197 quotes found
"When flowing down from his head, she branched ofl: into seven rivers, of whom three, viz., Hladini, Pavani and Nahni flowed to the east, three others, viz., Su^akshu, Sita and 8iudhuxo the west, and the seventh followed her leader Bhagiratha*s chariot, purifying all those who bathed in her. She was named as his daughter, Bhagirathi. But on the way she was about to submerge the sacrifleial ground of Jahuu who was performing a sacrifice, and who, in order to save it, drank her away outrigiit to the astonishment of all. But, propitiated by Bhagiratha, Jahnu let the river out from his ears; and by thus issuing out from him she was named as his daughter, Jahnavi."
"Those who bathe at Ganga at least once in its pure water are protected from thousands of dangers forever and get rid of sins of generations and are purified immediately."
"The Lord is so kind that He has spread the river Ganges throughout the universe so that by taking bath in that holy river everyone can get released from the reactions of sins, which occur at every step."
"And again, Subhuti, suppose a woman or a man were to renounce all their belongings as many times as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges; and suppose that someone else, after taking from this discourse on dharma but one stanza of four lines would demonstrate it to others. Then this latter on the strength of that would beget a greater heap of merit, immeasurable and incalculable."
"The river Ganges (Ganga) on her way to the ocean, was quafied down in a draught by the Muni when interrupted in his meditation by the rush of the water, and was let out by an incision on his thigh at the intercession by Bhagiratha, hence the Ganges is called Jahnavi or the daughter of Jahnu Rishi."
"There are few things on which Hindu India, diverse as it is, might agree. But of the Ganges, India speaks with one voice. The Ganges carries an immense cultural and religious meaning for Hindus of every region and every sectarian persuasion."
"God creates the world as Brahma, sustains it as Vishnu, and destroys it as Shiva. One day, Shiva started to sing. Vishnu was so moved by the melody that he began to melt. Brahma caught the molten Vishnu in a pot. This was poured on earth. it took the form of the river Ganga. The Ganga nourished the earth. to bathe in the Ganga’s waters is to bathe in God. **Ganga Mahatmya, in Myth = Mithya(2008), p. 6"
"On Wings of Song, Sweetheart, I carry you away, Away to the fields of the Ganges, Where I know the most beautiful place."
"I am the shark among the fishes, and the Ganges (Jahnavi) among the rivers."
"Divine potency can also be a function of time. The confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna is for the Hindus more sacred than any other confluence of any other rivers. Hence more pilgrims bathe at this sangam [confluence]. The flow of pilgrims rises dramatically when the planet Jupiter enters the house of Aries, and the Sun enters the house of Capricorn. The planetary alignment takes place once in twelve years, which is marked by Maha Kumba Mela, the great gathering of holy men, believed to be the largest congregation in the world."
"What need of expensive sacrifices, Or of difficult penances? Worship Ganga, asking for happiness and good fortune, and she will bring you heaven and salvation."
"Fruits as same as that are yielded by a man by remaining undeviatingly engaged in penance at Kasi on the banks of Jahnavi (an epithet of Gahga) for a thousand of yugascan be obtained by the religious observance of sitting throughout the night with eyes wide-open in the worship of Krsna on the eleventh day of the month"
"Suppose a man becomes pure by chanting God’s holy name, but immediately afterwards commits many sins. He has no strength of mind. He does not take a vow not to repeat his sins. A bath in the Ganges undoubtedly absolves one of all sins; but what does that avail? They say that the sins perch on the trees along the banks of the Ganges. No sooner does the man comes back from the holy waters than the old sins jump on his shoulders from the trees. The same old sins take possession of him again. He is hardly out of the water before they fall upon him. Therefore I say, chant the name of God, and with it pray to Him that you may have love for Him. Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day."
"In consquence of whose (Madanapala's) distinguished prowness, there was never any talk of Hamibra's coming to the banks of the river of the Gods (i.e. the Ganges)."
"Scholars who build weighty theories on the paucity of references to the Ganges should remember that in the Yajus and Atharva Samhitas it is not mentioned at all."
"O Jahnavi! O Ganga! deliverer of the fallen.... O Protectress from hell! O Jahnavi! O Ganga!"
"Favour ye this my laud, O Gangā, Yamunā, O Sutudri, Paruṣṇī and Sarasvatī: With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Ārjīkīya with Susoma hear my call. First with Trstama thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Svetya here, With Kubha; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnu, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati."
"Your ancient home, your auspicious friendship, O Heroes, your wealth is on the banks of the Jahnavi."
"Brbu hath set himself above the Panis, o'er their highest head, Like the wide bush on Ganga's bank."
"Ashwins, when you came speeding on your course to Divodasa-Bharadvaja, holding you, your splendid vehicle traveled, yoked by a bull and a dolphin. Carrying wealth, dominion, progeny, life and vigor, accordant you came to the Jahnavi with strength, where your offering is made three times a day."
"Mention is made of Ganga in Rig Veda. Krishna identifies himself as Ganga in Gita....Shankaracharya considers Ganga as the chief of all Gods and Goddesses and is the ‘redeemer of the fallen’. Vivekananda carried the river water to the West with the faith that whenever in trouble a drop or two of Ganga water would soon be calm again."
"The Mississippi, the Ganges, and the Nile, those journeying atoms from the Rocky Mountains, the Himmaleh, and Mountains of the Moon, have a kind of personal importance in the annals of the world. The heavens are not yet drained over ..."
"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin, priest of Brahma, and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the River Ganga reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganga (Ganges)."
"The Ganges front is the supreme showplace of Banares. Its tall bluffs are solidly caked from water to summit, along a stretch of three miles, with a splendid jumble of massive and picturesque masonry, a bewildering and beautiful confusion of stone platforms, temples, stair flights, rich and stately palaces...soaring stairways, sculptured temples, majestic palaces, softening away into the distances; and there is movement, motion, human life everywhere, and brilliantly costumed - streaming in rainbows up and down the lofty stairways, and massed in metaphorical gardens on the mile of great platforms at the river's edge."
"Mother [Ganga] you girdle the earth and thereby lend it grace and beauty. You are the pathway, bedecked with banners of victory, to heaven. My only prayer to you is that I may live on your bank, watch your waves, repeat your name in my heart forever and die with my eyes fixed on you."
"Gita and Ganga constitute, between themselves, the essence of Hinduism: one its theory, and the other is practice."
"Whether you bathe in the Ganga for a thousand years or live on vegetable food for a like period, unless it helps towards the manifestation of the Self, know that it is all of no use"
"Darshanatsparshanatpanattatha Gangeti Keertanat Punatyapunyanpurushana Shatashotha The holy sight of Ganga gives knowledge, splendours, name, fame etc. The gravest of sins like Bramhhatya (killing of a Brahmin) and Gauhatya (killing of a cow) get absolved by the mere touch of Ganga holy water."
"All the superior religions had their growth between the Ganga and the Euphrates."
"Paris is the fountain-head of European civilisation, as Gomukhi is of the Ganga."
"See what an atmosphere of holiness is here -- the pure air of the Ganga -- what an assemblage of Sadhus -- will you find anywhere a place like this!"
"See here, how fresh is the air, there is the Ganga, and the Sadhus (holy men) are practising meditation, and holding lofty talks! While the moment you will go to Calcutta, you will be thinking of nasty stuff."
"Fool indeed is he, who, living on the banks of the Ganga, digs a little well for water. Fool indeed is the man who, coming to a mine of diamonds, begins to search for glass beads."
"The vapour becomes snow, then water, then Ganga; but when it is vapour, there is no Ganga, and when it is water, we think of no vapour in it. The idea of creation or change is inseparably connected with will. So long as we perceive this world in motion, we have to conceive will behind it."
"The waters of the Ganga are roaring among His matted locks."
"One day as this sage, Valmiki, was going to bathe in the holy river Ganga, he saw a pair of doves wheeling round and round, and kissing each other. The sage looked up and was pleased at the sight, but in a second an arrow whisked past him and killed the male dove. As the dove fell down on the ground, the female dove went on whirling round and round the dead body of its companion in grief. In a moment the poet became miserable, and looking round, he saw the hunter. "Thou art a wretch," he cried, "without the smallest mercy! Thy slaying hand would not even stop for love!" "What is this? What am I saying?" the poet thought to himself, "I have never spoken in this sort of way before." And then a voice came: "Be not afraid. This is poetry that is coming out of your mouth. Write the life of Rama in poetic language for the benefit of the world." And that is how the poem first began. The first verse sprang out of pits from the mouth of Valmiki, the first poet. And it was after that, that he wrote the beautiful Ramayana, "The Life of Rama."."
"There are men who practice Titiksha, and succeed in it. There are men who sleep on the banks of the Ganga in the midsummer sun of India, and in winter float in the waters of the Ganga for a whole day; they do not care. Men sit in the snow of the Himalayas, and do not care to wear any garment. What is heat? What is cold? Let things come and go, what is that to me, I am not the body."
"With the Holy Mother as the centre of inspiration, a Math is to be established on the eastern bank of the Ganga... On the other side of the Ganga a big plot of land will be acquired, where unmarried girls or Brahmacharini widows will live; devout married women will also be allowed to stay now and then. Men will have no concern with this Math."
"As sound—blithe race! whose mantles were bedecked With golden grasshoppers, in sign that they Had sprung, like those bright creatures, from the soil Whereon their endless generations dwelt. But stop! these theoretic fancies jar On serious minds: then, as the Hindoos draw Their holy Ganges from a skyey fount, Even so deduce the stream of human life, From seats of power divine; and hope, or trust, That our existence winds her stately course Beneath the sun, like Ganges, to make part Of a living ocean; or, to sink engulfed, Like Niger, in impenetrable sands And utter darkness: thought which may be faced, Though comfortless!"
"O Mother Ganga, may your water, abundant blessing of the world, treasure of Lord Shiva, playful lord of all earth, essence of the scriptures and embodied goodness of the gods, May your water, sublime wine of immortality, soothe our troubled souls."
"Even the most hardened atheist of a Hindu will find his heart full of feelings he has never felt before the first time he reaches the bank of the Ganga."
"The poet seers of the Vedas launched a tradition of praise for the blessings and purifying energy of the “goddess waters”... in poetic hymns of the Ganga such as "Ganga Lahiri". It is particularly the life, the movement, the activity of the waters of the Ganga that has attracted poets through the ages. Hers are not the motionless waters of the procreation seas, but running energetic waters of life. The traditional etymology of Ganga derives the name from the verb gam, “to go”"
"Her hymns constantly emphasize the running, flowing, energetic movement of her waters, and they do so at times with elaborate alliteration and onomatopoeia, as in this line from the famous Ganga Lahriri; marullila-lolallahari-lulitambhoja-patala 9May your running waters …”covered with lotuses that rock in your waves and roll playfully in the wind”…weaken the web of my earthly life)."
"According to some accounts, the Ganga split into seven streams as she emerged from the hair of Shiva, three flowing to the east, three to the west, and the Bhagirathi to the south. This tradition recalls the seven rivers of the Vedic hymns and reminds us that the Ganga in essence waters the whole earth. Indeed, when Bhagiratha brought the Ganga to earth, her waters not only restored the ashes of the dead but also replenished the ocean, which had been swallowed by the sage Agastya."
"As a Gauri (Parvati) is, so is the Ganga. Therefore, whoever worships Gauri properly also worships the Ganga And as I am, so are you, O Vishnu. And as you are, so am I. And as Uma (Parvati) is, so is the Ganga. The form is not different. And whoever says that there is some difference between Vishnu and Rudra, between Sri and Gauri, or between the Ganga and Gauri is a very foolish person."
"She, the Ganga, is my supreme image, having the form of water, the very essence of Shiva’s soul, She is nature (Prakriti) supreme and the basis of countless universe. For the protection of the world, I playfully uphold the Ganga. Who is mother of the world, the supreme Brahman’s embodiment."
"O Agastya, one should not be amazed at the notion that the Ganga is really Shakti, for is she not the supreme energy of the eternal Shiva, which has taken the form of water?"
"Om, Praise be to the auspicious Ganga, gift of Shiva, O Praise! Praise be to her who is Vishnu embodied, the very image of Brahma, O praise! Praise to her who is the form of Rudra, Shankara, the embodiment of all gods, the embodiment of healing, O praise!"
"Essence of the scriptures and embodied goodness of the gods."
"I come to you as a child to his mother I come as an orphan to you, moist with love I come without refuge to you, giver of sacred rest. I come a fallen man to you, up lifter of all . I come undone by disease to you, the perfect physician. I come, my heart dry with thirst, to you, ocean of sweet wine Do with me whatever you will."
"This Ganga was sent out for salvation of the world of Sambhu, Lord of lords, filled with the sweet wine of compassion. Shankara, having squeezed out the essence of yoga and the Upanishads, created this excellent river because of his mercy for all creatures."
"As a celestial stream flowing upon the earth she has her mythic origins in the world of the Vedas. As the tradition developed, she wound her way into the myth and ritual of Vaishnavas and Shaivas alike. She is hardly the best known consort of either Vishnu or Shiva, but she has acquired the position of consort to both of them, something no other goddess can claim. Even Brahma keeps close company with her, carrying the river in his water pot."
"As one of India’s largest and most sacred pilgrimage centers, Benares (Varanasi) has been revered for centuries by Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jains, millions of whom come to visit its innumerable temples and shrines and come to bathe along a three-mile stretch of steps leading to the Holy Ganga (Ganges) River. Whether coming for salvation, prosperity, or healing, most of these pilgrims have sought some form of ritual purification – a means of unloading their troubles and sins upon stars and holy men, the river Ganga, and the many sacred tanks fed by her springs and tributaries."
"...it is more than river. She is the Holy Mother. She is Ganga Ma."
"The Ganga is the foremost of India’s seven sacred rivers, winding fifteen hundred miles from the glaciers of Himalayas through twenty nine cities and seventy towns of the northern Indian plains and exiting into the Indian Ocean through the great delta that feeds into the Bay of Bengal on the eastern coast."
"The story of Holy Mother’s decent to earth has been recounted in numerous oral traditions, as well as in the Epic and Puranic literature. Through the single minded austerities of the pious King Bhagiratha, Lord Brahma granted a boon that Ganga Ma would descend upon the earth so she might carry sixty thousand of his cursed ancestors to the netherworld. Her fall was broken by Shiva’s matted locks, which prevented the earth from being destroyed by her impact, and locks channeled her downward flow from the Himalayas. Once upon the plains, Ganga Ma sought out King Bhagiratha in Banaras, who led her to the remains of his ancestors in Bengal, where she swept them along to the other world."
"Although any point along the Ganga can serve as a pilgrimage site, a number of especially powerful thirthas (sacred crossings) along her banks allow pilgrims to cover multiple spiritual bases with a single visit. Banaras is the largest and most visited of these thirthas, presenting itself as Kashi (“the luminous”), an otherworldly abode that rests Shiva’s trident and grants instant liberation to all who die within its boundaries."
"One should not be amazed … that this Ganges is really Power, for is she not the Supreme Shakti of the Eternal Shiva, taken in the form of water? This Ganges, filled with the sweet wine of compassion, was sent out for the salvation of the world by Shiva, the Lord of the Lords. Good people should not think this Triple-Pathed River to be like the thousand other earthly rivers, filled with water."
"Eck describes the creative power of the Ganga as “liquid Shakti”, evidenced by the fertility of fields along her banks and her position as a second consort and active principle of Shiva."
"In discussing the unlimited grace of the Ganga, Eck cites a common Indian saying that “no child is too dirty to be embraced by its mother”. Indeed mother Ganga embraces everyone and everything that is put into her (or that she enters)."
"The mother keeps the baby in the stomach for nine months and then gives birth. She cleans her excreta and urine, and the child is [always] in this when he is small. Then that is [how] the mother takes care of the baby, doesn’t she? So she is Ganga Ma. All this trash, good things, bad things, everything, is in her. So she will never be impure. The mother is never impure."
"There is a common saying that even a single droplet of Ganges water carried one’s way by the breeze will erase the sins of many life times in an instant."
"Just as Banaras is a prototype for sacred India, her sacred features are prototypes for the divine roles of the city as a whole. Foremost among these features are the Ganga and the two famous cremation grounds (Shmashans) along her banks. Pilgrims commonly say that Banaras is like the Mother Ganga, who accepts and purifies anyone and anything that come to her and transforms them into herself… each of these features, - the Ganga, the Shmashans and the city as a whole – functions as a kind of cosmic sink, a sacred dumping ground…"
"When Ganga was brought to Haridwar, then all the Gods asked: ’We wash all sins, but who will wash us?’ Ganga said this to Lord Vishnu:’Lord Vishnu Bhagwan, tell us, what should we do?’ Then the Lord said: ‘As many sadhus and saints are living in this world, every time they will bathe in Ganga, all your sins will be washed away [automatically]."
"When the [Rig Vedic] hymns were written the focus of Āryan culture was the region between the Jamnā (Sanskrit Yamunā) and Satlaj (Shutudrī), south of the modern Ambālā, and along the upper course of the river Sarasvatī. The latter river is now an insignificant stream, losing itself in the desert of Rajasthan, but it then [in Rig Vedic times] flowed broad and strong..."
"Sarasvati's rediscovery, although arguably suggestive of considerable Vedic antiquity, cannot be used to prove absolute synonymity of the Indus Valley residents and the Vedic Aryans."
"Likewise for the interminable discussion on the Sarasvati, although I will note, here, that proposals correlating her with other rivers in Afghanistan or elsewhere are unconvincing to my mind, as are attempts to argue that she ended in a terminal lake rather than the ocean. Kazanas has provided additional philological arguments to support the least complicated opinion, that Sarasvati as known in the Rgveda was a mighty river that flowed to the sea. One can always engage in special pleading to avoid this conclusion..."
"In any case, the Sarasvati-phobia of this group of scholars is inexplicable. If they are upset by the density of distribution of Harappan sites in the region drained by the Sarasvati and get alarmed by the prospect of the Indus civilization being associated with ancient Brahmavarta, basically the land between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, that is their problem."
"The Ghaghar river . . . does not in the heaviest season pass in force beyond Bhatnir . . . and the period when this river ceased to flow as one is far beyond record, and belongs to the fabulous periods of which even tradition is scanty... When the depopulation took place, I am not prepared to say; it must have been long since, as none of the village sites present[s] one brick standing on another, above ground,—though, in digging beneath it, very frequent specimens of an old brick are met with, about 16 inches by 10 inches, and 3 inches thick, of most excellent quality: buildings erected of such materials could not have passed away in any short period. The evident cause of this depopulation of the country is the absolute absence of water."
"The most sacred and eastern source of the Sarasvatī is said to be Adi-Badri Kunda north of Katgadh [Kathgarh], while the latter is still remembered to be the place where the sacred stream came out of the hills."
"As for Burrow‘s thesis that some place names reflect the names of geographical features to the west, and thus preserve an ancestral home, they once again rather rely on an assumption of Arya migrations than prove it. [...] His cited equivalence of Sanskrit Saraswati and Avestan Haraxvaiti is a case in point. Burrow accepts that it is the latter term that is borrowed, undergoing the usual change of s- > h in the process, but suggests that Saraswati was a proto-Indoaryan term, originally applied to the present Haraxvaiti when the proto-Indoaryans still lived in northeastern Iran, then it was brought into India at the time of the migrations, while its original bearer had its name modified by the speakers of Avestan who assumed control of the areas vacated by proto-Indoaryans. It would be just as plausible to assume that Saraswati was a Sanskrit term indigenous to India and was later imported by the speakers of Avestan into Iran. The fact that the Zend Avesta is aware of areas outside the Iranian plateau while the Rigveda is ignorant of anything west of the Indus basin would certainly support such an assertion."
"The treatment of the Saraswati evidence forms an interesting case study in the stonewalling of putative pro-OIT evidence by AIT militants, typically outsiders to Indo-European studies such as comparative historian Steve Farmer: they lambast the equating of the Vedic Saraswati with today’s Ghaggar as a paranoid Hindu-nationalist concoction, when actually it was established by a string of Western scholars since the 1850s, in tempore non suspecto. A case study of how this debate has been poisoned by endless political imputations."
"Often enough it seemed as though, like the river Sarasvatī, the lost stream of the old Sapta-sindhavas, the river of Indian thought had disappeared beneath the surface or had become lost in shallow marshes and morasses . . . But, sooner or later, we see the stream reappear, and then old ideas resume their way."
"In view of Stein’s statement which had led us to believe that nothing very ancient would be found in the region, it was a great thrill for us when even on the first and second days of our exploration we found sites with unmistakable affinities with the culture of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. And a few subsequent days’ work convinced us that the Sarasvatī valley had been really a commingling of many rivers, not only geographically, but culturally... ‘the valleys of the Sarasvatī and the Drishadvatī must be regarded as very rich indeed in archaeological remains’."
"Some of the earliest Aryan settlements in India were on the banks of the Saraswati, and the surrounding country has from almost Vedic times been held in high veneration. The Hindus identify the river with Saraswati, the Sanskrit Goddess of Speech and Learning."
"It is certain... that the Rigveda offers no assistance in determining the mode in which the Vedic Áryans entered India... the bulk at least [of the R V] seems to have been composed rather in the country round the Sarasvati river."
"Now, it would be ludicrous to claim that the IAs left the common Indo-Iranian habitat, as per the AIT, moved into Saptasindhu and turning the Haraχvaiti name into Sarasvatī gave it to a river there to remember their past while they proceeded to generate the root sṛ and its derivatives to accord with other IE languages. Occam’s razor, which here is conveniently ignored by AIT adherents, commands the opposite: that the Iranians moved away, lost the root sṛ and the name Sarasvatī in its devolved form Haraxvaiti was given to a river in their new habitat."
"The country bears traces of having once been well inhabited. At no very distant period, the waters of the Guggur [Ghaggar] river reached as far as Sooratgurh, and old wells are numerous as far as Bhatner [Hanumangarh]’..."
"[It] revealed an incredibly dense concentration of sites, along the dried-up course of a river that could be identified as the ‘Saraswati’. . . Suddenly it became apparent that the ‘Indus’ Civilization was a misnomer—although the Indus had played a major role in the rise and development of the civilization, the ‘lost Saraswati’ River, judging by the density of settlement along its banks, had contributed an equal or greater part to its prosperity...Many people today refer to this Early state as the ‘Indus-Saraswati Civilization’ and continuing references [in her book] to the ‘Indus Civilization’ should be seen as an abbreviation in which the ‘Saraswati’ is implied."
"It can be stated with certainty that the present Ghaggar-Hakra is nothing but a remnant of the RgVedic Sarasvati which was the lifeline of the Indus Civilization."
"The Sarasvatī comes between the Jumna and the Sutlej, the position of the modern Sarsūti . . . There are strong reasons to accept the identification of the later and the earlier Sarasvatī throughout [the Rig Veda]."
"Here we see samudra used clearly in the sense of sea, the Indian sea, and we have at the same time a new indication of the distance which separates the Vedic age from that of the later Sanskrit literature. Though it may not be possible to determine by geological evidence the time of the changes which modified the southern area of the Penjāb and caused the Sarasvatī to disappear in the desert, still the fact remains that the loss of the Sarasvatī is later than the Vedic age, and that at that time the waters of the Sarasvatī reached the sea."
"The waters of the Sarasvati [are] continuous with the dry bed of a great river [Hakra], which, as local legends assert, once flowed through the desert to the sea."
"Although the river below the confluence [with the Ghaggar] is marked in our maps as Gaggar, it was formerly the Saraswatī; that name is still known amongst the people."
"We have also seen that the Vedic description of the waters of the Saraswatī flowing onward to the ocean, and that given in the Mahabharata, of the sacred river losing itself in the sands, were probably both of them correct at the periods to which they referred."
"[The Hakra’s drying up] reduced a vast extent of once fruitful country to a howling wilderness, and thus several flourishing cities and towns became ruined or deserted by their inhabitants."
"More important is the Sarasvatī, the true lifeline of Vedic geography, whose trace is assumed to be found in the Sarsutī, located between the Satlaj and the Jamnā. With the Indus and its five tributaries, it forms the Veda’s “seven rivers”."
"The trace of the ancient riverbed was recently found, still quite recognizable, and was followed far to the west. [This discovery] confirmed the correctness of the tradition."
"The Ran is the delta of the Hakra, the lost river of Sind."
"Traditional Indian belief recognizes in this well-marked bed the course of the sacred Sarasvatī, once carrying its abundant waters down to the ocean and since antiquity ‘lost’ in desert sands... [The Ghaggar was] still known as the Sarsuti (the Hindi derivative of Sarasvatī) [which] passes the sacred sites of Kurukshetra near Thanesar, a place of Hindu pilgrimage."
"There is now a desperate salvage operation on, in powerful leftist and "secularist" political circles in India, to put a complete full stop to any further official research on the Sarasvatī (including archaeological and geological investigations), and to launch an all-out Goebbelsian campaign through a captive media to deny that there ever was a Vedic Sarasvatī river in existence in India: the river named in the Rigveda was either completely mythical, or it was the river in Afghanistan, but it definitely was not identical with the Ghaggar-Hakra!"
"To the drying up of the Hakra, or Gliaggar, many centuries ago, in conjunction with moral evils, is ascribed the existing desolation... The vestiges of large towns, now buried in the sands, confirm the truth of this tradition, and several of them claim a high antiquity..."
"Many [Rigvedic] verses celebrate the might of the ancient river Sarasvati, nah priyà priyàsu ‘dearest of all our dear ones’. The word priyá... has the sense of ‘one’s own, that one is used to, or attached to’."
"The earliest seat of the Hindus within the confines of Hindusthān was undoubtedly the eastern confines of the Panjab. The holy land of Manu and the Purānas lies between the Drishadwatī and Saraswatī rivers, the Caggar [Ghaggar] and Sursooty [Sarsuti] of our barbarous maps. Various adventures of the first princes and most famous sages occur in this vicinity; and the Āshramas, or religious domiciles, of several of the latter are placed on the banks of the Saraswatī . . . These indications render it certain, that whatever seeds were imported from without, it was in the country adjacent to the Saraswatī river that they were first planted, and cultivated and reared in Hindusthān."
"This dry bed is indeed the holy river ‘Sarasvatī’ . . .; once upon a time, this was a genuine solitary river which reached the ocean without any tributaries on its long way through the desert."
"At a distance of a journey of forty days on horseback from the spot where the Sarasvati is lost (in the sand of the desert), (is situated) Plaksa Prasravaja."
"Sarasvatī’s stream lost in barbarous sandy wastes."
"When Harsha’s father, the king of Sthānvīshvara, passed away, the people ‘bore him to the river Sarasvatī, and there upon a pyre befitting an emperor solemnly consumed all but his glory in the flames’."
"On the Sarasvatī there are ruined sites called Naitandhava; Vyarna is one of these."
"Sarasvati, pure in her course from the mountains to the sea."
"O Sarasvati, lead us on to better, Do not spurn us, do not deprive us of your plenty; Rejoice in our company, and that we’re neighbours, Let us not go away from you to foreign fields."
"O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise!"
"Your excellent waters fill this whole universe."
"In some parts (of her course) she becomes visible and in some parts not so."
"Although the Sarasvatī seems to be lost, yet persons crowned with ascetic success . . . and owing also to the coolness of the herbs and of the land there, know that the river has an invisible current through the bowels of the earth."
"The sacred Sarasvatī is the foremost river of all rivers. She courses towards the ocean and is truly the first of all streams."
"Where else is such happiness as that in a residence by the Sarasvatī? . . . All should ever remember the Sarasvatī! Sarasvatī is the most sacred of rivers!"
"And here comes, between verses 825 and 835, a puzzle to all the European interpreters. Says the Titan: -- "To these (Arimaspi and Grypes) approach not; a far border land Thou next wilt reach, where dwells a swarthy race Near the Sun's founts, where is the AEthiop "river"; Along its banks proceed till thou attain The mighty rapids, where from Bybline heights Pure draughts of sacred water Neilos sends . . . " There Io was ordained to found a colony for herself and sons. Now we must see how the passage is interpreted. As Io is told that she has to travel eastward till she comes to the river Ethiops, which she is to follow till it falls into the Nile -- hence the perplexity. "According to the geographical theories of the earliest Greeks" we are informed by the author of the version on "Prometheus Bound" -- "This condition was fulfilled by the river Indus. Arrian (vi. i.) mentions that Alexander the Great, when preparing to sail down the Indus (having seen crocodiles in the river Indus, and in no other river except the Nile . . . ), seemed to himself to have discovered the sources of the Nile, as though the Nile, rising from some place in India, and flowing through much desert land, and thereby losing its name Indus, next . . . flowed through inhabited land, being now called the Nile by the Ethiopians of those parts and afterwards by the Egyptians. Virgil in the 4th Georgic echoes the absolute error" (p. 197, Vol. II.). Both Alexander and Virgil may have erred considerably in their geographical notions; but the prophecy of Prometheus has not so sinned, in the least -- not, at any rate, in its esoteric spirit. When a certain race is symbolised, and events pertaining to its history are rendered allegorically, no topographical accuracy ought to be expected in the itinerary traced for its personification. Yet it so happens, that the river "Ethiops" is certainly the Indus, and it is also the Nil or Nila. It is the river born on the Kailas (heaven) mountain, the mansion of the gods -- 22,000 feet above the level of the sea. It was the Ethiops river -- and was so called by the Greeks, long before the days of Alexander, because its banks, from Attock down to Sind, were peopled by tribes generally referred to as the Eastern Ethiopians. India and Egypt were two kindred nations, and the Eastern Ethiopians -- the mighty builders -- have come from India, as is pretty well proved, it is hoped, in "ISIS UNVEILED."."
"Everything is numbered east of the Indus River."
"The Northwest has always had a negative connotation in the Vedic tradition. Thus, R. Siddhantashastree writes: “The valley of the five tributaries of the Indus had always been held as an unholy region because of its occupation by a non-Aryan tribe antagonistic to the civilized Aryans until the time of Sambarana, (...) the king of Hastinapura belonging to the Lunar dynasty. He was the first Aryan to settle in the valley after driving away the aboriginal non-Aryans to a considerable distance.”"
"He [Aristobulus] says that when he was sent on some business, he saw a tract of land deserted which contained more than a thousand cities with their villages, for the Indus, having forsaken its proper channel, turned itself into another on the left much deeper, into which it burst like a cataract, so that it no longer watered the country on the right, from which it receded, for this had been raised by the inundations not only above the level of the new channel but even above that of the new inundations... ‘India is liable to earthquakes as it becomes porous from the excess of moisture and opens into fissures, whence even the course of rivers is altered’."
"The RV hymn X, 75, however, gives a list of names of rivers where Sarasvati is merely mentioned (verse 5) while Sindhu receives all the praise (verses 2-4 and 7-9). This may well indicate a period after the first drying up of Sarasvati (c. 3500 ) when the river lost its preeminence. It is agreed that the tenth Book of the RV is later than the others."
"(It has been assumed that) the part of the Sutlej that flowed into the Sarasvati shifted to the Beas, eventually swelling the Indus’s waters: “An increase in water and sediment discharge of that magnitude [provoked by the westward shift of the Sutlej] would have had dramatic effects downstream in the Lower Indus Basin,” according to Louis Flam. This might help explain the near complete absence of Late Harappan sites in this region: they may have been either washed away or buried under sediments."
"Thus the Sindhu, Nahr-i-Sind, Ab-i-Sind, or Indus, from the time that we possess any authentic records respecting it, was a tributary, along with the other rivers now forming the Panch Nad, or Panj Ab, of the Накта, or Wahindab, which having all united into one great river at the Dosh-i-Ab, as related by the old 'Arab and Sindí writers, formed the Mihrán of Sind, or Sind-Ságar. Lower down than this point of junction it sent off a brauch to the westwards which passed Aror, the ancient capital of Sind, on the east, which again united with the main channel above Mansüriyah, and entered the ocean sometimes by one, and sometimes by two principal mouths."
"Strabo’s Geography XV.1.19 says that Aristobulus of Cassandreia who accompanied Alexander the Great over a thousand years later saw thousands of towns and villages deserted on the Indus, so it too must have been diverted. He reported ‘a deserted zone which contained more than 100 towns with villages dependent on them. The Indus having quit its bed, had moved across to another bed on its left bank, a deeper one…the region formerly inundated on its right bank whose bed it had left, now found itself high and dry above the level of the annual floods.’"
"This river with his lucid flow attracts you, more than all the streams,— Even Sindhu with his path of gold."
"Indra, the mortal man well guarded by thine aid goes foremost in the wealth of horses and of kine. With amplest wealth thou fillest him, as round about the waters clearly seen afar fill Sindhu full."
"Hear, Mitra-Varuṇa, these mine invocations, hear them from all men in the hall of worship. Giver of famous gifts, kind hearer, Sindhu who gives fair fields, listen with all his waters!"
"With wisdom I present these lively praises of Bhāvya dweller on the bank of Sindhu; For he, unconquered King, desiring glory, hath furnished me a thousand sacrifices."
"May the great Dragon of the Deep rejoice us: as one who nourishes her young comes Sindhu, With whom we will incite the Child of Waters whom vigorous course swift as thought bring hither."
"“Let Sindhu with his wave bedew your horses: in fiery glow have the red birds come hither. Observed of all was that your rapid going, whereby ye were the Lords of Sūrya’s Daughter.”"
"“May the libations poured to thee thrice daily, day after day, O Savitar, bring us blessing. May Indra, Heaven, Earth, Sindhu with the Waters, Aditi with Ādityas, give us shelter.”"
"“The Housewife Goddess, Aditi, and Sindhu, the Goddess Svasti I implore for friendship: And may the unobstructed Night and Morning both, day and night, provide for our protection.”"
"“So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the watery Sarayu obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give.”"
"“Let not the Rasā {River}, the Anitabhā, the Kubhā, the Krumu, let not the Sindhu bring you to a halt. Let not the overflowing Sarayu hem you around. On us alone let your favour be.”"
"“Wherewith thou dravest forth like cars Sindhu and all the mighty floods To go the way ordained by Law, for that we long.”"
"“Haters of those who serve you not, bliss-bringers, bring us bliss with those auspicious aids Wherewith ye are victorious and guard Sindhu well, and succour Krivi in his need.”"
"“Maruts, who rest on fair trimmed grass, what balm soever Sindhu or Asikni hath, Or mountains or the seas contain.”"
"“And may the Sindhu of the floods, the Maruts, and the ASvin Pair, Boon Indra, and boon Viṣṇu have one mind with us.”"
"“Soma, may we, with thee as Pavamana, pile up together all our spoil in battle. This boon vouchsafe us Varuṇa and Mitra, and Aditi and Sindhu, Earth and Heaven.”"
"“Let the great Streams come hither with their mighty help, Sindhu, Sarasvatī, and Sarayu with waves. Ye Goddess Floods, ye Mothers, animating all, promise us water rich in fatness and in balm.”"
"“Thunder, the lightning’s daughter, Aja-Ekapād, heaven’s bearer, Sindhu, and the waters of the sea: Hear all the Gods my words, Sarasvatī give ear together with Purandhi and with Holy Thoughts.”"
"“Sindhu, the sea, the region, and the firmament, the thunder, and the ocean, Aja-Ekapād, The Dragon of the Deep, shall listen to my words, and all the Deities and Princes shall give ear.”"
"“The singer, O ye Waters in Vivasvān’s place, shall tell your grandeur forth that is beyond compare. The Rivers have come forward triply, seven and seven. Sindhu in might surpasses all the streams that flow.”"
"“His roar is lifted up to heaven above the earth: he puts forth endless vigour with a flash of light. Like floods of rain that fall in thunder from the cloud, so Sindhu rushes on bellowing like a bull.”"
"“Like mothers to their calves, like milch kine with their milk, so, Sindhu, unto thee the roaring rivers run. Thou leadest as a warrior king thine army’s wings what time thou comest in the van of these swift streams.”"
"“First with Tr̥ṣṭāmā thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartu, and with Śvetyā here, With Kubhā; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnū, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomatī.”"
"“To travel first joined with the Tr̥ṣṭāmā, {then} with the Susartū, the Rasā, and this Śvetyā, you, o Sindhu, {come} with the Kubhā to the Gomatī, with the Mehatnū to the Krumu, on the same chariot {with all these}, with which you go speeding.”"
"“Flashing and whitely-gleaming in her mightiness, she moves along her ample volumes through the realms, Most active of the active, Sindhu unrestrained, like to a dappled mare, beautiful, fair to see.”"
"“Rich in good steeds is Sindhu, rich in cars and robes, rich in gold, nobly-fashioned, rich in ample wealth. Blest Silamavati and young Urnavati invest themselves with raiment rich in store of sweets.”"
"“Sindhu hath yoked her car, light-rolling, drawn by steeds, and with that car shall she win booty in this fight. So have I praised its power, mighty and unrestrained, of independent glory, roaring as it runs.”"
"The stream merged in Ganga it became Ganga itself."
"I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares."
"The Ganga is the symbol of India's culture, the source of our legend and poetry, the sustainer of millions. Today it is one of the most polluted rivers. We will restore the pristine purity of the Ganga. A Central Ganga Authority will be set up to implement an action plan to prevent the pollution of the Ganga and its tributaries."
"Many environmentalists say that the Ganges has become an embarrassing symbol of government indifference and neglect in a country that regards itself as an economic superpower. "We can send a shuttle into space, we can build the [new] Delhi Metro [subway] in record time. We can detonate nuclear weapons. So why can't we clean up our rivers?" Jaiswal laments. "We have money. We have competence. The only problem is that the issue is not a priority for the Indian government.""
"O water of the river Ganges, thou rememberst the day When our torrent flooded thy valleys..."
"Jaharnavi (Jahnavi) was brought by the ascetic Bhagiratha..."
"If the wine is made from the waters of Sursuri (Ganges), the saintly persons do not drink it; if the impure wine or any ,jf other water, mixes with Sursuri, it becomes the Sursuri itself."
"My desire to have handful of my ashes thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad has no religious significance so far as I am concerned. I have no religious sentiments in the matter. I have been attached to the Ganga and the Jumna rivers since my childhood. As I have grown older, this attachment has also grown. I have watched their varying moods as the seasons changed, and have been though of the history and myth and tradition and song and story that have become attached to them through long ages and become part of their flowing waters. The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age long culture and civilization, ever changing, ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga. She reminds of the snow-covered peaks and deep valleys of the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and vast plains below, where my life and work have been cast."
"For India's devout Hindus, the sacred River Ganges is always clean and always pure -- even if its waters are a toxic mix of human sewage, discarded garbage and factory waste. ... Ganges water is well known for its extraordinary resilience and recuperative capacity."
"I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, – astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc."
"The mighty ones, the seven times seven, have singly given me hundred gifts. I have obtained on Yamuna famed wealth in kine and wealth in steeds."
"Yamuna and the Trtsus aided Indra."
"O Gangā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Shutudrī (Sutlej), Parushnī (Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asiknī (Chenab), Marudvridhā (Maruvardhvan), Vitastā (Jhelum) with Ārjīkiyā and Sushomā. First you flow united with Trishtāmā, with Susartu and Rasā, and with Svetyā, O Sindhu (Indus) with Kubhā (Kabul) to Gomati (Gumal or Gomal), with Mehatnū to Krumu (Kurram), with whom you proceed together."
"Finding some divine liquor in a forest near Vrindavan one day, he (Balarāma) became so inebriated that he was taken over by the fancy to summon the Yamunā to himself so that he could bathe in her. The lady was less than enthusiastic, however, and turned a deaf ear. Furious, Balarāma seized his ploughshare, plunged it into her bank, and dragged her to him: ‘He compelled the dark river to quit its ordinary course,’ says the Vishnu Purāna."
"Even to this day, the Yamunā is seen to flow through the track (river bed) through which [she] was dragged."
"To reconstruct the main stages in the [Sarasvati] river’s life—in a manner which, I believe, respects all the strands of our web—I will begin with a useful clue in the Mahābhārata. In two places at least, the epic tells us that the Sarasvatī’s course in the mountain was close to the Yamunā’s. In the more precise passage of the two, Balarāma climbs to a tīrtha on the Sarasvatī called ‘Plakshaprāsravana’ (the name of the river’s source as we saw earlier) and, from there, soon reaches the Yamunā."
"The Yamunā was thus a double river—which would conveniently explain the root meaning of the word yamunā: ‘twin’."
"“Forth from the bosom of the mountains, eager as two swift mares with loosened rein contending, Like two bright mother cows who lick their youngling, Vipāś and Śutudrī speed down their waters.”"
"The Mahābhārata tells us how the great rishi Vasishtha, sorely distressed when he found that all his sons had been killed by his arch rival Vishvāmitra, wished to end his life. He tried various ways, but the elements always refused to cooperate; the sea or rivers into which he repeatedly hurled himself, bound with ropes or weighed with stones, stubbornly cast him back ashore. Thinking he was a ball of fire, the last river he plunged into ‘immediately flew in a hundred different directions, and has been known ever since by the name of the Shatadru, the river of a hundred courses’. Here again, the textual tradition is in accordance with what we find on the ground in the form of the Sutlej’s multiple channels."
"This early confluence of the Sutlej and Beas was by no means the end of the matter. Both rivers have separated and rejoined several times in the last 2000 years."
"the Sutlej ‘flowed southwards from the Himalāya . . . and onwards, through Sind, to the sea’—until, for some reason, a prince-turned-ascetic named Puran, a hero of many Punjabi legends, cursed the river to leave its bed and move westward. ‘The stream, in consequence, changed its course more and more towards the west, until, six hundred and fifty years ago, it entered the Beas valley . . .’, which would take us to the thirteenth century CE; but leaving aside the date, the consequence was ‘a terrible drought and famine in the country on the banks of the Hakra, where [large] numbers of men and cattle perished. The survivors then migrated to the banks of the Indus, and the country has ever since been desert’"
"If the river Drsadvati is full of water, they should perform the Aponaptriya Isti near its confluence (in the Sarasvati). Dhanamjaya maintains that it may be performed there, even if it (the Drsadvati) has no water."
"He set thee in the earth’s most lovely station, in Iḷā’s place, in days of fair bright weather. On man, on Āpayā, Agni! on the rivers Dṛṣadvati, Sarasvatī, shine richly."
"That land, created by the gods, which lies between the two divine rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati, the (sages) call Brahmavarta."
"“For fear of thee forth fled the dark-hued races, scattered abroad, deserting their possessions, When, glowing, O Vaiśvānara, for Pūru, thou Agni didst light up and rend their castles.”"
"From fear of you, Agni, the Asikni people fled and abandoned their possessions"
"Holy Maruts, what medicine is on the Indus, in the Asikni, in the oceans or in the mountains, with that bless us."
"“Bull, hurler of the four-edged rain-producer with both his arms, strong, mighty, most heroic; Wearing as wool Paruṣṇī for adornment, whose joints for sake of friendship he hath covered.”"
"“Fair-gleaming, on Paruṣṇī they have clothed themselves in robes of wool, And with their chariot tires they cleave the rock asunder in their might.”"
"“Fools, in their folly fain to waste her waters, they parted inexhaustible Paruṣṇī. Lord of the Earth, he with his might repressed them: still lay the herd and the affrighted herdsman.” “As to their goal they sped to their destruction: they sought Paruṣṇī; e’en the swift returned not. Indra abandoned, to Sudās the manly, the swiftly flying foes, unmanly babblers.”"
"“The very truth do I declare to thee, Paruṣṇī, mighty flood. Waters! No man is there who gives more horses than Śaviṣṭha gives.”"
"There is no doubt that the Rawi, even more than some of the other rivers constituting the Panch Nad or Panj Ab, has changed more or less from one side to the other and back again time after time; and thus to attempt to “identify" places along its present banks with others supposed to have existed more than twenty-two centuries ago, is so absurd as to require no further comment."
"I have driven to the best motherly river (Śutudrī). We have come to the well-formed Vipāś. Like a cow licking a calf both proceeding together along the same river bed (yoni)."
"“So there this car of Uṣas lay, broken to pieces, in Vipāś, And she herself fled far away.”"
"Wherewith ye made Rasā swell full with water-floods, and urged to victory the car without a horse; Wherewith Triśoka drove forth his recovered cows,—Come hither unto us, O Aśvins, with those aids.”"
"“Duly to each one hath my laud been offered. Strong be Varūtrī with her powers to succour. May the great Mother Rasā here befriend us, straight-handed, with the princes, striving forward.”"
"“Into the pressed soma pour glory {= milk}, the full glory of the two world-halves. The Rasā (River {= water} should receive the bull.”"
"“On every side, O Soma, flow round us with thy protecting stream, As Rasā flows around the world.”"
"“What wish of Saramā hath brought her hither? The path leads far away to distant places. What charge hast thou for us? Where turns thy journey? How hast thou made thy way o’er Rasā’s waters.”"
"“I come appointed messenger of Indra, seeking your ample stores of wealth, O Paṇis. This hath preserved me from the fear of crossing: thus have I made my way o’er Rasā’s waters.”"
"“His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasā his possession: His arms are these, his are these heavenly regions. What God shall we adore with our oblation?“"
"With those aids by which you make the Rasa overflow with a flood of water, with those aids come to us, oh Ashwins (I.112.12)."
"May the Rasa, the Mighty Mother, flow for us (V.41.15)."
"Clear-seeing Soma flow, fill great Heaven and Earth, like the dawn the Sun with his rays. Flow to us from all sides with your most peaceful current, like the river Rasa around the world (IX.41.6)."
"Your wide vehicle encompasses Heaven, when from the ocean it returns you. Let the Indus with the Rasa anoint your horses (IV.43.5-6)."
"Whose they say are the Himalayas with their majesty, and the ocean with the Rasa, whose are these five directions, whose are these two arms, to the unknown God may we give our offering (X.121.4)."
"So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the watery Sarayu obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give."