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Mystic river When time stood still

Discovery Channel is bringing this mighty river to life in a beautifully-shot three-part series, “Ganges”.

The first episode in the series, “Daughter of the Mountains” tells the story of the origin of the river — a matter of faith, as much as geography. There are four sacred spots from where the Ganga is believed to have originated. And the series follows the river to its sacred source in the ice cave, a spot only the most determined devotee visits.

Along the way we also get to see the varied wild life from the stealthy sinuous snow leopard to the sensibly reclusive musk deer.

There are others including the shambling Asiatic brown bears, the great bearded vultures and the blind river dolphins. Then there are some truly magical sights like the Valley of Flowers with undulating meadows of the most spectacular carpets of flowers imaginable.

If the first episode had the soaring Himalayas for locales, the second episode, “River of Life”, features the foothills. The episode features the river as an ever-changing timeline to civilisation. It goes back to the beginning of time when the Indian subcontinent hurtled at breakneck pace (in geological terms) and crashed into the Asian land mass.

The resulting collision caused the land to crumple and fold up to create the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas.

The episode traces the rise and fall of civilisations along the banks of this mighty river — from the early settlers to the Mughals and the British.

Each visitor bought with them their own understandings and cosmic rationale.

So if the early settlers marvelled at the fertility of the river and celebrated the diversity of wildlife, the Mughals brought in architecture, engineering and science to understand the flora and fauna of the region.

When the British came, with one eye on industrialisation and the other on game, the gracious trees were soon turned into sleepers for the rapidly growing railway while the big cats that had roamed free in the dense jungles ended up as trophies for successive batches of burra sahibs.

The episode also traces the different cultural events that are a part of the river — from the burning ghats of Varanasi to the fire festivals in Haridwar, the 1,000-year old cattle fairs and the Kumbh Mela of Allahabad.

The last episode, “Waterland” is also the final leg of the river, where it is joined by its colossal tributary, the Brahmaputra, to create the largest delta in the world.

This inhospitable terrain with its hurricanes and floods is the last place where the tiger is still the monarch of all it surveys.

The episode reveals how people and wildlife survive in this most hostile of areas.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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