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Saturday, January 24, 2009

River Beas

This blog is impressionistic, as I feel torn between a great love for rivers, the need to keep them as pure as we can and the need for many of us to use the river as a 'consumable'. The subject is the Beas River at Kaleswar, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.
Double click on the pictures to get a closer view.



The picture shows the steps leading to Beas and the bathing houses(?) built on its banks supposedly from the time of the Pandavas. Kaleswar is closely associated with stories of the exile of Pandavas into the forests.




These are Samadhis for Sadhus built on the banks of Beas. Again, dating to the epic period.



A cremation in progress on the river banks. Kaleswar is considered second only to Haridwar in conducting funeral rites.



At the bottom of the picture you can see a truck filling sand from the bottom of the river.



'Panchtirthi' is considered a holy place to take a dip. The water in this 'Kund' is from the pure mountain stream, before it joins Beas below. A red start is waiting to take a dip too!


We walk through this 'Khad' to reach the flowing river. Water from this river is probably going to meet the needs of the residents around.

Beas is still not as polluted as Ganges. May be this is the time to do something proactive so that Beas does not meet the fate of the Ganges.

2 comments:

oldcrow61 said...

Beautiful pictures. Hopefully this river won't get as polluted as the Ganges.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a very ancient site. Hopefully we will all learn to respect our surroundings and nature more.