The belief is that the holy Ganges descended from the heavens on Ganga Dussehra. According to Hindu mythology, the 10th day of waxing half of the month of Jyestha is celebrated as Ganga Dussehra. The legend has it that the holy Ganges only flowed in the heaven and was brought down to Earth in the form of a Goddess to purify the ashes of King Bhagiratha's ancestors.
The River Ganges, also known as the Ganga, flows 2,700 km from the Himalaya mountains to the Bay of Bengal in northern India and Bangladesh. Regarded as sacred by Hindus, the river is personified as the goddess Ganga in ancient texts and art. Ritual bathing in the Ganges was and is an important part of Hindu pilgrimage and the ashes of the cremated are often spread across her waters.
* The word “Ganga” literally means, “to flow”. The Ganga is almost synonymous with India, and is one of the fundamental threads of the nation’s spiritual and cultural ethos.
* Many of India’s most sacred places – Rishikesh, Hardwar, Prayag and Kashi – are along its banks. In the Himalayas, Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gomukh are a few of the holy sites along the Ganga and its tributaries.
* Two of the four places where the Kumbh Mela takes place are located on the Ganga – Hardwar and Prayag.
* On the banks of the River Sone, one of Ganga’s tributaries, archaeologists found a 11,000-year old triangular stone, thought to be one of the oldest representations of a yantra, indicating worship of Shakti or the goddess.
* The French philosopher Francis M. Voltaire was so awed by the Ganga that he said, “I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganga – astronomy, astrology, spiritualism, etc. It is very important to note that some 2500 years ago at the least, Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganga to learn geometry.” (translated from French)
* Ganga jal or the Ganga’s water was regarded as amrit, the nectar of the gods, in the past. Akbar the Mughal emperor always carried a supply with him. The British East India Company used only Ganga water for its sailors during the three-month journey back to England, because it stayed “sweet and fresh” throughout. In 1896, a British bacteriologist noticed that Ganga water destroys cholera microbes.