The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s5.16

c5.s5.16

Gangā—The Ganges (*Rig-Veda*, X, 75; *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, VIII, 14, 4). The course of the Ganges is described with some detail in the *Brihat-Dharmma P.*, (Madhya kh., ch. 22). The main stream of the river originally passed southwards, after leaving Jahnu-āśrama at Sultanganj, through the channel of the Bhāgīrathī which with the Jellinghi forms the river Hûgli from Shibganj above Boalia. There are six Jahnus which are allegorical representations of changes in the course of the Ganges: 1st, at Bhairavghāti below Gangotri at the junction of the Bhāgīrathī and Jāhnavī (Fraser's *Himala Mountains*, p. 476; *Rām*. I, 43); 2nd, at Kānyakubja or Kanauj (*Vishnu-dharmottara P.*, I, ch. 28); 3rd, at Jahngira in Sultanganj on the west of Bhagalpur (*Arch. S. Rep.*, XV, p. 20; *Brihad-dharma P.*, Purva kh., ch. 6; *JASB*., XXXIII, 360); 4th at Shibganj above Rampur-Boalia; 5th, at Gour near Malda (Martin's *Eastern India*; Hamilton's *East India Gazetteer*, s. v. Gour, III, 81); 6th, at Jānnagar (*Brahmaṇitalā*) 4 miles to the west of Nadia, (*Navadvīpa-Parikramā*; Chunder's *Travels of a Hindu*, vol. I); see my pamphlet entitled *Early Course of the Ganges* forming chapter VIII in Major Hirst's *Report on the Nadia* Rivers, 1915, ch. viii. The Ganges after flowing past Triveni, Chagda, Guria, Baruipur, Rajganj and Diamond Harbour through Adiganga or Tolly’s Nala falls into the sea near Sagar Island [Rev. J. Long’s Banks of the Bhagirathi in Calcutta Review. vi. (1846 p. 403; Cotton’s Calcutta, Old and New]. See Kausiki.