Haridwar

Haridwar's holiness centers on the Ganges. It is revered as the place where the Ganges exits the mountains, and is thus the ritual gateway to the sacred sites further upriver in the Himalayas. For Hindus the Ganges is a Goddess as well as a river, and thus when one bathes in it one is sanctified through actual bodily contact with divinity. This religious conviction underlies Hindus' deep reverence for the Ganges, and explains why people take jugs of it home with them for ritual use there.

Haridwar's primary religious draw is as a bathing-place, and the temples lining its shore are far less important than the river itself. Yet as a place permeated with sacred power it is also seen as a good place for other kinds of religious activities. Some of these include any rituals that move people through the life-cycle, but it is best known for the last of the funeral rites, in which a portion of a person's ashes are immersed in the Ganges.

As a "religious" town Haridwar also attracts all sorts of monks and religious leaders, some of whom establish institutions for social welfare, and some of whom simply reap the benefits of Haridwar's readily available religious patronage.