Talk:Ganga (goddess)

Varanasi/Kashi

The very first paragraph of the article suggests that Varanasi and Kashi are different places, but they link to the same article. If the aforementioned Kashi is different than Varanasi, then please add the link to that place to Kashi (disambiguation) and remove the link to Varanasi from Kashi.

If they are the same place, Kashi can be removed.--Anupamsr 02:34, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Expand

I think it would be beneficial to this article if the modern rituals and beliefs regarding the Ganges River were expanded on. ~ UBeR 03:58, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Ganges in Hinduism to Ganga in Hinduism

Need to rename the article as its say Ganges not Ganga. Name cannot be changes in any language. KuwarOnline ^Talk 05:32, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Support move: The word Ganges is an Anglicized form of Ganga. Ganges is never used in the Hindu scriptures and is irrelevant to Hinduism. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 06:30, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Oppose move, as long as the river article is named Ganges. Note that the article is about the river (i.e., the geographic feature), NOT how it is referred to in the scripture. This article is on the religious significance of the river in the context of Hinduism. --Ragib (talk) 06:51, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Support move: This particular article is not abt the geographic river only. Its mainly about the personified river which is named and refered as Ganga and not Ganges in India and Hindu scriptures. Ganga is a proper noun of a person refered in this article. You dont anglicize proper nouns. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 08:34, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Support move: Both this and the main article on Ganga should have the proper title, which is Ganga. Anglicization of proper nouns are rife with references to colonial and racist past and have been removed from popular, even English language discourse, for a reason. Fgpilot (talk) 06:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose. This article is not about the goddess Ganga per se, but about the River Ganges. The arguments for the move miss the mark: of course names can be changed. We say "India", don't we? And no-one argues that's an improper name because it's not found in Hindu scripture. (Obviously, since Hindu scripture was not written in English.) The same is true of the names of deities and people. Also, I'm not sure it's a good idea to have the article effectively titled "Marijuana in Hinduism", which is what everyone I know means when they say "ganga".

If the article is to be specifically about the goddess, then it should be moved to Ganga (goddess). — kwami (talk) 07:20, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose per Ragib and Kwami. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 09:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

• Comment: Please note that this move discussion is not being done as per the formalized process and hence will not be processed. Please follow the procedure as stated in Wikipedia:Move_requests#Requesting_a_single_page_move. §§AnimeshKulkarni (talk) 07:44, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

• Comment: I'm pretty sure, someone who doesn't know the difference between ganga and ganja is not exactly qualified to vote on this issue. -- Fgpilot (talk) 10:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Um, "ganga" is Jamaican,[1] and "ganja" is Ghanaian? I'm glad you agree that marijuana terminology is the overriding concern here. — kwami (talk) 10:51, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

No, I don't agree.. Both "Ganga" and "Ganja" are Hindi words -- the former is the word for the river and the latter, for marijuana. Still surprised with the authority at which folks vote on issues here. This river was always called Ganga -- the British came over and changed names to Anglicized forms for their communication; but the rest of the population have always called the river Ganga, not Ganges. I think folks who feel offended at being forced to accept unfamiliar names for their places are completely justified. -- Fgpilot (talk) 15:15, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

The river is obviously not always called Ganga, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. And no, the English didn't "come over and change it", Ganges is the Greek form, from the days of Alexander. (I suppose we should also change Moses and Jesus to Moshe and Yoshua – darn Greeks and their cultural imperialism!) Anyway, that is an argument for the Ganges article. — kwami (talk) 08:36, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

When referring to a geographical entity like a large river, one would imagine that its official name is what it is locally called. Calling it by whatever else, smacks of imperialism -- Greek or British. No idea whether Jesus should be called Yoshua -- that is a topic for the Jesus page, not the page on Ganga. -- Fgpilot (talk) 08:47, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Support move: Indigenous names should be used wherever possible; is the official name of the river by the Indian and Bangladeshi Governments in the same way that Mumbai is the official name of that city as opposed to Bombay. --Rvd4life (talk) 20:45, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Please show us where we have that policy; also, that's not what it's called in Bangladesh. — kwami (talk) 08:36, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Support move: This is not about the river Ganga alone also as mentioned above its the Indigenous name. --sarvajna (talk) 18:56, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

GANGA v/s GANGES

The NAME of the river is GANGA and this doesn't change no matter the language. The river is called GANGA and has always been called GANGA in all the languages of India including English.

In fact when the English first chanced upon the region the region was called the GANGETIC PLAIN by them, the word GANGETIC having evolved from the word GANGA. This etymological evolution was somehow lost amongst the un-read of the British bureaucracy at that time, who once again derived the name of the river flowing in the region as GANGES from the phrase GANGETIC PLAIN, not knowing that that the phrase GANGETIC PLAIN itself was derived from the word GANGA, the river. The word GANGES is clearly a misnomer and the Brits as well as a number of people ignorant of the above mentioned etymology, continue to propagate the wrongful use of the word GANGES. It's time for people to correct mistakes of the past, be intellectually honest and indeed grow-up to face and accept this above stated fact. Else they all end up looking stupid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.52.52.165 (talk) 03:25, May 20, 2016

Confusion in this article

There's a lot of back and forth between Ganges and Ganga in this article, with both forms being used for the river and the goddess. Shouldn't references to the river itself be Ganges and to the goddess be Ganga?--Khajidha (talk) 01:19, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Other religious associations

"In south India a community called gowda's are said to origin from ganga." Not sure what this has to do with religious associations or even what it is supposed to mean. If there is something of value attempting to be said here please rephrase it for comprehension and place it in the proper section of the article. --Khajidha (talk) 14:14, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 14 January 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Some suggestion that the river's title may also be inaccurate, which can be discussed elsewhere. (closed by non-admin page mover) Vaticidalprophet (talk) 05:17, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

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Ganga in Hinduism → Ganga (goddess) – The article is basically about the goddess. It would be better to rename it as things will be easier to understand. .💠245CMR💠.•^👥📜 07:16, 14 January 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. (t · c) buidhe 20:23, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

• Soft oppose IMO, this article serves as a sub-article to Ganges#Religious_and_cultural_significance. Goddess suffix may restrict the scope of the article to the personification of the river as a goddess, however significance of bathing or redemption of the dead or Kumbha Mela in her waters may be deemed WP:OVERDUE. However, unlike Yamuna in Hinduism, this article primarily deals with the goddess aspect and not with the holy river aspect much. The scope of this article needs to be decided before the move. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 16:06, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Redtigerxyz: According to me, this article doesn't serve as a sub article. That's see also tag, not main. That section of the Ganges article is in better condition. .💠245CMR💠.•^👥📜 16:18, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

• Support per nom - this article does seem to be about a goddess. If the scope is actually supposed to be the spiritual aspects of the River Ganges, then it should really be named consistently with the parent i.e. Ganges in Hinduism. But I suspect it's not.  — Amakuru (talk) 11:36, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Support. Cannot find any other article title in the form of "Ganga in [insert religion here]", so it looks like there is no need to put "in Hinduism" here. See Special:PrefixIndex/Ganga in. ~ Aseleste_{charge-parity}^time 12:48, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

• Support as a better descriptor. Maybe it's time for the article on the river to have an RM discussion as well. Randy Kryn (talk) 05:18, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Consort

@Suparnakumaraswamy: could you provide references/sources to which Hindu texts you are referring to that mention Ganga is not Shiva's wife? You also noted that this information is mentioned in serials, though I wouldn't consider TV serials a reliable source. Content on Wikipedia is based on reliable sources, see WP:RS, which means that the source from which the information is used is reputable, accurate, and fact-checked, see WP:SOURCE. Eucalyptusmint (talk) 14:56, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Krishna, Vyasa console Ganga following Bhishma's death.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 17:13, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

The Mekong river is named after Hindu godess Ganga.

The Mekong gets its English name from Khmer: មេគង្គ Mékôngk.[1] មេ /mee/me/ means mother[2] and គង្គ /kʊəŋkeaʔ/Kong/ means Ganga.[3] The literal meaning of “Mekong” is “Mother Ganga”. Kong is a borrowing into Khmer language of the Sanskrit word “Ganga”. The Mekong is named after Hindu Godess Ganga, the name sake of the river Ganges. 2601:601:1B80:8040:4F77:9D09:6CAD:B0D6 (talk) 09:54, 19 November 2023 (UTC)