The Ganges Book

India is not a place, it is an experience. And the Ganges is not a river, it is an aspect of the divine. Born and brought up in Rajasthan, Raghubir Singh felt the spell of the river, its destructive power, and its majesty. Although he lived for many years in the West, he returned to the river again and again. He saw its contradictions as part of a process of growth and change: naked sadhus and ancient rituals alongside electric crematoria and modern ports.

This book brings to life Raghubir Singh's personal pilgrimage along the Ganges, from the Himalayas, where the river rises among snows, through the villages of the Gangetic Plain, past Banaras and through Bihar, to the Bay of Bengal between India and Bangladesh. On the journey he captured the essence of the river's many different stages and moods, its strange and stunning beauty, its ferocity during the monsoon, the intimate daily lives of the people who live along it, and its powerful religious significance, attested by the millions of Hindus who take part in the ageless pilgrimages and festivals along its banks. 123 color photographs.