The Sacred Ganga

The Sacred Ganga

River Ganga/Ganges, most sacred river by Hindus, starts at the snout of the Gangotri Glacier and the source of the Bhagirathi river. A river Ganga is 2525 kilometers long and it has been the lifeline of the entire stretch of the Ganga-Yamuna plains, with over 300 million dependents today, why is Ganga considered so sacred? What is the secret behind its water? The waters of Ganga by nature cleanses itself and even a single dip in the waters of the holy river cleanses away the sins of a person.


In India, the last rites of most of the Hindus are performed along the shores of Ganga, and thousands of human bodies are consigned to the holy Ganga river. During festival days millions of Hindus take bath in the river day. But stil there is no sign of contagious diseases spreading from person to person due to contact through the river water. 

Antibacterial Nature

A British physician tested the water of Ganga that bacterium Vibrio Cholerae which causes the deadly Cholera disease dies within three hours when placed in the waters of Ganga. 

Anti-putrefication

Another British physician noticed that the waters of Ganga when taken even from the dirtiest mouths remained fresh throughout the long journey.

Purifying dead

A French microbiologist was amazed of seeing that a few feet below the bodies of persons floating in the Ganga who had died of dysentery and cholera, where one would expect millions of germs, there were no germs at all!


Hindus had for thousands of years rightly believed that Ganga purifies the dead bodies, which is why probably the bodies of even those who died of infectious diseases were offered to this river for purification!

Recent Research

An Indian environmental engineer/professor of hydrology has spent a life time studying the amazing properties of Ganges. 


Finally he found that the remarkable self cleansing ability of Ganges is that Ganges water can able to reduce its biochemical oxygen demand levels much faster than other rivers! He says that the self-purifying quality of this river leads to oxygen levels that are 25 times higher than any other river in the world. The Ganges cleanses up suspended wastes 15 to 20 times faster when compared to other rivers!


It is observed that the water from the upper reaches of Ganga did not host mosquito breeding, and also prevented mosquito breeding in any water it was added to!


The major factors which give Ganges its unique ability are:

• An unknown factor called the Mystery Factor that gives the river ganga an unusual ability to retain dissolved oxygen from the atmosphere! and bacteriophage. 
• The high levels of oxygen in the waters of Ganga gives it the unique ability to remain fresh over a prolonged period of time. 

In other words, the water of river Ganga can be an alternative for using antibiotics to treat bacterial diseases! Ancient Indians who used the water of rivers like Ganga never required any antibiotics, for the very water they used was anti-bacterial in nature! This type of Bacteriophage Therapy has been suggested by many researchers, but rarely tried/tested or practised in the health industry.


Related links:


Pollution Sensitive Dress