The Sacred Ganges: A River of Life and Death
There are few subjects on which all of India’s communities, Hindus or non-Hindus, speak in one voice. One of these is Ganga mata , mother Ganga. There was a furore recently when a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in Uttar Pradesh filed an FIR against 14 young Muslim men alleging that they were holding an iftar party on a boat on the Ganges in Kashi, and polluting it by eating chicken biryani. They were also allegedly seen by the (usually unreliable) bystanders throwing bones into the river. The police moved quickly and hauled in the men, all in their 20s. One of the most beautiful verses on the Ganga, still sung during the Ganga Aarti at Har Ki Pauri each day, was written by the great poet Pandit Jagannath Shastri Telang, a poet in the court of Emperor Shah Jahan and a tutor of his favourite son Dara Shikoh. The poet was thrown out after he dared ask for the hand of the Badshah’s 14th daughter, Lavangi, in marriage. Yet, as the emperor had already told the poet he could ask for anything, he found he couldn’t break his promise. The newly-married couple ran away, finally reaching Kashi, where the pundits too spurned the poet for having married a “yavan kanya”. They could not throw him out for fear of enraging the mighty emperor, but whenever the poet came up to them on the ghats of the Ganga, they would cover their faces and walk away. According to legend, Telang asked Lavangi to come with him to his native Telang Desh, but she refused. Ganga is my mother too, she said, and Kashi is my nagari . I will stay here. So the couple sat on the top-most steps of Dashashwamedh Ghat and the poet called out to Ma Ganga to come up and take them both away. The people of Kashi, who loved theatrics, stood and waited. Telang, composer of the moving paean to the river ‘Ganga Lahari’, began to recite the 52 couplets. They say that as he sang — danim-audasyam yadi bhajasi bhagirathi tada niradharo ha rodimi kathaya kesam-iha purah (Mother, if you too turn away from me, whose lap will I cry into?) — the river began to rise. As he reached the end, Mother Ganga reached the lovers at the top steps and swept them away into her all purifying lap. That Kashi is now being swept aside by the roar of sanatan sanskriti , with non-Hindu men being accused of polluting the river. Kashi is the permanent seat of Lord Shiva, not a sanatani stronghold. Ganga, who is said to flow out of his matted locks, is all-forgiving. Both she and Shiva repeatedly demonstrate a mastery of austerities and hearty playful laughter. Shiva dances in joy and also in sorrow. Ganga gives life and also accepts the bones and ashes of the dead and purifies them. Tulsidas, who composed the poem that all sanatanis hold in awe, describes Shiva in Ramcharitamanas as an austere yogi, who is also a merry Bhootnath (the God of all creatures, seen and unseen). While Ganga purifies all without discrimination, Shiva wanders on the ghats with his team of naked and semi-naked aghoris , ghosts, ojhas , joginis and jogis . They drink blood and gorge on a bloody mix of sattu and meat from bowls made of human skulls. Shiva joins his hands in merry greeting and laughs: Tulsi betal bhoot saath liye Bhoothnath/ heri heri hasat hai haath jori jori ke (Tulsi, the Lord of Ghosts arrives, with spirits and ghouls in his train/ Glancing around, they roar with laughter, clapping again and again) That is the spirit of the Ganga, the heart of Kashi. How can a disputed video overwhelm this generosity of soul and 14 young men be dragged to jail, just for holding an iftar party on a boat? As for the real issue of pollution, we, as citizens, and our representatives need to push aside this chauvinism and do something concrete about preventing the further degradation of the river, as holy and unholy trash and chemical waste make its waters hazardous for all. The writer is former chairperson, Prasar Bharati
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