The goddess Ganga was originally the wife of Vishnu, until he decided to give her to Shiva. Some time later, she also became the consort of a king, specifically King Shantanu. A river that inspires such exceptional and pious creative devotion must truly be a river.
Truly Ganga is a river that has been at the center of the sacred Hindu tradition since time immemorial. The esteem in which she is held and her consequent deification as a woman in her own right echoes the eternal ethos of Hindu wisdom.
Ganga and the Purifying Waters of Heaven
In the Hindu tradition, reverence is shown to almost all rivers on the Indian subcontinent. This devotion extends to the Rig Veda, the world’s oldest text, where it is said that all earthly rivers have their origin in the sky.
In the cosmology of the Rig Veda, the creation of the world or the process of making it habitable is associated with the release of the heavenly waters by Indra, the king of the gods. It is said that a demon held back these waters, thus inhibiting creation.
When Indra defeated this demon, the waters flowed over the earth, like a mother cow eager to nurse her young (Rig Veda 10.9). Therefore, the rivers of the earth are considered necessary for creation and have a celestial origin.
The Descent of Ganga to Earth from Heaven
In the eternal struggle between good (the gods) and evil (the demons), the latter prevailed once. Employing an ingenious strategy, the demons hid in the ocean during the day and attacked only at night. The gods, harassed and desperate, appealed to the famous saint Agastya, who solved the problem by swallowing the entire ocean in one gulp. Exposed, the demons were easily defeated.
Agastya drinks the ocean
Their mission accomplished, the gods asked Agastya to release the ocean. His response surprised them. Taking a deep burp, he informed them that having partaken of the ocean, he had now digested it, and that therefore some other means would have to be found to refill the ocean bed.
The gods and the people of the world were horrified. Perplexed, they approached Lord Vishnu, the savior of the world, who gave them good news. Vishnu asked them not to worry, as it was destined that the Ganges, the heavenly river, would flow over the earth, quenching the thirst (both physical and spiritual) of its inhabitants, and also filling the dry ocean.
When asked when this would happen, His Lordship informed them that it would take place at a happy confluence of auspicious circumstances, the process of which had already begun.
In fact, in a distant corner of the world, a powerful king named Sagara was performing a great sacrificial ritual, which would announce him as the undisputed ruler over the entire earth. Little did he know that he was destined to be the instrument for carrying out the cosmic drama that was being played out elsewhere.
The ritual consisted of releasing a white horse, which would be free to roam anywhere on earth. Afterward, Sagara’s mighty army would follow. Wherever the horse ventured, the king of that domain would have to give it free passage and accept Sagara’s protectorate, presenting him with material gifts of supplication.
If this did not happen, Sagara’s army was free to challenge the errant ruler in question. Not surprisingly, given the prestige and power of King Sagara, no ruler along the way dared to hold the horse.
News of Sagara’s imminent victory reached the ears of Indra, the king of the gods. Fearing a challenge to his own throne, Indra disguised himself as a human, went to earth, and laid his hands on the sacrificial horse.
Taking it by the reins, he hid it in the hermitage of the sage Kapila. This sage was an extremely accomplished yogi, his inner being made extremely powerful by long periods of extreme asceticism.
It was not long before King Sagara’s army, led by his sons (legend says their number was sixty thousand), tracked the horse to the ascetic’s retreat. Outraged by the sage’s perceived recklessness, the haughty princes rushed toward him in a fit of rage, calling him a thief. The sage, who until then had been sitting unperturbed and unaware of the proceedings behind him, was awakened from his meditations. Opening his eyes, he merely looked at the princes with fear, who were reduced to ashes.
Ganga as mother
A particularly inspired motif is the visualization of Ganga as a mother, which is made explicit in the epithet ‘Ma Ganga’ (Ma means mother), and which is undoubtedly the most popular and endearing term used to refer to her.
As a mother, Ganga is tangible, accessible, and accepted by all. To put it in the immortal words of David Kinsley, “She is the distilled essence of compassion in liquid form.” No one is denied her blessing.
The maternal aspect is especially evident in her nurturing qualities. As a mother, she nourishes the land through which she flows, making it fertile. Historically, the land along the banks of the Ganges has been intensively cultivated.
It is particularly fertile due to the sediments periodically deposited by the river’s floodwaters. A parallel is often drawn with the menstrual flow in women, which makes a woman fertile and capable of generating life.
An evocative example of Ganga’s capacity for motherhood is found in the myth describing the birth of Shiva’s second son, Karttikeya. The story tells that a powerful demon once wreaked havoc in the world, and the oppressed victims came to the conclusion that only a son born to the mighty Shiva could redeem them.
Therefore, they prayed to Shiva. He agreed, and first gave his seed to Agni (god of fire). But even Agni found Shiva’s seed too hot to handle, and threw it into the river Ganga, where it became a fetus. That is why Karttikeya is also called Gangaputra, the son of Ganga.
And finally, there is the harsh truth that stares us in the face. No child is too dirty to be embraced or cleaned by its mother. Mother Ganga purifies her devotees indiscriminately, whether they are virtuous or sinful. She does not judge, and all her children are equal in her eyes.
The iconography of the Ganges
In Indian art, the Ganges is visualized like all other great Indian goddesses, voluptuous and beautiful. Her ample breasts and sturdy hips bear witness to her fertilizing powers.
Beauty and Spirituality
In addition, there are two other important motifs that adorn the image of the Ganges. The first is the full pot she holds in her hands. This is a symbol of the womb she sustains, holding within herself the force of life.
A woman is like this vessel, carrying within her the vital and pulsating essence of life. The overflowing pot is the grace of nature in abundance. In fact, the figure of a woman is based on the rounded shape of the pot—her globular breasts are symbols of her nourishing powers.
In Indian aesthetics, wherever the pot appears, it conveys the idea of abundant life and fertility, which nourishes and sustains the universe. The second distinctive feature of Ganga’s iconography is her animal mount, which is often shown as a pedestal for her.
This is the makara, a hybrid creature with the body of a crocodile and the tail of a fish. In Hindu thought, the makara corresponds to the zodiac sign of Capricorn in Western astrology.
The crocodile is a unique animal in that it can live both on land and in the sea. It thus denotes the wisdom of both the earth and the waters.
River Goddess
The fish, for its part, is a universal symbol of fertility and the life-giving properties of water. It represents life in the depths, and deep water is recognized in Indian philosophy as the intangible and infinite consciousness, the source of all creative instinct.
Interestingly, when depicted in this way, the tail of the hybrid animal is often shown transformed into swirling vegetation patterns, further implying the association of the Ganges with vegetative growth and fertility.
The makara is also the vehicle of the Vedic god of waters, Varuna, thus firmly establishing the Vedic roots of the Ganges.
Hindu Temple
It is not uncommon to find an image of the Ganges flanking the door of a Hindu temple. There is a profound reason behind this positioning. Ganga’s celestial origin and her descent to earth make her an effective intermediary between the two worlds, a continuous and ever-flowing link between the two realms.
Her location at the threshold of a temple is appropriate in the sense that she connects the worlds of men and gods, and represents a transition between the two. The icon of Ganga at the entrance also implies her status as a remover of pollution.
Before entering the sacred realm of the gods, which is a temple, devotees must first cleanse themselves of worldly impurities. The Ganges is often accompanied by Yamuna (a tributary of the Ganges) at the entrance. Entering a temple flanked by images of these goddesses is believed to symbolically cleanse devotees in the purifying waters of these two rivers. In a delightful display of artistic license, the current and waves of their flowing waters are widely reflected in their swaying body postures. In fact, looking at them is just as effective as a ritual bath in their waters.
The intense devotion and love that her devotees feel for Ganga is no small thing due to the fact that she is the only accessible physical entity that flows both in the heavens and on earth. Ganga is, in effect, divine grace flowing into our material world, as seen in the prosperity of the fertile and crop-rich regions adjacent to her banks.
The consequent deification of the Ganges, as a nurturing mother and also as guardian of the Hindu temple, is nothing more than a natural evolution, when from the depths of the human mind springs forth a natural ode to her benign nature, manifesting itself in all areas of artistic expression.
