A man dressed as Hanuman, who embodies the traits of faith and loyalty to God. Prugh says she meets him on every Varanasi trip

Prugh has now released her new book dedicated to the river, and she thinks there couldn’t have been a better time than when the world is looking for answers to meaningful living. River of Offerings is a hard cover photography and story book that covers 12 stories from a variety of locations along the course of the Ganga, from Gangotri in the Himalayas to the delta where it opens into the Bay of Bengal. “The book chronicles the life of India’s sacred river, from its source to the sea. After more than a dozen trips to India, my understanding of yoga and meditation deepened. I spent time with the female sadhus, participated in the Kumbh Mela in 2013, witnessed cremations at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, and even followed the toxic waste down the Yamuna, known as Ganga’s sister. I was caught in a devastating monsoon during the Chota Char Dham, a pilgrimage to the top of the Ganga. These stories, and some more from the trips into Nepal and Tibet to the other tributaries that feed the Ganga, have made it to the book,” Prugh shares.

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What sets this river apart from formidable others across the world, the yogi thinks, is the devotion it attracts. “A devotion of this sort, to a natural body such as a river, is an alien concept in America. When you look at the top of the river, it looks very young. In the middle, it tends to become quite placid. And at the end, when she meets the sea, she empties herself, basically giving herself away. If you look at the science behind a meaningful life, a part of it involves giving wherever we can, whenever we can. The book, therefore, ends up being a lot about how we can live a meaningful life by offering ourselves, just like the Ganga does.” 

The Ganga begins at the Gangotri Glacier, Uttarakhand in the central Himalayas and flows southeast into the Bay of Bengal through a vast delta in the Sundarbans

A picture of two men watching television on a moving boat is one of her best captures. “I thought it was a riot, when I saw them. The men were selling CDs of the Ganga, and they came right up to my boat. I love that picture. It was taken in Varanasi.”

These two men in Varanasi were selling video cassettes of the Ganga to tourists. Rowboats provide an immediate experience of the river

Another favourite is of a man who she meets during every trip to Rishikesh. Dressed as the vanara companion of Lord Rama, the man identifies himself as Hanuman. “I’m not a scholar, historian, or a National Geographic photographer. I’m a practitioner and teacher of yoga. Unlike the few who have walked the river from end to end, my journey over a 10-year period has been to one section of the river at a time. What began as a search to deepen my yoga practice became a love affair with this river—and all bodies of water, which deserve the reciprocal care and attention of those who turn to them for solace, sustenance, and redemption,” she writes in the book.

Jennifer Prugh

When asked what the big takeaway is for her readers, Prugh says, “We are all waiting for the government to take care of us. But I think all of us need to get involved and make the world a place that we want to live in. Every action matters. Ganga provides water to a lot of people. And it is our duty to keep it clean from its source to end. That’s my message.”