Sunday, February 24, 2013

Panch Prayag


Every confluence of two rivers is considered as auspicious. When in the confluence the river Ganga involves the auspiciousness of the place increases multi fold times. The confluence is called "Prayag" in ancient language. There are 5 most sacred confluence in Uttrakhand region. They are called "Panch Prayag" or five sacred confluence. When Sage Bhagirath lead the mission of bringing the Ganga from heaven to earth, to prevent the sinking of earth due to its mighty force, it was splitted into many sacred streams.It started its journey as river Bhagirathi from its source 'Gaumukh'. Following are the sacred form of river Ganga
1) Bhagirathi
2) Dhauli Ganga
3) Girthi Ganga
4) Rishi Ganga
5) Baal Ganga
6) Bhilangna Ganga
7) Tons Ganga
8) Alaknanda
9) Mandakini
10) Pindar
11) Nandakini

Following are the sacred 5 confluence
1) Vishnu Prayag- here river Dhauli Ganga meets Alaknanada
2) Nand Prayag- at this point river Alaknanda meets Nandakini
3) Karna Prayag- river Alknanda meets Pindar river
4) Rudra Prayag- The confluence of river Alaknanda with river Mandakini
5) Dev Prayag- river Bhagirathi joins Alaknanda. It is here river 'Ganga' got its name.

Every Prayag has its own importance and associated with sacred legend.

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