When King Bhagirath sat for his penance on a boulder to force Lord Shiva to send river Ganga down to the mortals’ world, it must have been a trying time for Lord Shiva. Alike all authorities, He also had to examine all pros and cons before clearing the King’s Ganga Project. It is a different fact that His condescension eventually helped King Bhagirath start a tradition of redeeming ancestors in the Ganga waters.
How long did Lord Shiva take to pacify the undaunted King was the question of the mythological history, which the Hinduism does not clearly answer. But the mortals, acons later, took only two centuries to construct a temple of Mother Ganga on that boulder, which was cut-off from the mighty Bhrigu Panth range.
Two centuries are not long by the yardstick of mythological time, though in mortal timeframe it is. First in the nineteenth century Gorkha chieftain Amar Singh Thapa and then in the twentieth the Jaipur dynasty constructed the temple of Ganga in memory of King Bhagirath. Today the descendants of the mortals propose many Ganga Projects but in the end of the day bungle with all of them, definitely to the chagrin of Lord Shiva.
Once the temple was constructed, there was no stopping of the pilgrims’ progressive footfalls in the hostile terrains of pure snow. The vibgyor of the rising and setting suns draws people from all parts of the world today. Therefore, there are many manipulations with the laws of Nature to effectively bring many modes of travelling to this uphill distance, and thus many ways to pollute the purest of the pure air quality, albeit the Uttarakhand government claims otherwise.
What would Lord Shiva do now? Should He take the river back to his locks? Or would He ask the mortals behave sane about environment? For the Gangotri Glacier, of which Gomukh is only a part, is now shrinking. Though the reality may hurt many pilgrims’ fond sentiments, the fact is more often than not experts and scholars in environmental sciences carry out routine examinations to find out the status of the glacier. The glacier was 24 km long and 6 km wide till recently, is slowly melting due to warming of the atmosphere.
Usual route for Gangotri is first reaching Rishikesh, then Dharsu and then Uttarkashi. From Uttarkashi there is the taxi service for Gangotri. Apart from normal route from Rishikesh, there are other paths also which could be traversed to approach Gangotri.
One such a path is from Chamba, at a height of 1676 metres, which shortens the distance at 198 kms. The steep trekking for Gongotri from Chamba is rather comfortable. The colour of the sky often picks up various hues in the backdrop of gurgling fierce Bhagirathi, gushing out of narrow mouth of the Great Snout (Gomukh) which is mythologically known as Lord Shiva’s braids in the lock. In the morning light the dazzling snow covering the sharp cliffs of the Shivling peak at the height of 6543 metres, makes the spectacle awesome and resplendent. The snow covering the majestic peaks of all intervening mountains around Shivling dazzle by sunrays. Some peaks have the spots of rocks, still not covered or their snow cover melts rather much too quickly.
There are three peaks of the Bhagirathi range – I (6856 metres), II (6512 metres) and III (6454 metres) – which contribute to the water content of the river. As sunrays fall on the ice-covered peaks of the Mandya mountains at a height of 6528 metres, they look like sharp spears. The cliffs above the streaming Bhagirathi loom dangerously large around the entire environment, yet magnificent at sight. The mountainous tracks are treacherously poised, the pilgrims have to trek up or down very carefully there. Clay and loose boulders add up to the danger perception. Near that spot, a little below, is an Ashram in a shanty-type construction as mentioned in the Gomukh chapter.
Pilgrims may stay there for the night if necessary, and get warm tea and foods with drinking water. The Ashram is popularly known as Lalbaba ka Ashram. That is the spot where are dotted a number of dharmashalas for yatris (pilgrims) and travellers, where blankets and foods are served with beds. The tranquillity of the Himalayas is not unhampered there even as one would hear loud boom-booms very often. These loud roars are indeed out because of the waters gushing through huge boulders, often moving them by fierce force of volumes of gushing waters of the Bhagirathi which gets magnified due to the atmospheric tranquillity. The scene is strangely not ugly, as it would generally happen with most pilgrim sites, because the caretakers of the Ashram and the dramashalas are specially instructed to remove the empty containers, polypacks, polythene bags and others.
What exactly is bothersome is the warming of the atmosphere, which is said to be responsible for melting up all Glaciers of the world slowly since a few decades last. According to environmentalists and ecologists, the Nature was warming since the Ice Age, very slowly and used to compensate the losses even slower. There is always a Natural process about it. With growth of urbanisation to give shelters to ever increasing world population, running of more and more factories for improving peoples’ lifestyles and depending more on mechanical than Nature-centric living, the hotting up of the environment is but the expected consequence. Experts often explained that by taking care of locale-specific solutions the ratio of warming could be minimised. One such measure is stopping burning of fossil fuels in the core areas of Mountain ranges, such as Gangotri. Ferrying taxis, buses, private cars can easily be stopped as the first step.
SPOTS TO VISIT
● Submerged Shivling: Shivling here is of normal rock, but under the water of the river. As the legend would have it, Lord Shiva sat there to capture Ganga in his locks. This Shivling is visible only in winters, hence most pilgrims fail to see Him, even as the Shivling lied under deep water.
● Mythological Mystery: The mythology says, Ganga daughter of Himalayas appeared in the form of a river in response to King Bhagirath’s penance spanning a few centuries, following Lord Shiva’s instruction. The Lord received Ganga at this spot of Martya to prevent the likely devastation due to fiercely falling river currents. Thus the river Ganga assumed the name Bhagirathi from here.
WHAT PILGRIMS MUST KNOW
●Altitude
3042 metres.
● Distance
About 300 kms from Haridwar.
● Climete (Summer)
Pleasant cool during the daytime, as sun is up there, chilly cold at night.
● Clime (Winter)
long as Icy cold, profuse snowfall, temperature Goes below 0 degree.
● Time to visit
Best season is from April to October.
● Closed months
Normally November and May (From the Dhanteras Day to the Akshaya Tritiya Day).
TRAVELLERS AND PILGRIMS ATTRACTION
● Gangotri Temple
● Nandanvan Tapovan
● Uttarkashi
● Vishwanath Temple
● Ekadash Rudra Temple
● Gyaneshwar Temple
● Kuteti Devi Temple
● Kedar Tal
● Dayara Bugyal
● Nachiketa Tal
● Tehri State
● Narendranagar
● Sheshnag Temple
● Nehru Institute of Mountaineering
HOW TO REACH GANGOTRI
●From Haridwar 282kms, from Rishikesh 257kms, from Chamba 198kms.
●Taxi goes straight upto Gangotri.
●Bus services by Uttarakhand Govt & others upto Haridwar or Rishikesh.
●Upto Dehradun airstrip and taxis from Rishikesh or Haridwar.
