Ganga Beyond The River: On The Banks of Betwa at Orchha

"Chhatris" : Cenotaphs across Betwa River in Orchha

Orchha is a small hamlet in Tikamgarh District of Madhya Pradesh on the banks of River Betwa. It was a post monsoon long weekend that I could manage to get to this place. The place has its own slice of historical interests in the form of 16th and 17th Century palaces and temples. As a place of religious importance, the peculiarity of Orchha lies in the fact that after Ayodhya, Orchha is the only place where Lord Rama is treated as a king rather than God. The imposing Ram Raja temple is witness to this.

The flowing Betwa imparts a great deal of grandeur to the town and the frame with the "Chhatris" or Centaphs across the river  is any photographer’s craving and so was mine. The Betwa or Betravati is a river in Northern India, and a tributary of the Yamuna. The Betwa rises in the Vindhya Range near Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh and flows north-east through Madhya Pradesh and Orchha to Uttar Pradesh where it meets Yamuna near Hamirpur. 

Betwa flowing through Orchha

On  the penultimate day of our trip I was strolling around the Betwa Banks, aimlessly trying to aim the camera at something worth a click. It happened to be an “Ekadashi” the eleventh day of lunar month considered auspicious in Hindu religious practice. There were scores of pilgrims feverishly bathing the river but what drew attention was the loud cries of “har har gange” and “jai ganga maiya” of the pilgrims. This is certainly not Ganges! The Ganges river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. Obviously oblivious to my confusion, the cries of faith continued and so did my doubt infested thought process.

Sadhu under Bayanan Tree

The hitherto aimless stroll brought me to a frame where a sadhu was meditating. The position of the Sadhu beneath a big Bayan tree with  the slant morning sun rays falling on his face seemed like making a  good composition and I clicked the picture. Having safely put the Sadhu in the memory card of the camera I thought of having a conversation and started with the most striking query in the mind at that time, which was, why do people call this river Ganga? The Sadhu was suffering from a very sore throat and amidst coughs and sneezes he could only mutter: “Betravati Ganga hai yeh……… yeh jeevan deti hai, isiliye Ganga hai” – this river is called Betravati Ganga, she gives life that is why she is Ganga. Answer to half an hour of dilemma came in one and a half sentence! 

 

Later I was quite surprised on my confusion hearing the “har har gange” chants on the banks of Betwa. The phenomenon is quite common throughout the country. Rivers have always been the cradle of civilisations and their role in sustenance of life have imparted divinity and holiness to them. Ganga is the epitome of this effect. In fact the word Ganga is considered as a synonym of pure and holy water. That is why the word is attached with the names of many other rivers all over India. The religious importance of Ganga is evident from the following verse “Tatra tatra sthitaa Gangaa,Sarva Punya Phala pradaa; Bhaveth smarana maatrena,Sarva Deva namaskritaa”, which means: the simple act of remembering the various places that River Ganga traverses through, would be equivalent to offering salutations to all Gods.

I did remember then that Godavari is held in reverence as “Vridha Ganga” or simply, Ganga; the Kaveri is known to devout Hindus as “Dakshina Ganga”, or the Ganges of the south and so it the case with Narmada or Reva which is also called by the name “Ganga”. My mother’s native place, Nabadwip in West Bengal  is flanked by two rivers, Bhagirathi and Jalanghi, but these are revered as Ganga by residents and so is the mighty Hoogly river in Kolkata.

The key to this phenomenon of perplexing nomenclature comes from the one and a half sentence uttered by the Sadhu:- she gives life, that is why she is Ganga. The word Ganga in Indian context traverses far ahead of the realms of linguistic and geo-physical nomenclature. This river bestows life to a major chunk of the population of the country, people live by it and they die by it. Hence the name Ganga moves much above the existence of the river and becomes an apt adjective for life sustaining rivers of the country. Ganga thus moves from being a name to a set of attributes that hold life, and also that which frees from life on death. So be it Betwa or Betravati, the Sadhu’s definition sums it up all: “the one who gives life is Ganga”