Purification by Water​​​​​​​

Ritual purification by water is one of the great themes running through the history of Indian religious life. Running water especially is an agent of purification, for it both absorbs pollution and carries it away. Hindus have affirmed for centuries that there is nothing quite as cleansing as the living waters of the River of Heaven. Hindus take up her water cupped in their hands and pour it back into the river as an offering to ancestors and the gods. Not only is the Ganges said to be present in other rivers, but other rivers are present in her. The belief says, even a droplet of Ganges water carried one’s way by the breeze will erase the sins of many lifetimes in an instant. The Ganges is revered as goddess and mother.