A Tale of Two Rivers

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN INDIA

Two rivers that are major lifelines to the Indian subcontinent provide sustenance for hundreds of millions of people. Born not too far apart in the glacial areas of the world’s highest mountain ranges, they each flow majestically more than 1,500 miles [2,400 km], mainly through two countries. They empty into two different seas. Each river was the cradle of an ancient civilization. Each saw the birth of a major religion. Each is appreciated by man for its gifts, and one is worshiped, even today. Their names? The Indus and the Ganges, the latter known here in India as the Ganga.

BECAUSE mankind needs water to survive and prosper, early civilizations developed around rivers. Since rivers were sometimes personified as gods and goddesses, early records can be shrouded in mythology. This is certainly true of the history of the Indus and the Ganga, also known in India as Ganga Ma (Mother Ganga).

To both Hindus and Buddhists, 22,027-foot-high [6,714 m] Mount Kailash and nearby Lake Mapam Yumco, also known in Tibet as Manasarovar, are the abode of the gods. For a long time, it was believed that four great rivers flowed from the lake out of the mouths of animals. The lion river was the Indus, and the peacock river was the Ganga.

The Tibetans did not welcome foreign explorers. In 1811, however, an English veterinary surgeon employed by the East India Company traveled through the land in various disguises. He reported that no rivers ran out of Manasarovar, though some mountain streams did run into it. It was not until the early 20th century that the headwaters of both the Indus and the Ganga were located. The Indus has its source in Tibet, north of the Himalayas, and the Ganga starts in an ice cave in the Himalayan slopes of northern India.

Where Ancient Civilizations Started

It is believed that the earliest inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent journeyed eastward into the Indus Valley. Here archaeologists have found ruins of a highly advanced civilization at such sites as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. In the early decades of the 20th century, these finds changed the view that India’s early settlers were primitive nomadic tribes. More than 4,000 years ago, the Indus Civilization was on a par with, if not superior to, that of Mesopotamia. Evidence of grid-patterned streets, multistoried houses and tenement blocks, excellent sewer and septic-tank drainage, enormous granaries, temples, and baths for ritual cleansing all point to an advanced urban civilization. There are also indications of trade connections with Mesopotamia and the Middle East, the Indus providing a route to the Arabian Sea from hundreds of miles inland.

Over the centuries natural disasters—perhaps earthquakes or great river floods—appear to have weakened the urban civilization of the Indus Valley. This left little resistance to invasion by waves of nomadic tribes from Central Asia, generally referred to as Aryans. They drove most of the city dwellers away from the river, so that the ancient culture that had developed around the Indus now moved to southern India, where today the Dravidian race continues as one of the major Indian ethnic groups.

How Are the Rivers Today?

River water is more critical today than it was 4,000 years ago, when people were drawn to the banks of the Indus and the Ganga for sustenance. To support the great populations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the rivers must be carefully controlled. (See the map on pages 16-17.) International agreements have been necessary, since the rivers flow through more than one country. Pakistan has built, among others, the two-mile-long [3 km], 470-foot-high [143 m] Tarbela Dam for irrigation. One of the largest in the world, it contains 194,200,000 cubic yards [148,500,000 cu m] of earth fill.

[Box/Map on page 16, 17]

The Mighty Indus

With so many streams merging to form the Indus, there has been debate about the location of the actual source of the river. But that this great river originates high up in the Himalayas is certain. Flowing in a northwesterly direction and joining other streams en route, the river runs 200 miles [320 km] across the high plateau of Tibet, “the roof of the world.” As the river approaches the borders of India in the Ladakh region, it works its way through the mountains, wearing into the base of cliffs to form a channel between the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges. Now in Indian territory, it drops nearly 12,000 feet [3,700 m] in a matter of 350 miles [560 km]. During this plunge it travels north and then takes a sharp turn around the western edge of the Himalayas, where it is joined by the Gilgit, a large river surging out of the Hindu Kush. The waters then flow south through Pakistan. Forcing its way between the mountains, twisting and turning with violent force, the Indus eventually reaches the plains and flows on through the Punjab. This name means “Five Rivers,” as five great tributaries—the Beas, the Sutlej, the Ravi, the Jhelum, and the Chenab—flow like outspread fingers of a giant hand to join the Indus and travel with it to the end of its majestic journey of more than 1,800 miles. [2,900 km]