Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.61

c6.61

Alakanandā.—A river in the Garhwal Himalaya, a headwater of the Ganges. Her course can be traced from the Gandhamādana mountain (Bhāgavatapurāṇa, IV, 6. 24; Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, III, 41. 21; 56. 12; Viṣṇupurāṇa, II, 2. 34. 36; Vāyupurāṇa, 41. 18; 42. 25-35). It represents the upper course of the Ganges. Its upper tributary is constituted of the Piṇḍā and another stream at the confluence of which is situated Śrinagara in Garhwal. Mandākinī is one of its tributaries, which may be identified with Kālī-Gaṅgā or Mandāgnī, rising in the mountains of Kedāra in Garhwal. The Bhāgirathī-Gaṅgā is joined on the left side by the Alakanandā at Devaprayāga (B. C. Law, Rivers of India, p. 19). The Ganges may be supposed to have assumed the name of the Gaṅgā-Bhāgirathī from the point where it is met by the Mandākinī (Law, Rivers of India, p. 21; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. I, p. 125; regarding the Mandākinī, Cunningham, Archaeological Survey Report, XXI, 11).