Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 17

JAX., 1921)
THE EARLY COURSE OF THE GANGES
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drippinga of water congealed at places into icicles and stalactites, rise high up in the skies, and form, as it were, a stepping-stone to heaven. The poetic imagination of the religious Hindu sees in these five peaks the five heads of Mahadeva, called also Panchånana on account of his five faces. With the hanging icicles on their corrugated sides looking like his matted hair, they tower high to receive, as it were, the heavenly Ganges. The two epics and the Puranas agree that the Ganges 'joins the Jumnâ at Prayaga or
Allahabad, which is considered one of the most holy places in India. Prayaga. At the time of the Råmdyaņa+ Prayaga Tirtha" had already acquired
celebrity for sanctity, especially as it contained the hermitage of Rishi Bharadvaja. At the time of the Mahabharata+3 it was considered holy. But neither in these two epics nor in the Rig Veda is there any mention whatsoever that the Sarasvati ever joined the Ganges and the Jamunâ at Prayaga or any where else. Even the earlier Puranas such as the Matsya, the Vishnu, etc. do not say that the Sarasvati joined these two rivers at Prayaga. It was evidently with the object of attracting larger numbers of pilgrims by conferring further sanctity upon the place, that the latter Purd nas, conceived the idea of joining the Sarasvati, the lost river," with the other two rivers through a subterranean passage, and hence the Sarasvatî at Prayaga is called “Gupta (hidden) Sarasvati " in the Brihad Dharmma Purana.45 This conception was further utilized for the creation of a new place of sanctity in Bengal, and that place is Triveni, about two miles to the north of Hugli. Advantage was taken of the divarication of the Ganges at some later period, by throwing out two arms, one to the west and the other to the east of Triveņi, to call them Sarasvati and Yamuna respectively, and to proclaim that the three rivers Gavgå, Yamuna and Sarasvati, which joined at Allahabad, separated at Triveni in the district of Hugli and thus a place as sacred as Prayaga was secured for Bengal. Hence the junction of the three rivers at Allahabad is called Yukta-Veņi or "junction of the rivers," and the separation of the three rivers at Triveņi is called Mukta-Veni or "disjunction of the rivers." The Mahabharata does not mention the name of Triveni in Bengal, though Yudhish ţhira visited Ganga-Sågara, the place where the Ganges entered the ocean. 46 But the mouth of the Ganges at that time was evidently much higher up than it is at present. The Maha-Puranas also do not mention the name of Triveņi near Hugli. It appears for the first time in the Brihad-Dharmma Purana 17 which is an Upa-Purana. The names of Yukta-Veņi and Mukta-Veși also do not appear in any of the Puranas, nor even in the Padma Purana, 48 which only calls the confluence at Allahabad by the name of Triveņi. Pandit Raghunandana of Nadia in his Prayaschitta-Tattvam, in commenting upon the word “Daksh pa-Prayaga" occurring according to him in a passage of the Mahabharata, says it is also called "Mukta-Veņi," which is another name for Triveni near Hugli.49 There can be no doubt therefore that the Ganges flowed by the
. 41 Ayodhya K., ch. 54. 13 Mh., Vana, ch. 85; Anusasana, ch. 25. 44 Padma P., Kriyayogaskra, ch. 3, v. 5; Uttara, ch. 14; Brihad-Dharmma P., I, ch, 6. 46 Brihad-Dharmma P., II, ch. 22, v. 13.
46 Vana, ch. 144. 47 Brihad-Dharmma P., T, ch. 22, v. 33:-Triveri nama tirthaficha prithagbhûte cha yatra vai, Sarasvati cha Yamuna Prayaga phaladâyakam (where the Ganges separated from the Sarasvati and Yamuna at the Tirtha Named Triveni, it is as efficacious as Prayaga).
18 Padma P., Uttara, ch. 14.
4Prayaschittatattvam, Ganga-Mahatmya, p. 100:-Pradyumnna-nagarât ydmyo Sarasvatyastethottaro, Dakhaina-PrayAgastu unmuktavepf saptagram Akhya dakshina de Triverftikhyata ["On the south of Pradyumna-nagars and on the north of Sarasvati is Dakshiva-Pray ga (southern Prayage)