STORY: During the festival, devotees worshipped the holy river venerated by Hindus as a mother as well as a goddess, as the Ganges holds a uniquely significant place in Indian life and consciousness.

STORY: Devotees took a holy bath in the sacred river and worshipped Goddess 'Ganga', as they wished for the prosperity and welfare of humankind. The festival commemorates the descent of the river on ...

VARANASI, India — Scissors snip, and the widow tears a strip of old dress cloth. Then she snips and rips again, repeating a tedious ritual with only one salvation in sight. Maybe this will be the day ...

There’s a dreamlike quality to Giulio Di Sturco’s photograph of Hindus preparing to bathe in the Ganges. Taken in soft morning light, the image shows devotees assembled by the river, their figures ...

More than 2,000 years ago, a powerful king built a fort on the banks of India's holiest river, on the fringes of what is now a vast industrial city. Today, little of the ancient construction remains, ...

The Ganges, a lifeline for hundreds of millions across South Asia, is drying at a rate scientists say is unprecedented in recorded history. Climate change, shifting monsoons, relentless extraction and ...

ROUND AND round the baggage carousel at London’s Heathrow airport goes a battered cardboard box waiting to be claimed by its owner, a passenger from Delhi: “PLEASE KEEP THIS SIDE UP! GANGA JAL—HOLLY ...