GANDHARVA 



341 7 



GANGES 



to Brunswick. The abbey buildings 

 are now used by the government of 

 Brunswick and the palace as law 

 courts. The church of the abbey 

 contains the tombs of notable 

 abbesses. Pop. 3,200. i 



Gandharva. Deity in Hindu 

 mythology. The name is also given 

 to a class of divine beings some- 

 times vaguely described as beauti- 

 ful spirits of singing stars. 



Gandhi, MOHANDAS KARAM- 

 CHAND (b. ]869). Indian Nation- 

 alist leader. Born Oct. 2, 1869, son 

 . of a native gov- 

 ernment offi- 

 cial, he prac- 

 ^J tised law in 

 It, Bombay. In 

 f*T 1893 in S. Africa 



he organized an 



^^jl^fct opposition to 

 Jfcfe^ anti-Asiatic 

 k, . mmsM legislation by 

 M. K. Gandhi. passive resist- 

 Indian leader ancCj which re . 



suited in the Indians' Relief Act 



On the passing of the Rowlatt 

 Act, 1919, Gandhi launched a 

 crusade against the British raj by 

 means of civil disobedience, cul- 

 minating in riots at Amritsar. In 

 1921 there was rioting and murder 

 on an increasing scale as the sequel 

 to Gandhi's advocacy of non-co- 

 operation and the boycott of British 

 goods, though he never ceased to 

 advocate peaceful methods. Gandhi 

 was arrested in 1922 on a charge of 

 promoting sedition, and sentenced, 

 March 18, to six years' imprison- 

 ment, being released Feb., 1924. 



Gandhi's aim was to free India 

 from contact with western civil- 

 ization, and popular imagination 

 invested him with the supernatural 

 powers of a Mahatma. See India. 



Gandia. Seaport of Spam, in 

 the prov. of Valencia. It stands on 

 the river Alcoy, 2J m. from its 

 small harbour, Grao, at the mouth, 

 and 35 m. by rly. S.S.E. of Valen- 

 cia. Enclosed by ancient ramparts, 

 it possesses a Gothic church, an 

 old college, palaces of the dukes of 

 Borgia and of Osuna, and a Jesuit 

 convent. There are several plazas 

 and fine boulevards. Raisins, or- 

 anges, wine, and tomatoes are ex- 

 ported. Pop. 11,659. 



Gando. Formerly an independ- 

 ent sultanate of Africa. It was 

 situated along the E. bank of 

 the Niger, N. of Borgu, and ex- 

 tended in the middle of the 19th 

 century as far as Say. It was 

 founded early in the 19th century, 

 on the death of Othman Dan Fo- 

 dio. After the conquest of Sokoto, 

 the portion of the country within 

 the boundaries of Nigeria was at- 

 tached to the province of Sokoto. 

 Gando, the city, is 50 m. S.W. of 

 Sokoto City ; pop. 12,000. 



Ganesha OB HANA-PATI. In 



Hindu mythology, the god of wis- 

 dom, represented as a stout human 

 figure with the head of an elephant. 

 Ganges. Most important river 

 of India. It rises in two head- 

 streams the Bhagirathi and the 

 Alaknanda on the southern slopes 

 of the Himalayas in lat. 30 53' N. 

 and long. 79 8' E. The Bhagirathi 

 issues from a glacial cavern at an 

 alt. of over 14,000 ft., near the 

 pilgrim town of Gangotri, takes in 

 the Jahnavi and the Alaknanda, 



a teeming waterway. It is the most 

 sacred river of India, and. special 

 sanctity attaches to its junctions 

 with two tributaries, with the 

 Jumna at Allahabad and with the 

 Gandak at Sonpur ; a third famous 

 place of pilgrimage is Sangor Island, 

 at the mouth of the Hooghli. At 

 these places annual bathing festi- 

 vals are held, and are attended by 

 thousands of pilgrims from all 

 parts of India. 



Among the chief towns on the 

 river's banks are Cawnpore, Mur- 



Ganges. Map of the river basin from the rise of its headstreams to the delta 

 in the Bay of Bengal 



and from the junction of the latter 

 stream at Devaprayag the river is 

 known as the Ganges. Penetrating 

 the mountains and flowing in a 

 S.W. direction, it emerges from the 

 mountainous tract and enters the 

 plains close to the sacred city of 

 Hurdwar. Thenceforth it pursues 

 a S.E. course to Allahabad. 



From its source to this point the 

 river is only a series of pools and 

 shoals, with occasional rapids, but 

 during the rainy season it becomes 

 a raging torrent. At Allahabad, 

 670 m. from its source, it receives 

 the waters of its largest tributary, 

 the Jumna, and becomes a noble 

 stream. The course of the river 

 now trends E. and S.E. through the 

 United Provinces and Bengal, re- 



shidabad, Farrukhabad, Allahabad, 

 Mirzapur, Benares, Ghazipur, Pat- 

 na, and Monghyr, besides Calcutta 

 on the Hooghli mouth. The princi- 

 pal mouths of the Ganges are the 

 Hooghli, the most westerly, Megh- 

 na, the most easterly, Matla, 

 Raimangal, Malancha, and Haring- 

 hata. The vast region embraced 

 by the deltaic system is a flat 

 alluvial tract of from 80 m. to 220 

 m. in breadth. The frontal region, 

 or that part which fringes the 

 ocean, is known as the Sundarbans, 

 a mass of continually shifting mud 

 banks intersected by navigable 

 channels, and notoriously un- 

 healthy. An immense amount of 

 silt is carried in the water and de- 

 posited at the mouths, discoloring 



ceiving other important tributaries the sea for a distance of 50 m. 



the Gumti, Gogra, Son, Gandak 

 and the Jamuna, the main stream 

 of the Brahmaputra to fall into 

 the Bay of Bengal by a deltaic sys- 

 tem of the most intricate character. 

 The length of its course is 1,557 m. 

 The delta begins about 280 m. 

 from the sea, and from this point 

 onward the course of the river 

 through ths numerous mouths is 

 subject to extensive changes. 



The Ganges is navigable as far as 

 Garmuhtesar, 850 m. from the 

 sea. In the upper reaches the rly. 

 has led to a diminution of water- 

 borne traffic, but within the presi- 

 dency of Bengal the river remains 



The Gangetic Canals 

 The Ganges forms, with its 

 tributaries and the Gangetic 

 system of canals, the greatest 

 waterway communication and the 

 largest irrigation system in India, 

 the water-borne traffic to and from 

 the numerous cities on its banks 

 being prodigious. The valley is 

 one of the most productive on the 

 earth ; it is everywhere cultivated, 

 yielding rice, sugar, cotton, indigo, 

 fruit, and opium. 



At Benares, 740 m. up-stream, 

 the river has a width of 1,450 ft. 

 in the dry months, nearly doubled 

 in the wet season. At 500 m. from 



