Reporter's Notebook

THE MYSTERIOUS FACTOR X

     Why do so many priests, pilgrims and aam aadmi - the common man - believe Ganga purifies their souls and cleanses them of sin? Does Ganga jal have some special cleansing properties that make it unique?

     Many people who bathe in and drink Ganga jal indeed do get intestinal bugs. But there have been no recorded pandemics at any of the great bathing festivals - Kumbh Mela, Sangam, Kartik Purnima, Makar Sankranti - where you’d most expect them. No cholera, no typhoid, no dysentery. Why?

     Indians who drink Ganga jal simply don’t get sick. Again, why not? Surely it can’t be faith alone. Devout Hindus of course believe bathing in the waters of the goddess Ganga will remove their past sins, that if you are cremated upon the banks of the Ganga and your ashes scattered in the river, particularly at Varanasi, this will ensure your liberation from further rebirths. Or that if you can’t make it to Ganga or to Varanasi, then a drink of Ganga jal will at least ease the pains of dying. This is why it’s very common for pilgrims and devotees to take pots of Ganga jal back to their homes, either as offerings to their household deities, or as a final elixir for a dying relative.
     
      Most of the early travellers’ tales commented on Ganga jal. The great Arab writers Al-Biruni and Ibn Batuta noted that Muslim rulers always sought out Ganga jal.

     The Mughal emperor Akbar’s preference for ‘the water of immortality’ from Ganga for drinking and cooking is described at length in the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl. Akbar would serve only Ganga jal to guests at weddings because of its soft, sweet taste. He made sure he had a ready supply on hand both at court and on his travels. The water would be collected from the river and sent to him in sealed jars at Agra or Fatehpur Sikri. The practice continued and expanded under Akbar’s successors, even after the Mughal empire began its slow disintegration.

     The great French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier made five trips to India between 1640 and 1667. He casually mentions that both Hindus and Muslims drink the water because it contains no ‘vermin’, and is believed to have some medicinal properties. I think his ‘vermin’ are the same ‘insects’ mentioned by the family from Jhansi I met at the Sangam in Allahabad.

     The British East India Company also swore by Ganga jal. When ships set out from Calcutta for the three-month journey back to England they only carried Ganga jal from the Hugli (one of the dirtiest reaches in all of Ganga) because they insisted it wouldn’t putrefy en route. Water taken on board in England, on the other hand, could not survive the outward journey. By the time boats reached Mumbai it was putrid and foul to taste.