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Bathers in the Ganges River in 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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Several people sit on the edge of stone steps leading down to the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. Two wade in and splash water on themselves. Two others prepare food. A man and a woman wash clothes and sheets. Further up the steps, two other people change out of their clothes in preparation for bathing.
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 corpses 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.
