#5: The Ganga series | Part 3 | The daughter of the Himālaya - Making sense of the analogy
In November 2016, I was blessed with a rare opportunity (thanks to my mentor/boss Avilash Bisht) to go on a trek to what is called Nepal’s forbidden kingdom - Upper Mustang. The region is as mysterious as its name and is a restricted area in the trans-Himalayan region, close to the Nepal-Tibet border. It is located in the higher sections of the Kāli Gandaki river gorge, behind two iconic 8000m peaks - Annapurna and Dhaulagiri - which makes its topography unique.
On the trek, we walked through the Gandaki gorge and crossed three 5000m passes in our quest to reach Dāmodar Kunda - a sacred lake - through a new route. After 13 days on the trail, we ended the trek in the village of Tsarang, very close to Lo Manthang, the ancient capital of the region. As we had a couple of days extra, we decided to visit Choser, the village on the border of Nepal and Tibet. It is here that I observed what I thought was a strange phenomenon. The river in Choser, and in fact multiple rivers in the entire region around Lo Manthang, were all still flowing south, towards Nepal, and not flowing north into Tibet.
I couldn’t make sense of this, because I always believed that rivers behind the main Himālayan range always flowed north into Tibet and did not come down south to either Nepal or the Indian side. The natural expectation is that rivers originating on two different sides of a mountain range flow in their respective directions, no? I knew Sindhu or the Indus was an exception but did not know of other rivers which originate on the northern side of the Himalaya, yet flowed south.
Here I saw that the Kāli Gandaki got its water even from peaks in Tibet and was still flowing south. And if you did not know already, the Kāli Gandaki joins the Ganga near Patna in Bihar. This experience inspired me to dive into topographic maps to analyse which Himalayan mountains drained their water in which direction. This post is a result of the spark I had in Mustang, and my subsequent observations - all of which made me realise why, in the Rāmayana as we saw in the first post of this Ganga series, the river is referred to as the daughter of the Himālaya.
Not just the Gandaki
One of the prominent rivers apart from Kāli Gandaki that originates on the other side of the Himalaya is a river called Karnāli or Ghagghar. It originates near the Kailāsh-Mānasa Sarovar region in Tibet and yet flows south into Nepal, becoming the longest river in the country. Interestingly, the river is called Sarayu in the lower regions, specifically in the Indian plains. Yes, it is the same Sarayu river on the banks of which the famed ancient city and the thīrtha-kshetra of Ayodhya is located.
What is even more interesting is that the main tributary of Karnali/Ghagghar is the Shārada river (also called Mahākāli) which itself is the border between India and Nepal. This Shārada river is fed by the mountains in Kumaon in Uttarakhand, ones that are to the east of Nanda Devi. One of the tributaries of the Shārada river is itself called Sarayu and flows through the hills near Bageshwar in eastern Uttarakhand. So a river that loses its name to the bigger Sharada river, which itself loses its name to the bigger Ghagghar river, eventually ends up reclaiming its name far away from where it flows! I wonder if there is any such instance in India or else where.
Coming back to the point, another big river to the east of Gandaki - the Kosi or Kausiki - also starts flowing in Tibet. The Arun river is the main tributary of Kosi and it originates to the north of Sāgarmatha i.e., Everest. I repeat, north of the Everest ridge! It is a well-known fact that the top of Mt.Everest is the border between Nepal and China-controlled Tibet, so the peak can be approached from both countries. However, what is astonishing is that even the north face of Mt.Everest in Tibet drains its water down to the Nepal side! Read that again. The north face of Mt.Everest in Tibet drains its water down to the Nepal side. In fact, all the waters of all four faces of Mt.Everest - of which two are in Tibet - drain down to Kosi, which eventually joins the Ganga! This is a geographical wonder to say the least, because the river originating on the northern side of Everest takes a dramatic U-turn, as if reluctant to flow towards China, and enters Nepal in the south. See how close to its origin the river changes its course.
If you observe the map carefully, you can see that all sides of Everest eventually drain water down to the same south-flowing Arun and Kosi rivers! This kind of topography that we observe with respect to Ghagghar, Gandaki and Kosi rivers is extremely special because these rivers flow through gaps between some of the highest mountains in the world, it is like breaking through the biggest geographical barrier on Earth!
Everything eventually becomes the Ganga
All said and done, one can always say that these rivers are exceptions, that most of the rivers draining from the Himalaya on the northern side eventually flow into Tibet and does not come down to join the Ganga. This would be right, but not for long. Because, well, all the rivers that do not turn south and eventually go in the natural direction into Tibet, they all join the river Yarlung Zangpo which originates in the Kailāsh-Mānasa Sarovara region. This Yarlung Zangpo river is nothing but our very own Brahmaputra :)
And where does Yarlung Zangpo i.e., Brahmaputra go? Just like the Zhaga Chu takes an unprecedented turn, so does Brahmaputra. It dramatically changes its direction, and instead of flowing further east, it turns south and enters India to eventually join the Ganga!
So what does this mean? Irrespective of which side the mountains of Himalaya drain their water, whether they drain towards India/Nepal in the south or Tibet in the north, they all eventually join the Ganga. Each and every Himalayan peak, from Bandarpunch in western Uttarakhand to the peaks of Arunachal Pradesh in the east - each and every stream that flows from each and every mountain in Uttarakhand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and not to mention peaks in Tibet - all of them, come and join the Ganga.
So, when Ramayana refers to Ganga as the daughter of the Himālaya, it is not just that she is takes birth in the Himālaya. Pretty much the entire eastern half of the Himalaya, on both the southern and northern sides, drain their water down to her. The depth of the analogy is so profound and yet so simple, it aptly captures what is an incredible geographical feature of our planet. It also goes on to show what makes Ganga so special as a geographic phenomenon, irrespective of anyone’s belief in the divinity of the river. That this speciality is observed and captured in traditional Indian culture and literature is a testament to the incredible curiosity and geographical awareness of our ancestors :)
With this series, I have tried to take you on a journey from the source of the Ganga (Part 1), to the place where it gets identified as Ganga (Part 2), all the way to till Brahmaputra meets her (Part 3). I will of course write more about the river itself and the mountains that contribute to her, maybe even in the very next post. But when I started writing the series, these are the three things I wanted to share. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for your time!
Fascinating.