Indian Antiquary Vol 50

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

Page 43

FEB., 1921)
THE EARLY COURSE OF THE GANGES
37
tradition 74 to the effect that one day long before the birth of Chaitanya, Samudra (the Ocean) said to Gangå (the Ganges) that she was very fortunate, in as much as she would see the “full-god Gaurachandra " appear at Nadia on her banks, where he would pass the best part of his life, sporting in her waters, as he had done before in the Yamuna; whereupon Ganga replied, “I am very unfortunate that Gaurachandra after affording me so much happiness would plunge me into the deepest sorrow by turning a Sannyâsî (ascetic) and going to live on your coast (meaning Puri in Orissa on the sea-shore) and you would be the happiest of beings." Samudra (Ocean) replied that what she said was true, but it would burst his heart to see him turn a Sannyasi, and therefore he would take her protection. She would show him Gaurachandra and his companions in the heyday of their sportive career on her banks in Nadia. Since then Samudra and Ganga awaited together with impatience the advent of Gaurachandra at “Samudragati."75 The story, stripped of its poetical garb and allegory, clearly points out that the Ganges once disembogued itself into the ocean at Samudragadi in the district of Nadia near Koladvipa-Parvata or Kolapura. The name also of Samudragati strongly corroborates the fact, of which we have no historical evidence except the tradition above referred to, that at some former period, the Ganges joined the Ocean at this place, and the mouth by which the former joined the latter must have been its principal or the Kambyson mouth of Ptolemy, on account of its proximity to " Poloura, ” which is a corruption of Kolapura in the district of Nadia, and the configuration of the head of the Bay of Bengal in the second century A.D. makes the identification highly probable. Ptolemy's "Kambyson " therefore appears to have been Kapilårsrama and his " Poloura " Kolapura. The former is now represented by the Hughli mouth at Kapilâsrama near the Sågar Island. This tradition, as well as the names which we have tried to restore, receives some con
firmation from the fact that at Jâhânnagar (Brahmânitala), which Jahnu-Asrama at
is four miles to the west of Nadia, there is a tradition of the hermitage Jahannagar.
of Jahnu Muni being situated there.76 In fact, J&hânnagar, which is mentioned also as Jannagara, is a corruption of Jahnu-Dvipa, as stated in the Navadui pa. Parikrama. It should be borne in mind that Jahnu Muni is said to have gwallowed up the Ganges and then let her out through his thigh on the intercession of Bhagiratha. This is merely an allegory for indicating a change in the course of the river. The very fact of a Jahnu existing at Nadia shows that a change in the course of the Ganges must have taken
7 Navadvipa-Parikrama, p. 40 -
Nija gane grisamudragati nama kaya Ethå Gang-samudra-prasanga sukhamays Gangasraya kariya Samudragati eths
Loke ye prasiddha suns, kahi ye, so katha. (Our people call it (Samudragađi) Samudragati : there was a happy union here of the Gangos and the Ocean ; I shall relate to you the tradition so well known to the people regarding the union of the Gangor at Samudragati here.) * Ibid. p. 41
Ohe Bri-nivasa Ganga-sindhu sikhane
Sadai adhairya Gaurachandrer dhiyane. (Oh Srinivlom; here (at Samudragadi) Gang (the Ganges) and Samudra (the Ocean) always remained impatient in the meditation of Gaurachandra.)
70 Oaloutta Review, VI (1846), p. 494 ; Chunder's Travels of a Hindoo, vol. L 77 Napadvipa-Parikrama, p. 53, 97.