National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

and Pāvani going east, the Chakshu, Sītā, and Sindhu to the west, and the Ganges
to the south. ¹

The hydrography of the Vishnu Purāṇa begins: ›The Çatadru, Chandrabhāgā,
and other rivers, flow from the foot of Himalaya, etc. . . .‹ ² Wilson tells us that
the other Purāṇas enumerate many other rivers beyond those of the Vishnu. Çatadru
is ›the hundred-channelled‹, the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, the Hesidrus of Pliny, or Satlej.
The Chandrabhāgā, Sandabalis, or Acesines, is the Chinab. Thus even the Satlej
is regarded as coming from the foot of the Himalaya, not from beyond the moun-
tains. This is the same view as that of Ptolemy who makes all the rivers start from
the southern side of the Himalaya.

According to Wilson the popular notion concerning the origin of the Ganges is
that Çiva or Mahādeva receives the river on his head, though this is referred to the
descent of the Alakanandā, or Ganges of India, not to the celestial Ganges. In the
Vishnu Purāṇa we read: ³ ›From that third region of the atmosphere, or seat of
Vishnu, proceeds the stream that washes away all sin, the river Gangā, embrowned
with the unquents of the nymphs of heaven, who have sported in her waters. Having
her source in the nail of the great toe of Vishnu's left foot, Dhruva receives her
and sustains her day and night devoutly on his head; and thence the seven Rishis
practise the exercises of austerity in her waters, wreathing their braided locks with
her waves. The orb of the moon, encompassed by her accumulated current, derives
augmented lustre from her contact. Falling from on high, as she issues from the
moon, she alights on the summit of Meru, and thence flows to the four quarters of
the earth, for its purification. The Sītā, Alakanandā, Chakshu, and Bhadrā are four
branches of but one river, divided according to the regions towards which it proceeds.
The branch that is known as the Alakanandā was born affectionately by Mahādeva,
upon his head, for more than a hundred years, and was the river which raised to
heaven the sinful sons of Sagara, by washing their ashes. This sacred stream, heard
of, desired, seen, touched, bathed in, or hymned, day by day, sanctifies all beings;
and those who, even at a distance of a hundred leagues, exclaim 'Gangā, Gangā',
attone for the sins committed during three previous lives. The place whence this
river proceeds, for the purification of the three worlds, is the third division of the
celestial regions, the seat of Vishnu.‹ To which Wilson adds: ›The situation of the
source of the Ganges of heaven identifies it with the milky way.‹