Ganga

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Ganga

(Sk.)

The Ganges, the principal sacred river in India. There are two versions of its myth: one relates that Gangâ (the goddess) having transformed herself into a river, flows from the big toe of Vishnu; the other, that the Gangâ drop from the ear of Siva into the Anavatapta lake, thence passes out, through the mouth of the silver cow (gômukhi), crosses all Eastern India and falls into the Southern Ocean. “An ‘heretical superstition ”, remarks Mr. Eitel in his Sanskrit, Chinese Dictionary “ascribes to the waters of the Ganges sin‐cleansing power” No more a “superstition” one would say, than the belief that the waters of Baptism and the Jordan have “sin‐cleansing power” (TG).

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Shortly: The Ganges, the principal sacred river in India. There are two versions of its myth: one relates tha...