Hinduism is so incredibly old it remembers a time when the Ganges River didn't exist! The ancient hero Bhagiratha had to go up into the Himalayas and bring Ganga down from her home in the glaciers to the plains of north India.
When the Ganges first came cascading down from on high (some texts say her source is actually in heaven!) the force of her landing would have destroyed the Earth. So Shiva caught her in the locks of his hair and eased her gently to the ground. In many paintings of Shiva, you'll see streams of water pouring down his head . That's Mother Ganga.
In Vedic times, the Sarasvati River was the largest and most sacred river in India. She dried up about four thousand years ago. At that point much of the sanctity associated with the Sarasvati was transferred to the Ganges, which has been Hinduism's holiest river ever since.
Hindus go to the Ganges not just to wash their clothes but to wash away their sins. Baptism is an extremely ancient rite in Hinduism, one that you engage in as often as possible since there are always new sins to wash off!
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