The Ganges: Along Sacred Waters

A photographic journey that traces the entire route of India's sacred river.

Rivers are more than mere geography. They are the inner soul of the earth, a marvelous landscape without which the greatest and the humblest stories could never have been told. Rivers are also a challenge. Their origins have to be discovered, the sources of those life-giving waters, and their ends must be found.

India's holiest river, the Ganges, winds some 1,550 miles through the country, from its headwaters in the Himalayan glaciers past the villages and cities of the Gangetic Plain to the Delta's thousand fingers in the Bay of Bengal between India and Bangladesh. Here, Aldo Pavan and his camera trace the route of this sacred river, capturing its beauty and its many different phases and moods. Along the way, we meet the pilgrims, sadhus, fishermen, farmers, weavers, merchants, hair dressers, snake charmers, and others whose lives are spent along the river's banks. Over 300 color illustrations.