Panch Prayag

Every confluence of two rivers is considered as auspicious. When in the confluence the river Ganga involves the auspiciousness of the place increases multi fold times. The confluence is called "Prayag" in ancient language. There are 5 most sacred confluence in Uttrakhand region. They are called "Panch Prayag" or five sacred confluence. When Sage Bhagirath lead the mission of bringing the Ganga from heaven to earth, to prevent the sinking of earth due to its mighty force, it was splitted into many sacred streams.It started its journey as river Bhagirathi from its source 'Gaumukh'. Following are the sacred form of river Ganga
1) Bhagirathi
2) Dhauli Ganga
3) Girthi Ganga
4) Rishi Ganga
5) Baal Ganga
6) Bhilangna Ganga
7) Tons Ganga
8) Alaknanda
9) Mandakini
10) Pindar
11) Nandakini

Following are the sacred 5 confluence
1) Vishnu Prayag- here river Dhauli Ganga meets Alaknanada
2) Nand Prayag- at this point river Alaknanda meets Nandakini
3) Karna Prayag- river Alknanda meets Pindar river
4) Rudra Prayag- The confluence of river Alaknanda with river Mandakini
5) Dev Prayag- river Bhagirathi joins Alaknanda. It is here river 'Ganga' got its name.

Every Prayag has its own importance and associated with sacred legend.

Boon to Saraswati

It was the most awaited moment for the universe when the marriage between Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati was performed. It was the ritual that after the marriage couple had to perform   ‘Nadi Pooja’ in which pooja of river was to be done.  Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati went to the bank of river Saraswati  As per ritual the couple had to look into the river and the outcome of the marriage could be seen from the image form on the river water. The moment both looked into the river, violent waves started to come to the bank. Mother of Goddess Sati was very worried to see this supernatural phenomenon as it was ill omen as no image could be seen due to turbulent water. Lord Shiva guessed the anxiety of Goddess Sati too. HE put his foot in the river water. The moment the river water touched the foot of Lord Shiva, all the waves disappeared. River Goddess Saraswati   appeared and greeted Lord Shiva. Pleased with the devotion of river Saraswati, Lord Shiva blessed her that one day she would meet river Ganaga and that place would be called as “TeerthRaj”(the king of all Pilgrimage) and bathing at that place would free a persons from sins and it would be the gateway to heaven