“The poor Brahmana said, ’What countries, what provinces, what retreats, what mountains, and what rivers should be regarded as the foremost in point of sanctity?  Do thou discourse to me on this.’

“The Rishi crowned with success said, ’Those countries, those provinces, those retreats, and those mountains, should be regarded as the foremost in point of sanctity through which or by the side of which that foremost of all rivers, viz., Bhagirathi flows.  That end which a creature is capable of attaining by penances, by Brahmacharyya, by sacrifices, or by practising renunciation, one is sure to attain by only living by the side of the Bhagirathi and bathing in its sacred waters.  Those creatures whose bodies have been sprinkled with the sacred waters of Bhagirathi or whose bones have been laid in the channel of that sacred stream, have not to fall away—­from heaven at any time.[237] Those men, O learned Brahmana, who use the waters of Bhagirathi in all their acts, surely ascend to heaven after departing from this world.  Even those men who, having committed diverse kinds of sinful deeds in the first part of their lives, betake themselves in after years to a residing by the side of Ganga, succeed in attaining to a very superior end.  Hundreds of sacrifices cannot produce that merit which men of restrained souls are capable of acquiring by bathing in the sacred waters of Ganga.  A person is treated with respect and worshipped in heaven for as long a period as his bones lie in the channel of the Ganga.  Even as the Sun, when he rises at the dawn of day, blazes forth in splendour, having dispelled the gloom of night, after the same manner the person that has bathed in the waters of Ganga is seen to shine in splendour, cleansed of all his sins.  Those countries and those points of the compass that are destitute of the sacred waters of Ganga are like nights without the moon or like trees without flowers.  Verily, a world without Ganga is like the different orders and modes of life when they are destitute of righteousness or like sacrifices without Soma.  Without doubt, countries and points of the compass that are without Ganga are like the firmament without the Sun, or the Earth without mountains, or the welkin without air.  The entire body of creatures in the three worlds, if served with the auspicious waters of Ganga, derive a pleasure, the like of which they are incapable of deriving from any other source.  He who drinks Ganga water that has been heated by the Sun’s rays derives merit much greater than that which attaches to the vow of subsisting upon the wheat or grains of other corn picked up from cowdung.  It cannot be said whether the two are equal or not, viz., he who performs a thousand Chandrayana rites for purifying his body and he who drinks the water of Ganga.  It cannot be said whether the two are equal or not, viz., one who stands for a thousand years on one foot and one who lives for only a month by the side of Ganga.  One who lives permanently