TRIVENI, the triple braid, a name of Prayag,a. his the mystical union, at Allahabad, of the three sacred rivers, the Ganges, Junius, and Saraswati, severally the consorts, or energies, of the three great powers, Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Triveni, or the three-plaited locks, is a mythological junc tion, a female triad, similar to that of the Tri murti of male powers. The Gang(' or Ganges, l'amuna or Jumna, join near Allahabad, and the Saraswati, now a dry bed, is also supposed to join tho other txs-o underground. A Hindu dying near the imagined confluence of these three streams, or even those of the Ganga and Yamuna, attains hninediate beatitude; consequently self, or self permitted, immolations, sad, etc., were moitori ous on this peculiarly holy spot. The junction of the three waters at Allahabad is a sacred prayag, and an annual mein is held in March for purposes of ablution. Junctions of any sort, especially of waters, are held sacred by Hindus, aml above all, the union of these sacred riven Ganga and- Yamuna or Juinna near Alkthabad, the latter river having previously received the Samswati below Dan, so that, in fact, all three do unite at this famed sangam or confluence.
But the Hindu poet feigns a subterrene flow of the Saraswati, and a mystical union at the sacred point, where bathing is deemed peculiarly efh. ca. cions, and where zealots are persuaded that suicide is of a most meritorious description. Major Moor once saw, at Poona, a well-modelled group in clay, where Radha's locks, taipartite, were plaited into the mysticzil Triveui by the amorous Krishna, who sat rapturously admiring the work of, and his hands. Other rivers are, however, held sacred by the Hindus, viz. the Godavery, the Sindhu or Indus, the Krishna or Kistna, and the Brahma putra. — Campbell ; Tr. of Hind. ; Cok. Myth. ; Moor, Pantheon.