References on the Ganga

Aitken, Bill. Seven Sacred Rivers, Penguin, 1992.

Cumming, David, The Ganga, in The Rivers of the World Series,
Steck-Vaughan 1994 

    This is a picture book meant for young readers, and the
    research is based on a single visit to India. Lacks depth.

Darian, Steven G., University of Hawaii Press, 1978

Dennison, Berwick, A walk along the Ganga, Century 1986. Also 
available in a Picador edition (in India and UK). 
	
    Excellent travelogue and adventure tale. Dennison starts
    walking from the Sagar Island in the Sunderbans where
    the Ganga (or one of its branches, the Hooghly) enters
    the Bay of Bengal.  Speaking only a little Hindi,
    Berwick plunges in along the roads and bylanes bordering
    the Ganga. He has a list of addresses of expatriate
    institutions along the Ganga, where he checks in to
    recuperate from time to time.  He drinks mostly what
    water is available, and manages not to fall sick too
    often. He is guest of honour at a village wedding, is an
    object of intense curiosity, is feted by many, is
    famished and sunstroked, is almost robbed, but most of
    all he is shown great courtesy and generosity on the
    part of Indian villagers. Pretty much every night he is
    offered hospitality, and often food and medical
    advice/attention.  Some of his experiences, such as the
    Sikh colony west of Kanpur in U.P., were extremely new
    to me. Eventually he goes to Haridwar and treks up to
    Gangotri along the trail where he meets many sadhus, one
    of whom is going to Kanyakumarika (nearly 2000 miles away) 
    by laying down on the road, one body-length at a time. 
    Strongly recommended. 

Frater, Alexander, Chasing the Monsoon, Penguin 1992

Hillary, Edmund, From the Ocean to the Sky, publisher unknown.

    Describes a trip from the Sunderbans oceanmouth of the
    Ganga, through the rapids of Haridwar to Rudraprayag,
    ending up climbing the glacial origins of the Ganga. As
    a kid growing up on the banks of the Ganga north of
    Calcutta, I remember seeing the powerful motorized rafts
    sweep upstream one lazy summer afternoon.

Newby, Eric, Slowly down the Ganga, Picador, year unknown. 

    The noted travelogue author Eric Newby began his career by
    disappearing from his London Newspaper job one day and
    undertaking extensive travels through South America.  This
    Ganga tale is the culmination of a deeper dream which
    hark back to Newby's days as a recruit in the Imperial
    British Army, which took him, among other places, to
    Kanpur on the banks of the Ganga. In this book, he and
    his wife arrive in Haridwar, hoping to buy a boat and
    float down the Ganga. He manages to buy a boat a little
    downstream, and also gets a crew, but the boat is
    constantly getting stuck in the sandbanks and they are
    often tented up in the shallows and spend many a night
    expecting to be robbed.  Eventually his wife falls sick,
    and they have to take a large land detour. In any event,
    the river is pretty much un-navigable before Allahabad, or
    even Patna, due to the lack of waterflow. This book
    doesn't do justice to Newby's reputation.

Tagore, Rabindranath, Glimpses of Bengal, Macmillan.

    Translations of Tagore's powerful prose writings from his
    years spent living in a house boat on the Padma looking
    after the family land holdings in Shilaidah, now Bangladesh.
    Evocative descriptions of the river in its many moods,
    particularly monsoon on the river. Human life near the river
    described with gentle virtuosity.  Should be read along
    with Tagore's poetry from this period such as the Sonar Tori
    (The Golden Raft, see translations by Ketaki Kushari Dyson
    "I will not let you go"). Also see Tagore's autobiographical
    sketches in "Reminescences." The Glimpses of Bengal is
    available in India in a garishly covered cheap edition, but
    difficult to find in the West.  Translator not noted; may be
    Tagore himself, but more likely one of his many devotees.
    This is the quintessential literary man from Bengal, who
    also won the Nobel Prize in 1913. Bengal and Bangladesh are
    home to the lower Ganga, and Tagore certainly spent a lot of
    time by this river. This is a good translation.