry sage Durwasa, with her playful and
impish demeanour and outrage. Durwasa’s loin cloth (dhoti) worn over
his lower limbs flew in a breeze when Ganga giggled and laughed,
making the sage lose his temper and he cursed her to fall from the
Heavens. On beseeching, she was spared but only to the extent that the
eighth Vasu (one of the immortal sons of Manu who enraged sage
Vashishtha by stealing his cow) was to be born to her. This Vasu was
Dev Vrata, popularly known as Bheeshma Pitamah in the Mahabharta. Another
story related to the Ganga is that of Agatsya, a virtuous sage
possessed with extraordinary gastronomic powers. Having been tormented
by the demons that hid themselves in the ocean after troubling
devtas,`A0they approached this saint to drink all the ocean water, so
that demons could be found and killed.`A0Agatsya drank the entire
ocean water and the devtas killed the hiding demons.`A0When they were
all returning to heaven, Lord Brahma prophesied that the ocean would
remain dry, and will have to wait till the time king Bhagirath brought
the Ganga on Earth, and filled the ocean with water. Many facets of
the Ganga are dextrously delineated in the book. She is described as
the daughter of Vishnu. The purity of the Ganga is also described
since it is considered to be the water with which Vishnu washed his
lotus feet. She is also said to be emerging out of the Kamandal of
Brahma. She is known as Jahnvi for when on her way to cleanse the sins
of Bhagirath’s ancestors, she flooded the ashram of sage Jahnu, who
drank all her water and let her come out of his right ear, but only on
being beseeched by Bhagirath. The book has details about the places
en route to the Ganga River and their mythological and religious
status. Various fairs like the Kumbha, Kanwars, Magh, etc., are
discussed here. Temples, shrines and pilgrimage places find mention
with apt details. Ganga’s pollution levels, water quality, Ganga as
"the sink", types of plastics, floods, outcome of climatic
change, disastrous dams and`A0ruinous mining are other subjects dwelt
upon in detail here. The Holy Ganga is the most suitable for
devotees, scholars and environmentalists alike.
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The popular legend credits that the
Ganga was brought on Earth by sage Bhagirath who did penance and
performed austerities to please the Gods, in order to cleanse the sins
of his ancestors and to perform rituals for their salvation, with the
holy waters. Sagar, who was the great-grandfather of Bhagirath, had
60,000 sons who perished in a fire, after they incurred the wrath of
Rishi Kapila.