Editing Ganges (section)

===Embodiment of sacredness===
[[File:IndianWomanFloatingLampsGanges.jpg|thumb|right|Chromolithograph, ''Indian woman floating lamps on the Ganges'', by William Simpson, 1867]]
The Ganges is a sacred river to Hindus along every fragment of its length. All along its course, Hindus bathe in its waters,<ref name=eck1982-p212>{{Harvnb|Eck|1982|p=212}}</ref> paying homage to their ancestors and 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 shallow clay dishes filled with oil and lit with wicks (diyas).<ref name=eck1982-p212/> On the journey back home from the Ganges, they carry small quantities of river water with them for use in rituals; Ganga Jal, literally "the water of the Ganges".<ref name=eck1982-p212-213>{{Harvnb|Eck|1982|pp=212–13}}</ref>

The Ganges is the embodiment of all [[sacred waters]] in [[Hindu mythology]].<ref name=eck1982-p214>{{Harvnb|Eck|1982|p=214}}</ref> Local rivers are said to be ''like'' the Ganges and are sometimes called the local Ganges.<ref name=eck1982-p214/> The [[Godavari River]] of [[Maharashtra]] in Western India is called the Ganges of the South or the 'Dakshin Ganga'; the Godavari is the Ganges that was led by the sage [[Gautama Maharishi|Gautama]] to flow through Central India.<ref name=eck1982-p214/> The Ganges is invoked whenever water is used in Hindu ritual and is therefore present in all sacred waters.<ref name=eck1982-p214/> Despite 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 [[Tirtha and Kshetra|tirthas]] such as [[Varanasi]], [[Gangothri|Gangotri]], [[Haridwar]], or the [[Triveni Sangam]] at [[Prayagraj]].<ref name=eck1982-p214/> The symbolic and religious importance of the Ganges is one of the few things that Hindus, even their skeptics, have agreed upon.<ref name=eck1982-p214-215>{{Harvnb|Eck|1982|pp=214–15}}</ref> Jawaharlal Nehru, a religious iconoclast himself, asked for a handful of his ashes to be thrown into the Ganges.<ref name=eck1982-p214-215/> "The Ganga", he wrote in his will, "is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India's age-long culture and civilization, ever-changing, ever-flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga."<ref name=eck1982-p214-215/>