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A man guiding a woman into the Ganges River; Varanasi, India
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Varanasi, India
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2007. Terms of use
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- Search LEARN NC for bathing, Ganges River, Hinduism, India, and Varanasi.
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A male bather holds the hand of a woman in the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. The man wears a cloth around his waist and the woman wears a pink sari. On the shore at the edge of the river, a man wearing a white cloth around his waist sits cross-legged facing the water. To the right, another person walks by. In the background, another bather stands in the river and a boat carrying two people is rowed through the water.
For Hindus, the Ganges River is the personification of the goddess Ganga and is therefore sacred. They bathe in it, wash their clothes and cooking dishes in it, and even drink from it. However, high levels of contaminants in the river including sewage, trash, and even half-cremated bodies make the Ganges one of the most polluted rivers in the world and a potential health hazard to those who come in contact with it.
