The Ganges
Skandha V. Chap. 7
The Avatâra Vâmana asked Bali, the Daitya King, for as much space as he could cover in three steps. The first step covered the earth. Vâmana then raised his foot over the heavens and the stroke of his left toe-nail caused a hole in the cosmic egg. Water entered the hole from outside, water that carried the washings of Vishnu’s feet and that was consequently capable of purifying all the impurities of the world and that was in itself very pure, water that was then called Bhagavat pudi. In a thousand yugas the stream reached the highest point of Svar Loka, called Vishnupada.
Dhruva carried the stream on his own head with ever increasing devotion.
The seven Rishis (of the Great Bear) carry the sacred water in their braided tufts of hair, as something better than Mukti, for the stream of devotion flows from Vishnu direct.
Thence the stream passes through the path of the Devas, studded with thousands and thousands of starry chariots, till it overflows the lunar regions and fall down on the abode of Brahmâ in Meru.
There the stream divides itself into four parts called Sitâ, Alakanandâ, Vankshu and Bhadrâ.
The Sitâ flows from the abode of Brahmâ through the highest mountain ranges, she comes down to Gandha Mâdana, thence through Bhadrâsva Varsha she falls into the salt ocean towards the east.
So the Vankshu flows through the Mâlyavat range into Ketumala Varsha and falls on the west into the Salt ocean.
The Bhadrâ flows north from the Sumeru peak through several mountain ranges down to Sringavat range and passes through Kuru in to the Salt ocean.
The Alakanandâ flows south from the abode of Brahmâ through several mountain ranges to Hema Kuta and thence to Himâlaya till it reaches Bhârata Varsha (i.e. Nâbhi Varsha) and at last flows through it into the Salt ocean.
There are a thousand other rivers and a thousand other mountains in each Varsha.
[The real source of the Ganges is not the melting of snow in the Himâlâyas. That may be the source of the waters that swell the bed of the Ganges, as we see it. But the Ganges is something more than a volume of waters. There is a spiritual current underlying its waters. That current comes from regions higher than the highest peak of the Himâlâyas. Hence the great sanctity attached to it].