GANGA, in Hindu mythology, the personified goddess of the river Ganges, the source of which the Saiva sects place in Siva's hair; whence, in graceful flow, she 'sprung radiant, And, descending, graced the caverns of the west.' The Vaishnava sects assert that it flowed out of Vaikuntha, from the foot of Vishnu, and, descend ing upon Kailasa, fell on the head of Siva, who shook some drops (Hindu) from his hair, and these formed the great lake called Bindu Sarovara, far to the north of Hindustan. Sometimes the Ganges is fabled to issue from a cow's mouth, and the cleft in the Himalaya is called Gungotri and Gaomukhi. Others make it arise from water poured by Brahma on the foot of Siva ; others, from the feet of Brahma; and others,from the fingers of Parvati. The Ganga is also called Dasahara or ten removing, as bathing in her waters on the tenth day of the month Jyaisha effaces ten sins, however heinous soever, committed in ten previous births. One of -the holiest spots of the Ganges, is where it joins with the Jumna, near Allahabad, though, with Hindus, the sangam or confluence of any river is a spot peculiarly revered. A person dying at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna is supposed to be certain of immediate moksh or beatitude, without risk of further trans migration. Professor Wilson, in his translation of the Mudra Rakshasa, describes Ganga as by the autumn led, Fondly impatient, to her ocean lord, Tossing her waves, as with offended pride, And pining fretful at the lengthened way.' Though, as above related, the honour of having given birth to this goddess, the personification of the sacred stream of the Ganges, has been claimed for their deities both by the Saiva and Vaisbnava sects, all sects and castes of Hindus worship this goddess of their sacred stream. Numerous temples are erected on the banks of the river in honour of her, in which clay images are set up and wor shipped. The waters of the river are highly reverenced, and are carried in compressed vessels to the remotest parts of the country ; from whence, also, persons perform journeys of several months' duration, to bathe in the river itself. By its
waters the Hindus swear in courts of justice. Mr. Ward says there are 3,500,000 places sacred to Ganga ; but that, according to Hindus, a person either by bathing in or seeing this river, may be at once as much benefited as if he visited the whole of them. For miles near every part of the banks of the sacred stream, thousands of Hindus of all ages and descriptions pour down every night and morning, to bathe in or look at it. Persons in their dying moments are carried to its banks to breathe their last, by which the deaths of many are frequently accelerated ; and instances occur where such event has thereby been actually caused. The bodies are then left to be washed away by the tide, and numbers of them are to be seen floating up and down with every flood and ebb, or lying all along the banks, with vultures, adjutant birds, canion crows, and kites about them, feeding upon the remains. Several festivals are held during the year in honour of Ganga. She is described as a white woman with a crown on her head, holding a, water-lily in one of her hands, and a water vessel in another, riding upon a sea animal resembling a crocodile, or walking on the surface of the water with a lotus in each hand. There are other myths relating to Ganga. The river goddess has some of the attibutes of Pallas, being, like the Athenian Maid (Ganga never married), born from the bead of Jove. The bard of the silver age makes her fall from a glacier of Kailas (Olympus) on the head of the father of the gods, and remain ma.ny years within the folds of his tiara (jitla), until at length, being liberated, she was precipitated into the plains of Aryavarta. It was in this escape that she burst her rocky barrier (the Himalaya), and on the birth of Kumara exposed those veins of gold called jambunadi, in colour like the jambu fruit.