Ganges

I

Introduction

Ganges, most important river of the Indian subcontinent. The Ganges flows 2,510 km (1,560 mi) from the Himalayas of north central India southeast through Bangladesh and into the Bay of Bengal. Named for the Hindu goddess Ganga, the river draws from a basin of 1 million sq km (400,000 sq mi), one of the world’s most fertile and densely populated regions.

II

Course of the River

The Ganges is formed by the junction of two headstreams, the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, in the Himalayas of India’s Uttaranchal state. The commonly acknowledged source of the Ganges is the Bhagirathi, which originates in an ice cave at an elevation of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and is the smaller of the two headstreams. The Alaknanda rises below the peak Nanda Devi (7,817 m/25,646 ft) near the Tibetan border. Fed by melting snow and ice from glaciers such as Gangotri and from peaks such as Nanda Devi and Kāmet (7,756 m/25,446 ft), the two streams flow southward through the Middle Himalayas toward their point of convergence.

After traveling more than 200 km (125 mi), the Ganges reaches the city of Haridwār (altitude 310 m/1,020 ft), where it breaks through the low Siwālik Range and begins its generally southeasterly flow across the Gangetic Plain. At Haridwār a dam diverts water to the Upper Ganges Canal. Between Haridwār and Allahābād, a distance of nearly 800 km (500 mi), the river follows a winding course made unnavigable by shoals and rapids. At Allahābād, the Ganges is joined by the Yamuna River from the southwest, then flows east past the cities of Mirzāpur, Vārānasi, Patna, and Bhāgalpur near the Bangladesh border. In this portion of the river, the Ganges also receives the Son River from the south and the Gumti, Ghāghra, Gandak, and Kosi rivers from the north.

Past Bhāgalpur, the river skirts the Rājmahal Hills on the border of Bangladesh. Here, bending south, lies the head of the Ganges delta, roughly 900 km (560 mi) downstream from Allahābād and about 450 km (280 mi) short of the Bay of Bengal. Near Pākaur, India, the river branches. The subsidiary branch, the Bhagirathi, winds south to form the Hugli River (Hooghly), the westernmost branch of the delta as well as its principal channel of navigation. Oceangoing vessels may navigate the Hugli from its mouth on the Bay of Bengal to the port city of Kolkata, about 130 km (80 mi) upstream. Since the mid-1970s India has diverted water into the silted Hugli, aiding transportation to Kolkata but creating disputes over water rights with Bangladesh.

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The main branch of the Ganges continues through Bangladesh, where for part of its course it is called the Padma River. The river gives rise to several distributaries that form a vast network of waterways and one of the world’s largest, most fertile deltas. The main course of the river continues south and is joined by the Brahmaputra and then by the Meghna River (the name by which it is known thereafter) before entering the Bay of Bengal. At the bay the Meghna estuary measures 30 km (20 mi) wide. The river’s average annual discharge of water is surpassed only by those of the Amazon and Congo rivers. Because the discharge includes large deposits of sediment, the delta continues to expand into the bay.

III

Economic Importance

The Ganges basin is India’s most extensive, most agriculturally productive, and most densely populated region. In Asia, only the Huabei Pingyuan (North China Plain) is as densely settled. In the western part of the Gangetic Plain, the river provides irrigation water for an extensive canal system whose main arteries are the Upper Ganges Canal and the Lower Ganges Canal. Chief crops of the plain include rice, sugarcane, lentils, oil seeds, potatoes, and wheat. Almost all of the plain has been cleared of its former grasslands and forests to make way for crops.

Typically, the banks of the Ganges are lined with swamps and lakes. In these areas as well as in the fertile delta, crops such as rice, legumes, chilies, mustard, sesame, sugarcane, and jute are cultivated. Only a stretch of the southwestern delta, covered with mangrove trees, is left uncultivated. The mangroves are ideal habitat for several species of crocodile.

Because the Ganges is fed by snow-capped peaks, it remains a sizable body of water throughout the year and can be used for extensive irrigation even during the hot, dry season of April through June. During the summer monsoon season, heavy rains can cause destructive floods, especially in the delta area.

IV

Religious Importance

Hindus, who constitute the vast majority of India's population, consider the Ganges a sacred river: Ganga (or Ganges) is the daughter of the mountain god, Himavan or Himalaya. In Hindu ideology, bathing in the river is said to wash away one’s sins, and river water is used extensively in rituals. It is auspicious to drink from the Ganges in the hour before death, and many Hindus ask to be cremated along the Ganges and to have their ashes placed in the river.

Hindu pilgrims travel to the holy cities of Vārānasi, where religious ceremonies are often performed; Haridwār, revered because it is the place where the Ganges leaves the Himalayas; and Allahābād, where the mythical Saraswati River is believed to enter the Ganges. Every 12 years a month-long Purna Kumbha (Full Urn) festival is held in Haridwār and Allahābād in which millions of people come to bathe in the Ganges. Pilgrims also travel to sacred locations near the river’s headwaters, including a shrine beneath Gangotri glacier.

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