The Birth Place of Ganga

Visiting Char Dham or the ‘four holy pilgrimages’ – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri is every devout Hindu’s dream.

I stood on the bank of the river Bhagirathi bubbling and gurgling on its 1,500 miles long journey to the oceans.

All around were snow clad mountains.
I took off my clothes to take a dip in the holy river.
I am used to taking chilled shower after a steam or sauna in my gym.

When I entered the river, I shivered.
The water was far more chilly than I was accustomed to.
I shivered very badly.
But after a few minutes, my body adjusted to the coldness and I felt quite comfortable.

At that time, a strange thought crossed my mind.
Many of my foreign friends find it surprising that Indians worship the Ganga (or Ganges river).
Think from an Indian’s point of view.

The river waters the Gangetic plain – an area of 359,400 sq. km., roughly 10 per cent of India’s total landmass – providing the people water for drinking, cooking, washing and agriculture.
Every year, the rains wash down a lot of minerals from the mountains into the river which increases fertility and prosperity of the land.
During the ancient days, when there were few roads and far more dense forests, road journey was hazardous.

The river provided a safe means of transport – free from wild animals and other perils.

In the evening, I attended the temple prayers and aarti.
I had a strange feeling.
I felt the high mountains were looking down upon me – smiling and blessing me.
May be, all this was my imagination.

But many visitors have a similar feeling.
This is what makes the journey to such places so fascinating.

Gomukh

The Ganges River originates amongst the melting snows of a glacier – called Gomukh or Gangotri glacier – in the Himalayas. It is difficult to identify and pin point any particular spot.
But the river’s origin is taken as Gomukh (meaning cow’s mouth) – 18 kms trek from Gangotri.Here, the river comes out of a cave which does look like an open mouth.
Since the last Ice Age, the glacier has been melting and receding due to global warming.
But the rate of melting has doubled since the1970s.

In 1866, the British traveler Samuel Burn travelled up t o Gangotri.
He wanted to visit Gomukh.
But the local people did not allow him to go.
According to Burn, they believed that Gangotri was the holiest place and human interference in Gomukh was non-religious.
Today’s foreign tourists are lucky.
They can travel right up to Gomukh.

Bhagirathi

The river originates as Bhagirathi.
At Devprayag (prayag means a place where two or more rivers meet), another river, the Alaknanda, meets the Bhagirathi.
The two rivers mingle with each other – the name changes to Ganga (or Ganges) and travel onwards.

Gangotri

Gangotri is a small town nestling amongst the Himalayas at a height of 3,042 metres above sea level.
The Goddess Ganga is believed to have descended to the earth at this spot.
The Ganga temple was built on the bank of the Ganga river by a Gurkha General Amar Singh Thapa in the late 18th or early 19th century.

During the winter months, the place becomes inaccessible.
The temple is closed down on Diwali day (November) every year and reopens in May.
During this time, the idol of Goddess Ganga is shifted to Mukhba village, near Harsil.

Mythology

How Ganga came down to earth

According to legend, after slaying the demons on earth, King Sagar decided to perform the Ashwa Megh Yagya to proclam his supremacy to the world.
A horse would be taken around the earth accompanied by the King’s 60,000 sons from Queen Sumati and one son Asmanjas from the second queen Kesani.
Indra, the supreme ruler of the gods, was afraid that if the Yagya was successful, he might lose his throne.

So he wanted to interfere with the Yagya.
He stole the horse and tied it to the ashram of sage Kapil Muni, who was then in deep meditation.
When King Sagar’s sons could not find the horse, they searched everywhere.
Finally, they found it tied near the meditating Kapil Muni.

The sixty thousand and one angry sons of King Sagar stormed the ashram of Kapil Muni disrupting his meditation as Indra had planned.
Kapil Muni was very angry.
He opened his eyes and turned all the sons into ashes.

The only way to bring them back to life was to bring down Goddess Ganga from the Heavens and wash the ashes with the holy water.
Bhagirath, grand son of King Sagar, meditated for a long time to persuade Ganga to come down to the earth.

But the coming down of Ganga would have been too torrential and would have caused colossal damage.
Finally, Lord Shiva agreed to receive Ganga in his large tresses to break her fall.
Ganga descended down to the earth, washed the ashes and all the sons came back to life.

The Bhagirathi ‘Shila’ located near the temple of Ganga marks the spot where Ganga descended on earth from heaven.

Recommendation

Gangotri, the source of the river Ganges and seat of the Goddess Ganga, is one of the four Char Dhams (Four Dhams).
Whether or not you believe in religion or mythology, the Four Dhams are exquisite places.
Visit them for their beauty.
At least for some time, you will forget all your worries and be one with nature.

Gangotri can be reached in a day by road from Rishikesh, Haridwar or Dehradun.
The journey is enchanting.
There are several good places where you can stay.

Grateful thanks:
The photo ‘Beautiful Mountains and Rivers’ has been taken by Amir Jacobi.

The First of the Char Dhams

Visiting Char Dham or the ‘four holy pilgrimages’ – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri is every devout Hindu’s dream.

When I was very small, my grandmother went on a pilgrimage to Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.
The journey was really tedious, involving walking long distances.
The roads, where they existed, were very bad.
There were no proper hotels or eateries on the way.
I don’t remember the exact duration, but it took her almost three months.

The Original Char Dhams (Four Holy Pilgrimages)

Char Dham originally refered to the four holy places, or dhams, established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century.
These places are located in four far-flung corners of India.

Badrinath nestles amidst the Himalayas in the North.
Rameshwaram overlooks the Bay of Bengal in the extreme South.
Jagannath Puri is again located on the Bay of Bengal in the East.
Dwarka floats on the Arabian Sea in the West.

A visit to the Char Dhams used to be a lifelong ambition of every devout Hindu.
It was my mother’s wish, and my readiness to fulfill her wishes, that I visited Adi Shankaracharya’s Char Dhams.

The Chota Char Dhams

Somewhere down the line, Badrinath became the centre of what came to be known as Chota Char Dham – the lesser four dhams.
The original Char Dhams established by Adi Shankaracharya are too far flung.
So the Chota Char Dhams in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas – Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath – became increasingly popular.

The 1962 Indo China war forced India to improve the border roads.
More and more tourists and pilgrims started travelling to these places.
Around that time, the word Chota dropped out somewhere, and the Chota Char Dham became Char Dham.
Today Char Dham is used for Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

Going there

There are two routes to visit the Char Dham – one is via Mussourie and the other via Haridwar and Rishikesh.
The latter route is far more picturesque.

The Ganges river enters the plains at Haridwar.
And Rishikesh is the undisputed gate way to the Abode of Gods.
Haridwar and Rishikesh are favourite pilgrimage and tourist places, on their own right.

Get hold of a map of India or use the one on this blog.
Open your right palm wide and place it on the map (palm down).
Put your right thumb on Rishikesh.
The four fingers will point at Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.
You can see their exact locations and the routes in the map.

Yamunotri

The first of the Char Dham is Yamunotri.
Incidentally, it is also highest of the four.
Yamunotri is the source of the river Yamuna which originates from a frozen lake of ice and the Champasar Glacier 1 km above the temple at an altitude of 4,321 metres.

Champasar Glacier is located on the Kalind Mountain at a height of 4421 metres above sea level.
Access to Champasar Glacier is extremely difficult and normal pilgrims cannot reach it.
This is the reason, Yamunotri temple was built at the present location.

Yamunotri is about a day’s journey from Rishikesh, Haridwar or Dehradun.
The temple is accessible only by a six kilometres walk from Hanuman Chatti and a four kilometres walk from Janki Chatti.
Of course, you can hire ponies and palanquins.

The trek from Hanuman Chetty to Yamunotri is exceedingly picturesque with beautiful views of the snow covered mountains, deep valleys and a number of water falls.

The Temple

The temple of Goddess Yamuna is perched on top of a flank of the Bandar Poonchh peak (3,165 metres above sea level).
The original temple was built by Maharani Gularia of Jaipur in the 19th century, but it was destroyed by the weather and natural elements.
The present temple on the left bank of the Yamuna was constructed by Maharaja Pratap Shah of Tehri Garhwal.
The deity is made of black marble.

Places to see

The chief attraction at Yamunotri is the temple of Goddess Yamuna.
Close by the temple are hot water springs (kunds) gushing out from mountain cavities.
The most important spring is Suryakund.
Devotees boil rice and potatoes by tying them in a piece of muslin cloth and dipping them in these hot water springs.
The cooked rice and potatoes are eaten as ‘prasad’.

Near the Suryakund there is a shila (stone) called Divya Shila, which is worshipped before puja is offered to the deity.
There are a number of thermal springs at Jankichatti (7 kms away).

Recommendation

Adi Shankaracharya’s original Char Dhams are all Vaishnava shrines.

The Himalayan Char Dhams are a mix of three sects – Vaishnava at Badrinath; Shaiva at Kedarnath; and Devi at Yamunotri and Gangotri.
Today, the Char Dham are extremely popular religious and tourist places with all modern amenities.

All the four Dhams become inaccessible during the winter.
Therefore, they are closed down from Diwali (sometime in November) to15 April.
The mountain roads become wet and treacherous during the rainy season.
But the mist and dense swirling clouds only add to the mystic charm.
Spend your next vacation in these places.
You will definitely thank me.

The Holy Sagar Island

When I was a young student in Calcutta, I often heard about Gangasagar (also known as Sagar Island, Sagar Deep or simply Sagar).

There is a popular saying that you can visit all the places of pilgrimages again and again, but you can visit Gangasagar only once.

I fancied Gangasagar was a small mysterious place which would come out of the oceans every year on the annual ‘Makar Sankrati’ festivities held there on the 14th January.
(Don’t ask me how an island can come out of the oceans and later disappear – because no one could ever explain this to me).

I first visited Gangasagar in 1986, to watch the Hailey’s Comet zoom past in the pristine early morning sky there.

The visit was organised by the Sky Watchers Association of Calcutta.

They had selected Gangasagar for the sighting because there was no electricity there.

But there were many other small villages without electricity – nearer to Kolkata.

Probably, the mystique surrounding the island was the reason they selected Gangasagar.

There was no electricity.

A generator provided power for three hours every day.

Even today, a generator powers some areas of the island for three hours every day between 6 and 9 PM.

The second time, I visited Gangasagar on ‘Makar Sankrati’ day, the 14th January, to see the festival.

My younger brother, a senior police officer, was in charge of the police arrangements there.

He invited me to visit the island.

I watched in fascination as he and other police officials worked almost continuously for three days and nights with short spasmodic spells of sleep.

A fire broke out in the fair.

Thick black smoke filled the air.

But the fire brigade quickly moved in and quelled the fire.

This is the largest fair in India – after the Kumbh Mela which is held every 12 years in three different centres – Haridwar, Allahabad and Nasik – by rotation.

But in Gangasagar, the logistic problems are multiplied several times by the fact that the pilgrims have to be ferried to the island.

The boatmen try to overload their boats.

After all, they get this unique opportunity only once a year.

Sometimes, boats collide with one another.

Sometimes, they capsize.

In 2008, the auspicious day spilled over to the 15th January.

The number of pilgrims swelled to 5 lakhs (half a million).

The Island
Gangasagar is a little known island located on the continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal at the confluence of Hooghly river (a tributary of the Ganges River) with the Bay of Bengal – about 150 km south of Kolkata.
Gangasagar does not sink into the sea.

It is quite a large island with an area of about 300 sq km.

It has 43 villages with a population of over 160,000.

There are schools, post office and even a police station.

There are numerous waterways and small rivers.

There are mangrove swamps.

This is also the home of the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger.
The Kolkata Port Trust has a pilot station and a light house here.

The West Bengal government is planning to build a deep water port on the island.
Mythology

According to legend, after slaying the demons on earth, King Sagar decided to perform the Ashwa Megh Yagya to proclam his supremacy to the world.
A horse would be taken around the earth accompanied by the King’s 60,000 sons from Queen Sumati and one son Asmanjas from the second queen Kesani.

Indra, the supreme ruler of the gods, was afraid that if the Yagya was successful, he might lose his throne.

So he wanted to interfere with the Yagya.

He stole the horse and tied it to the ashram of sage Kapil Muni, who was then in deep meditation.

When King Sagar’s sons could not find the horse, they searched everywhere.

Finally, they found it tied near the meditating Kapil Muni.

The sixty thousand and one angry sons of King Sagar stormed the ashram of Kapil Muni disrupting his meditation as Indra had planned.

Kapil Muni was very angry.

He opened his eyes and turned all the sons into ashes.

The only way to bring them back to life was to bring down Goddess Ganga from the Heavens and wash the ashes with the holy water.

Bhagirath, grandson of King Sagar, meditated for a long time to persuade Ganga to come down to the earth.

But the coming down of Ganga would have been too torrential and would have caused colossal damage.

Finally, Lord Shiva agreed to receive Ganga in his large tresses to break her fall.Ganga descended down to the earth through Shiva’s tresses.

King Bhagiratha then preceded the holy river in his chariot and ripped open a gorge through which Ganga could flow.

The river followed Bhagirath to Gangasagar where Kapila Muni livedand washed the ashes.

All the sons came back to life.
Reaching there
To reach Gangasagar, you have to cross the Muriganga river/creek by ferry.

You can take the ferry either from Harwood Point (80 kms from Kolkata) or Namkhana (13 kms more from Harwood Point).

After landing at Sagar Island, you will have to cross the whole stretch of the island (32 kms) by local bus or taxi.

It is possible to travel from Kolkata right up to Gangasagar by car or taxi.

At Harwood Point, the car can cross the river on a barge.
Places to see
· Kapil Muni Temple
· Fair Grounds
· Sea Beach
· Sagar Marine Park
· Sagar Lighthouse and Port at Beguakhali
· Ramkrisna Mission Ashram
· Sushama Devichowdhurani Marine Biological Research Institute. (SDMBRI) at Bamankhali
Accommodation
There are sufficient boarding and accommodation facilities at Gangasagar.

· State Youth Hostel
· Bharat Sevashram Sangha and some other ashrams
· Larica Sagar Vihar (the only hotel)
Recommendation

Gangasagar is a remote, secluded, not much visited spot.

If you are looking for novelty and raw nature – this is the place you should head for.

The West Bengal Government is planning to construct a bridge connecting the mainland with Sagar Island.

The 3.3 kms long bridge is likely to cost around Rs 600 crores.

A feasibility study has already been completed.
Visit the place before the bridge is constructed.

The southern most
of Adi Shankaracharya’s
Four Dhams

Rameswaram is a small town on Pamban Island – an island in South India – separated from the Indian mainland by the Pamban Channel.

Rameswaram is the place used by Lord Rama to cross over to Sri Lanka (Ceylon).Rameswaram is one of the four Char Dhams established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century A.D.

A pilgrimage to Varanasi (Kashi) – famous pilgrimage in North India – is considered incomplete without a pilgrimage to Rameswaram.

For this reason, Rameswaram is a very important and frequented pilgrim centre.

Both the Vaishnavites and Shaivites visit this pilgrimage which is known as the Varanasi of the south.
I visited Rameswaram and found it much more than a religious place.
It is a nature lover’s paradise.

The Pamban Railway Bridge and Indira Gandhi Setu

There are actually two bridges over the Pamban Channel.
The older one is the 6,776 ft (2,065 metres) long cantilever railway bridge which was opened for traffic in 1914.
It still has a functioning vertical lift section that can be raised to let ships pass under the bridge.
It is so low, that from the train, you can literally wash your hands in the sea.

The railway bridge had meter-gauge (narrow gauge) railway tracks.
The Indian Railways upgraded the tracks to broad-gauge in August 2007.
The 2.3 kms long road bridge is also known as Pamban Bridge.

But its real name is Indira Gandhi Setu.
It is the longest sea bridge in India.
The beautiful bridge is located very high up in the sea.

From the middle of the bridge, you get panoramic views of the sea, the scattered islands and the rail bridge far below.

Mythology

Lord Rama built a bridge at Rameswaram – the Ram Setu (also known as Adam’s Bridge) – to cross the sea to Sri Lanka to bring back his wife Sita, from her abductor, Ravana.

This is also the place where Rama worshipped Lord Shiva to be absolved of the sin of killing Ravana.
What is not known is that there is one more legend as to how Adam’s Bridge got its name.

According to this legend, Sri Lanka was the site of the biblical earthly paradise, and Adam’s Bridge was created when Adam was expelled from paradise.

The Shivalinga

After Lord Rama had defeated and killed Ravana, the Rishis (sages) advised Rama to install and worship a Shivalinga at Rameswaram, along with Sita and Lakshman, to expiate the sin of Brahma Hatya (killing of a Brahmin).
(Ravana was a Brahmin – the great grandson of Brahma).

Rama fixed an auspicious time for the installation and worship.
He sent Hanuman to Mount Kailash to bring a linga.
But Hanuman was late, so Sita made a make shift Shivalinga of sand.
By the time Hanuman returned with the linga from Mount Kailash, the puja (worship) was over.
Hanuman was disappointed.

To appease him, Rama also installed the linga brought by Hanuman (Visvalingam) by the side of the sand Ramalinga, and ordered that all rituals should first be performed to the Visvalingam.
In Rameshwaram Temple, you can have “Mani Darshan” (Glimpse of the Mani) early morning every day.
This “Mani” made of “sphatik” (crystal) is in the form of “Shivalinga”.
According to the Hindu texts, this is the “Mani” of “Sheshnag”.

The Temple

The main deity here is in the form of a Shiva Linga with the name Sri Ramanatha Swamy.

The huge temple, built in the Dravidian style of architecture, has the largest temple corridor in India with 1000 beautifully carved granite pillars.

Construction of the temple started in the 12th century.
Different rulers added to the construction of the temple over a period of time.
The temple has 22 wells which are considered sacred.
The water of each well has a different taste.

Places to see around

Sethu Karai

This is a place 22 km from Rameshwaram where Lord Ram built a floating stone bridge – the “Ramasethu”.
The remnants of the Ramasethu are submerged under the sea as shot from Gemini 1 satellite of NASA in 2004.

Dhanushkodi

The southernmost tip of Pamban Island is called Dhanushkodi.
The road ends at a fisherman’s village.
The entire village was completely washed away by a cyclone in 1964.
But the Kothandaramasamy Temple here remained intact.

 Dhanushkodi is 18 kms from Rameswaram.
According to mythology, it was here that Vibishana, brother of Ravana, surrendered before Ram. Dhanushkodi has a fine beach.

On the way to Dhanushkodi, during the winter months, you can see millions of migratory birds, including flamingoes.
Dr. Abdul Kalam, the ex-president of India, comes from Dhanushkodi.

Kurusadai Island

To the south of Rameswaram are dozens of islands.
Kurusadai Island is an uninhabited Island lies to the west of the Pamban Bridge between the mainland and Pamban Island.
10,500 sq. kms of the sea around here constitute a Marine Biosphere, a paradise for Marine Biologists and nature lovers.

There are plenty of coral-reefs and fishes.
You can also see dolphins and sea-cows (Dugong).
Kurusadai Island is about 4 KMs from Mandapam.
But you have to obtain permission from the Director of Fisheries, Chennai.

Recommendation

Large ships cannot navigate through the shallow waters of the strait and have to travel around Sri Lanka.
As early as in 1860, there were suggestions and proposals to dig out a shipping canal.
The present Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, is mired up in politics and litigation.
Visit Rameswaram.

Apart from being a holy place, it is a paradise for nature lovers.