Birth
There are several Hindu beliefs that give various versions of the birth of Ganga. According to one version, the sacred water in Brahma's Kamandalu (water vessel) became personified as a maiden, Ganga. According to another (Vaishnavite) legend, Brahma had reverently washed the feet of Vishnu and collected this water in his Kamandalu. According to yet a third version, Ganga was the daughter of Himavat, king of the mountains, and his consort Mena; she was thus a sister of the goddess Parvati.
Every version declares that she was raised in the heavens, under the tutelage of Brahma.
Read more about this topic: Ganges In Hinduism
Famous quotes containing the word birth:
“...the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 1:19.
Egyptian midwives to Pharaoh.
“Some say that ever gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviours birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then they say no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed, and so gracious, is that time.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (19121989)