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Gangaa

Locating the Mythological Gangaa
This would seem strange since Gangaa's location is taken as proved. But the mythological story of the Gangaa fits the Nile better than it fits our Gangaa river.

Gangaa was brought down to the earth by Bhageerath to purify the graves of Sagar's children. If the Gangaa were allowed to fall on the earth the force of its fall would have destroyed the earth, so Shiv takes it on his head and allows it to reach the earth in a slow trickle. The river washes away the Aashram of the sage Jahnu. The angry sage drinks up the river and releases it later through his ears.

These features fit the Nile.

Mythological Gangaa is a rain water river not a glacial one as ours is.
There are graves in the "Valley of death" (at Luxor or Karnak) but none along the course of our Gangaa.

Shiv's head is symbolically a high level lake. Nile starts from Lake Victoria at Kenya-Uganda border. Jahnu's episode may be interpreted as follows - After Aswaan the Nile disappears into a papyrus swamp known as Sudd in Egypt. The swamp is 375 miles (600 kms) long. The river comes out of the swamp crystal clear and white hence the name Gangaa or the pure one. The name Nile itself is a Sanskrit word meaning blue. The "blue" Nile flows in from Ethiopia-Sudan.

At Abu Simbel (for Sinh, the Sphinx) there are four statues of Ramses (Raameshwar). These are the sons of King Dasharath referred to as Dusratta in Mitani legends of the times. In the cornices above the statues are figures of baboons (the Vaanar). The association of the sons of Dasharath with the monkeys is remarkable.

These are just coincidences but nevertheless collectively they might mean something we do not understand.

 

 

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Created by Sushma Gupta on 8/9/09
Contact: sushmajee@yahoo.com
Updated on 04/08/12