LONG AGO, my dear departed mother taught me to invoke the names of our sacred rivers while taking a bath. The Ganga was the first among these aquatic mothers of mankind. Then came the Yamuna. Then Godavari and the Saraswati.
The Mother River Narmada came in the second line; followed by the Sindhu or the Indus and the Kaveri. These were the Sapta Sindhus or Seven Holy Rivers of Hindu myth and fable. Every Indian was enjoined to invite them into even the humblest bucket of water used for their daily ablutions.
Like many Indians, I believed Ganga to be the holiest of them all. But only when I took up my pen to write a cultural and pictorial tribute to the Benevolent Narmada did I realize how wrong I was!
According to legend, this holy river is descended straight from the heavens upon the orders of Lord Shiva. Also, forget bathing according to popular belief just the sight of this holy river can purify the human soul.
No wonder, to wash off her own 'sins', accumulated though they were by her devotees' ritual washings, River Ganga Herself is said to come to Maa Narmada in the form a black cow.
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