The Ganges (/'gnd?i?z/ gan-jeez), also Ganga (Hindi: ????; Bengali: ?????

; Sansk
rit: ?????) (Hindustani pronunciation: ['g??ga?] gung-ga), is a trans-boundary r
iver of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh. The 2,525 km (1,569 mi) r
iver rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flow
s south and east through the Gangetic Plain of North India into Bangladesh, wher
e it empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is the third largest river by discharge.
The Ganges is a sacred river to Hindus along every fragment of its length. All a
long its course, Hindus bathe in its waters,[56] paying homage to their ancestor
s and to their gods by cupping the water in their hands, lifting it and letting
it fall back into the river; they offer flowers and rose petals and float shallo
w clay dishes filled with oil and lit with wicks (diyas).[56] On the journey bac
k home from the Ganges, they carry small quantities of river water with them for
use in rituals (Ganga jal, literally water of the Ganga).[57] When a loved one
dies, Hindus bring the ashes of the deceased person to the Ganges River.[57]
The Ganges is the embodiment of all sacred waters in Hindu mythology.[58] Local
rivers are said to be like the Ganges, and are sometimes called the local Ganges
(Ganga).[58] The Kaveri river of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in Southern India is
called the Ganges of the South; the Godavari, is the Ganges that was led by the
sage Gautama to flow through Central India.[58] The Ganges is invoked whenever w
ater is used in Hindu ritual, and is therefore present in all sacred waters.[58]
In spite of this, nothing is more stirring for a Hindu than a dip in the actual
river, which is thought to remit sins, especially at one of the famous tirthas
such as Gangotri, Haridwar, Prayag, or Varanasi.[58] The symbolic and religious
importance of the Ganges is one of the few things that Hindu India, even its ske
ptics, are agreed upon.[59] Jawaharlal Nehru, a religious iconoclast himself, as
ked for a handful of his ashes to be thrown into the Ganges.[59] "The Ganga," he
wrote in his will, "is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which a
re intertwined her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, h
er victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age-long culture
and civilization,