Ganges, the great river of northern India, prominent alike in the religion and in the geography of the East, rises in Gahrwal in 30° 56' 4" N. lat. and 79° 6' 40" E. long., issuing, under the name of the Bhagirathi, from an ice-cave 8 miles above Gangotri and 13,800 feet above the level of the sea. A few miles below Gangotri it receives the Jahnavi, and 133 miles from its source the Alaknanda, from which point the united stream is known as the Ganges. From Sukhi, where it bursts through the Himalayas, it flows south-west to Hardwar, and from thence, by a tortuous but generally south-east course, to Allahabad, where it is joined by the Jumna. From the sacred tongue of land where the two streams meet the great river rolls on in a wide flood, past the holy city of Benares, and across the plains of Behar, fed by the Son, the Gandak, and the Kusi. It then turns sharply to the southward, and, about 20 miles farther on, begins to throw out the branches which enclose the level delta, at a point 220 miles in a straight line from the Bay of Bengal. The main channel, called the Padma or Padda, runs south-east to Goalanda, where it is met by the main stream of the Brahmaputra, and the vast confluence of waters flows in a broad estuary, the Meghna, into the Bay of Bengal near Noakhali. Between this most easterly and the Hugli, the most westerly mouth, lies the delta, with a multitude of mouths and channels. The Hugli or Hooghly (q.v.) is the great channel of navigation (for map, see CALCUTTA). The delta in its upper angle is very fertile, but in the south, towards the sea, the country is a desolate waste of swamps (see SUNDARBANS), intersected by a network of canals. The Ganges has a total length of 1557 (by the Hugli mouth, 1509) miles; its drainage basin embraces over 390,000 sq. m., lying between the Himalaya and Vindhya ranges, and extending east to the mountains which separate Burma from Bengal. Not one of the other rivers of India so deserves the gratitude and homage of the Hindus. In spite of the shoals and rapids that lie above Allahabad, it is in some sense navigable from the point where it enters the lowlands, near Hardwar; and its stream, which never fails in the hottest summer, distributes fertility throughout its course, and even its inundations spread over the fields a rich top-dressing of alluvial silt. The ruined or decayed cities near its banks, however, bear mute witness to the loss inflicted by the constant changes which take place in the river-bed, altering the whole face of the country, as the river deserts old channels for new. But the Ganges is still one of the most frequented waterways of the world; ocean and coast steamers carry goods to Calcutta, and above this city thousands of native boats are employed, even since the development of railways, in transporting heavy goods in bulk, such as timber and bamboos, stone, grain, and cotton.—The Hindustani name Gangā, 'stream,' is according to Max Müller an instance of early Aryan reduplication, from the verb to go—'go-go.'
The Ganges excels all the great rivers of India in sanctity; from the source down to the sea every foot of 'Mother Gangā's' course is holy ground, to bathe in her waters will wash away sin, to die and be buried on her banks secures free entry to eternal bliss. Gangotri, Hardwar, Allahabad, Benares, and Sagar Island, the most sacred spots, are visited by thousands of pilgrims every year; the great kumbh fair, which is held every twelve years, drew nearly 1,000,000 persons to Allahabad in 1882—and these of all Hindu sects, for in the legend of the Ganges the three supreme deities of the Hindu pantheon have part. The earliest form of the legend occurs in the Rāmāyana, where Gangā is described as the daughter of the Himalayas, whom Bhagirathi, a prince of Ayodhya (mod. Oudh), after more than twice 30,000 years' solicitation by his father and grandfather, induces Brahma to cause to descend from heaven, that his ancestors, who had been reduced to ashes by Vishnu, might be sprinkled with the sacred waters, and their souls rise to heaven. The ice-cavern whence the river springs is made the matted hair of the god Siva. The story admits of numerous variations, and the Vishnu-Purāna, which assigns the source to the nail of the great toe of Vishnu's left foot, sums up the river's properties in this sentence: 'This sacred stream, heard of, desired, seen, touched, bathed in, or hymned day by day, sanctifies all beings; and those who, even at a distance of a hundred leagues, exclaim "Gangā, Gangā," atone for the sins committed during three previous lives.'—Gangā is also considered as the mother of the god of war, Kārttikeya (q.v.).
The GANGES CANAL, opened in 1854, is an important irrigation work and navigable channel, extending originally on the right of the Ganges, from Hardwar to Cawnpore and Etawah. Surveyed and begun in 1836–48, and opened by Lord Dalhousie, it has since been greatly extended and improved; and with its 700 miles of main channels and 3000 miles of branches, irrigates great part of the Doab (between the Jumna and Ganges, with both of which rivers it connects), and has been of the greatest service in distributing famine relief. Some 500 miles are available for navigation. The Lower Ganges Canal, an extension of the original canal (now known as the Upper Ganges Canal) to Allahabad, was planned in 1866 and begun in 1873. Its weir and headworks at Narora include a solid wall, 3800 feet long, with forty-two weir-slues, founded on huge square blocks. The ultimate cost of the entire Ganges Canal was calculated not to exceed about 5 millions sterling.