Ganga: the benevolent purifier under siege
The goddess Ganga is widely revered for her power to purify souls from sin and evil, and to cleanse the body of illness and disease. She is a deity materialized in the earthly form of the River Ganga (Ganges), which feeds the plains of north India. Drinking ganga jal or even reciting her name facili...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| WorldCat: | WorldCat |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2014
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| In: |
Nidān
Year: 2014, Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 20-43 |
| Further subjects: | B
Pollution
B Pilgrimage B Ganga B Goddess B Mela B Environment (Art) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The goddess Ganga is widely revered for her power to purify souls from sin and evil, and to cleanse the body of illness and disease. She is a deity materialized in the earthly form of the River Ganga (Ganges), which feeds the plains of north India. Drinking ganga jal or even reciting her name facilitates the cycle of reincarnation and the liberation of moksha. Each year, millions of Hindus worship Ganga at sacred sites all along the river, where ritual bathing, drinking river water, and water collection for use in puja are common practices. In recent years, increasing attention to river water quality has highlighted tensions between state-run efforts to improve water quality and the ideological associations between the river, the goddess, and her purificatory powers. In this paper, I draw on interviews with water users and worshippers, religious leaders, NGO members, and government officials conducted in the three central basin cities of Kanpur, Allahabad, and Varanasi to explore how water users and river worshippers are renegotiating belief in the sacred power of Ganga to purify and questioning the beneficent power of the goddess. |
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| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2014.2 |