She Has Always Been a Person, Not a Place
The aarti at Haridwar begins before sunrise. Priests lift brass lamps over the water, moving them in slow circles, and the river reflects the fire back. Nobody in that crowd is performing a metaphor. They are greeting someone who showed up. This is the first thing to understand about Ganga: she was never conceived as a symbol. The Rigveda names her directly among the great rivers as a deity, not a feature of geography. The Vishnu Purana describes her descent from Vishnu's foot, her residence in Brahma's kamandalu, her arrival on earth through Shiva's matted hair. Each of those details is a theological statement.
