Ganges
gan'jez, the chief river of India. It is one of the great rivers of the world. It drains the southern slope of the Himalayas. Its headwaters issue from the ice caves of mighty glaciers from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea level. Eleven hundred miles from the sea it is a stream from one to two miles in width and perhaps thirty feet in depth. Here the current moves smoothly with a descent of but six inches to the mile, which nearer the sea becomes less than two inches. The lower part of the valley which lies in the province of Bengal is subject to inundations. In July the river is swollen by the melting snows of the mountains until it acquires a depth of sixty feet and spreads out over a district 100 miles in width. At this season of the year changes are likely to be made in the main channel. The river cuts across tongues of land, carrying away villages, leaving towns formerly on its banks miles inland. It is considered unsafe to erect buildings of importance near its banks. The river has a total length of 1,557 miles. It drains 390,000 square miles of territory.
As it nears the sea the Ganges divides into numerous mouths connecting with those of the Brahmaputra. These rivers have created the greatest delta known. It extends along the coast for a distance of 300 miles, and has been built out into the Bay of Bengal for a distance of 200 miles. A considerable portion of this delta is so swampy that it is covered with jungles inhabited only by the tiger, the crocodile, and other beasts of prey.
The Ganges is a river of great cities. Nearest its mouth is Calcutta. Farther up on the main river or its branches are Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi. It is said to be the most frequented waterway in the world. Not-withstanding the flood of water carried by the Ganges to the sea, vast regions in its basin suffer for want of water, especially at rainless seasons of the year. In 1842 the British government undertook the construction of a vast system of irrigation. By 1855 9,900 miles of canals and supply ditches had been constructed. It was necessary to carry the main canal across four streams in themselves torrents. The water is carried over one of these rivers by a stone aqueduct 164 feet wide. There are 15 arches with a span of 50 feet each. On land the canal is 200 feet wide and the current runs 10 feet deep. The system cost $30,000,000. It produces $27,000,000 worth of crops yearly. About 1,250,000 acres are irrigated. The government charges the half naked rice raisers about one dollar and a half an acre for water privileges.
The valley of the Ganges is one of great fertility, and supports an enormous population. The people live chiefly on rice, which they plant in the alluvial mud, in their irrigated fields, or after the river has receded into its normal channel. They live in miserable huts. The water buffalo, with its long, sweeping horns and capacity for working in the mud, is their domestic animal.
According to the belief of the Hindus, the Ganges issues from the feet of Brahma. Its waters are holy. The most sacred spot on its banks is the tongue of land at Allahabad where the Jumna and the Ganges join. Every true Brahmin desires to bathe in the river that his sins may be washed away. As the hour of death approaches he desires to be conveyed to its banks that he may be immersed and drink of its waters for the last time. For those who are unable to make the journey water must be brought to their homes. After death he desires that his body be burned and his ashes cast upon the water.
Great temples with enormous flights of steps leading down to the water have been built at places held most sacred. Here devotees resort. The sick are brought hither by their relatives for hundreds of miles. The river channel is alive with thousands and thousands of people who are bathing and performing religious rites. Priests in attendance sell faggots of brushwood on which to burn the dead. Formerly the wives of a dead man were burned alive with his body, but this practice, as well as that of throwing infants into the river to appease the sacred crocodile, has been put a stop to by the British government. See India; Suttee; Calcutta