The Ganges, Ganga in Hindi, is a river like no other. Rising high up in the Himalayas, it flows and gives life to a wide swathe of land called the Indo-Gangetic plain. This flat and fertile terrain has seen the repeated rise and expansion of various empires from times immemorial. The Ganges is also imbued with a deep sense of the divine, called mother Ganga, by Hindus who believe that a dip in the river absolves all sins and those who die on its banks in Varanasi attain deliverance.