ql-align-justify">This paper wants to clarify the signification of the 'imagined geography' of India, a landscape constructed of pilgrimage places (tirthas) and religious networks that have served to create a complex sense of several places all around the country.

Religious myths take place in the culturally-created mental map of India. The symbolic language between nature and human beings contributes to the shaping of this imagined landscape.

I here wonder how, in this intricate interelationship of religious myths and landscape, the religious impact can be used to develop ecological programs? As religious myths are so important, why religious leaders avoid connecting the power they get in Indian society and over political leaders, to combat rivers pollution.

In ancient Hindu mythology water is discribed as the foundation of the whole world, the basis for life and the liquid of immortality. Mircea Eliade, a Romanian historian of religion, philosopher and professor at the University of Chicago, talks about the symbolism of sanctity of water : « bringing well-being, quality of life and purity »

The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding between Hindu religion, attachment to the sacred places and the ecological negligence Indian people show for these places they call « sacred ».

Symbolically, the religious vision of the world does not take into account the environmental imperatives and this is a part of the reasons why this distance exists between religious and political leaders on this topic.

We are dealing here with the paradoxal complexity between terms and symbolics : purity/pollution - How can we say that the waters of the Ganges which give purity to the

devotees, could be polluted? While in Hindu beliefs water is « the container of life, strength and eternity » (Eliade 1958, p.188), how can one let it become a container of death?

The cult of water is very ancient, already described in the Vedic and Puranic litterature (around 1000 bce)

The flowing waters of the rivers wash away all sins. Devotees give them a power of holiness. They believe that they can bestow sanctity and miracles. From there a strong interelationship was created between water/river and human beings. All pelgrimages and riruals prove that. For that reason many places along the river became « sacred places » (tirthas).

In this paper, the choice of the Ganges among all Indian rivers has obvious reasons. It is one of the most notable geographical dominant in the political history of the country. It has been an important element in religious, social, cultural and linguistic wealth of India. It is said that « Gangā is embodying the most prominent and purifying liquid power » (Rana P. Singh – 1994 – in Water symbolisme and sacred landcape in Hinduism)

Per example, in Bengal, the Ganges invests literature, culture and religion.

There, from birth to death, the Ganges plays a prominent role in the religious observances of people. We can find many examples witnessing the importance of the water for Hindus and the place it gets in their daily life.

In the morning, during the first worship as well as during the last one in the evening, a glass of Ganga water may be offered to the gods and some drops of this water can be thrown in the corners of every room of the house.

When they go to temple, devotees should bath in the Ganges before entering the worship place.

Likewise, an unmarried woman must bath into Gangā’s water to obtain a good husband.

During weddings, women performe a folk dance called « Gangāvatarana » (the descent of Gangā) : the movements are free but the motion of hands describes Gangā descent to earth.

The birth of a child brings it several sacraments that include immersion of the new mother and the new baby in the Ganges.

For initiation of studenthood, a young boy would go to the river before sunrise and perform some rituals.

Every evening, aarti (prayer with fire) is done on the bank of the river to pay homage to the goddess Gangā.

But throughout the long course of the Ganges in India, the intensity and the shapes of belief differ.

However, all Hindus share the common wish to die near the river and then to put their ashes into the Ganges. Thousand of people spend the last days of their life on the bank of the river.

Ô Mother Gangā, may your water,

Abundant blessing of the world

Treasure of lord Shiva, playful Lord of all the earth,

Essence of the scriptures and

Embodied goodness of the gods,

May your water, sublime wine of immortality,

Sooth our troubled souls

Jagannātha, Gangā Lahari – (Varanasi : Thakur PrasVd and sons) verse 1

The spiritual attachment to Ganges river and maintenance of cultural traditions reflect the realization of a divine manifestation.

The Ganges is revered and worshiped as Mother Gangā (Gangā Mata) .

The story of the goddess Gangā is mentionned in many sacred texts of Hinduism : Vedas, Puranas, and in Epics : Mahabharata and Ramayana.

It is said that the history of Gangā is as old as the Indian civilization itself.

In fact, there are several narratives about the descent of the goddess Gangā on earth. The most told is the one of the King Sagara.

This king had two wives. After worshiping gods to get sons, he got with the first one, Kesini, one son, with the second, Sumati, 6o,ooo. One day,after the only child of Kesini stole a sacrificial horse, the king was obliged to sacrifice in return his 60,000 sons and so, he saw them burn, and become ashes.

King Sagara took suggestion from many saints regarding the salvation of the soul of his sons.

The sage Kapila finaly told him that only one goddess could help him : Gangā.

So to make her come to earth, he should invoke Brahma, the god of creation. Thus Brahma ordered Gangā to descend on earth. The goddess got very furious as she felt this as an insult. She so decided to destroy earth when descending from Heaven. In order to stop this destruction, Kapila invoked Lord Shiva, the only one able to support the power of Gangā. Shiva accepted and received Gangā in his locks during her descent on earth. Shiva’s tie was so strong that the goddess’ power weakens. But she still wanted to go to earth.

Shiva agreed and gave her the shape of a river for she can stay there and her energy to be channeled.

A Sankrit text the Gautami Māhatmyā, is a narrative about seven chapters and more than four hundred verses recounts Gangā’s birth.

According to this version, the gods wanted Shiva married Parvati, the daughter of Himalaya. Theys so send Kama, the god of love, to shoot Shiva with his arrow. Thus, Shiva agreed to marry Parvati.

But on the same time, a demon, the king Bali, got enough power to chase Indra (King of gods) from Heaven. That scared the gods a lot.

So, they called Vishnu for help. Vishnu took the appearance of Vāmana, a Brahman dwarf in order to meet Bali. Vishnu asked the demon to grant him three steps of land of his kingdom. Bali agreed, whereupon Vishnu grew gigantic. With his first step he covered the all earth, with the second he covered the world of Brahma : that is Heaven, and with the third Vishnu pushed Bali in the underworld.

When with his second step, the foot of Vishnu appeared in Heaven, Brahma greeted him with a traditional gesture of hospitality, pouring water from his Holi pot on the foot of Vishnu. This

water dropped from Vishnu’s foot into Mount Meru. From there it flowed off in four cardinal directions, the southern stream fell on Shiva’s locks of hair.

Parvati became jealous of the water that had taken the shape of a beautiful women led on Shiva’s hair. She asked a saint Brahman (Gautama) to sing songs to praise Shiva. Shiva gave one of his locks to Gautama, who placed it on Brahmagiri where the water began to flow.

This story is in fact a mix of stories‘ fragments found in Vedic, Puranic, Epic, and oral versions. It is interesting because it gives all the three gods of the Hindu Trinity a role in the birth and the descend of Ganga to earth. By the time, the river reaches earth, it can be said to have come from Brahma, from Vishnu, from Shiva, or from all three. The Māhatmyā calls this river tri-daivatya : derived from all three gods.

In one point or another, these myths about Gangā coming to earth give the river divine origines by her association with the gods of the Hindu Trinity (Teenmurti). Thus, the direct contacts with these gods purifies Gangā before her arrival on Earth and makes her a sacred river. The myths make clear for Hindus that the earthly Gangā is only a limited part of the cosmic river flowing in Heaven. Gangā has a cosmic dimension that locates the source in a divine sphere.

About Gangā river as a sacred river

Gangā is river formed by the confluence of two smaller rivers (Bhagirathi and Alaknanda). After gorging a distance of 220 km in Himalayas, it enters the plain of Haridwar and after meandering over a distance of 2,290 km in the plain crossing the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, it joins the bay of Bengal through a large numbre of branches flowing India and Bangladesh.

The mythology of Hindu tradition and the sacred topography of the land of India always go together. Gangā is both goddess and river. She is revered as a Mother : Gangā Mātā (Mother Ganges). Gangā is said to be the supreme river among all rivers. It is in India the archetype of sacred waters.

Even Nehru (Prime minister of India from August 1947 to May 1964), who considered himself a secular man, denied that Gangā had any « religious » significances but he wanted his ashes to be throw into Gangā’s waters. This shows the cultural impact of Hindu mythology on Indian people.

In Hinduism, the complete universe is imagined as a living organism, a vast ecosystem, in which each part is inextricably related to the life of the Whole.

And the Whole is alive and in a constant process and movement, growing and decaying.

The cosmos is a biological whole, so, on the microcosmic level, the land of India is pictured as an organic whole, a full sacred geography.

Thus, India is a living land and the religious literature is full of sacred places. Even the forests, the rivers, the mountains are sacred. These places have been affirmed to have strong connections with the cosmos. They are called thirthās (real meaning : crossing places).

Geographical sacrality in the Hindu tradition is also expressed in the reverence shown to almost every river of the Indian subcontinent.

This reverence comes from the Rig Veda. (one of the Hindu religious texts). There, it is written that earthly rivers have their origin in Heaven. According to this text, an earthly river is a continuation of divine water that flows from heaven to earth. In the Rig Veda cosmology, the creation of the world or the process of making the world habitable is associated with the creation of the heavenly waters by Indra (the king of gods).

Indra had an enemy, Vrata. He is said to have withheld these waters, preventing them from going to feed the earth, thus stopping all creation.

But, when Indra defeat Vrata, the waters rush onto the earth.

The rivers are therefore seen as necessary to creation and as having a heavenly origin.

Another important theme according to the rivers in Hinduism is the purifying quality of running waters.

The Hindu social system is based on a purity scale, in which pollution is inevitably accumulated in the course of a normal life. It requises ritual baths to wash away impurity.

For Hindus, running waters are chief agents of purification, they absorb pollution.

For this reason, as goddesses, they are never sleeping and always running.

However, the Ganges is one of the most polluted river in the world. The discharge of domestic and industrial wastewater has greatly affected the quality of Ganges’ waters. And now

it falls under the category E. This affects the health of humans beings but prevents also the reproduction of the underwater life.

A study shows that in India, 75 percent of human waste ends up in the country’s rivers[1].

River pollution control management depends on interaction between river, environment and human will. So, the quality of the waters of Ganges reflects directly or indirectly the environmental management of towns or state.

But the improvement of the Ganges cannot be achieve without people’s participation and the agreements of both religious and political leaders.

This article read in « The Reuter » on April 7th 2017 can be a source of hope :

« The quality restauration of the Ganges is a very complex and interdisciplinary effort. Ganges pollution requires strategies for pollution control. India’s $3 billions plan to clean the holy Ganges river is badly behind schedule with large stretches contaminated by toxic waste and sewage, forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene, according to government officials ».

Conclusion

Despite the efforts to reduce pollution, Gangā remains very contaminated. But it stays, according to pious people, pure, ever-potent and everyone wants to take bath in it, seeking purification.

According to them, Gangā has a role of mediator between this world and the divine world.

Thus, Gangā is the surest access between the world of the living and the one of the dead.

Anyway, pious Hindus go to holy places along Gangā to cast the ashes of their ancestors.

Thus, cremation on the banks of Gangā river is also one of the reasons of river water pollution. Every day, around 150 cremations are performed and there are also thousands of people who cannot afford cremation and through directly bodies into Gangā. This contributes to unburnt corpses floating down to Gangā.

Creation of electric crematorium is the only solution.

Both central and state government should guide, aware and convince people to use electric cremation for the antim sanskara (last rites) instead of wood.

I want to conclude on a positive note. The Indian Express published in September 2016, an article tellingthat : « Indian scientists have validated the scientific basis of the mysterious ‘special power’ of the water of Ganga, which Hindus consider as ‘ Brahm Dravya’ or divine elixir. »[2]

According to these microbiologists from Chandigarh (Punjab), Ganges waters contains several bacteriophages : types of virus that eat bacterias. So, the Ganges would have certain clinical properties !

By this paper I wanted to provide a clear understanding of attachment to the rivers, places and elements and create a typology of attachment to different levels, from macro to micro, from divine and earthly.

The river accumulation of mythological traditions demonstrates the persistence of natural geographical symbols in India.

In the Mahabharata it is written :

Just as certain parts of the body are called clean,

so are certain part of the earth

and certain waters called holly

Mahābhārata 13.111.16

Those « certain parts » of earth that give ready access to the heaven are Tirthas.

[1] Central Pollution Control Board, “Water Quality status of Ganga River,” New Delhi, April 2016  

[2] The Indian Express, 24th September 2016 : It’s scientically validated now ; Ganga water is « holy »- by Ani

The rivers in Hindu sacred geography