Narmada as the name means that: the river that never dies; Narmada is the daughter of Shiva and she originated from his sweat; according to Vedas and other Hind texts it is said that one can attain Moksha or salvation just by seeing this divine river once.
Geographically she originates from a small reservoir in Amarkantak known as Narmada Kund from gives rise to this auspicious water body Ma Narmada also nicknamed Rewa lovingly.
Then Narmada embarks on a 1300 KM long journey which begins from Amarkantak.
In Amarkantak Narmada flows through the vastly dense forests in the form of a rivulet and spends her childhood days playing amongst the woods and forests, then she paves her path through the Maikal hills which are a part of Satpura range and ascends herself through a cliff in the form of a beautiful waterfall name Kapil Dhara.
As Narmada continues her journey she crosses many places like ruined palace of Ramnagar, Mandla ect. then she arrives in Jabalpur where she is grown up then Narmada enters various Ghats like Gwarighat, Tilwara Ghat, Kalighat, Ramrama ghat and many more here she represents her truly calm form and it seems like as if this beautiful princess is relaxing for her next big leap.
Narmada’s calmness diminishes upon her snarling outrageous ferociousness as she reaching Bhedaghat Rewa represents a very fearful form here to which we all must need to surrender; Rewa then like a fierce goddess who has just ascended from heaven jumps through a big marble cliff called the DhuaDhar and here the water seems like divine Amrit.
Then she again becomes calm yet mysterious as she flows from middle of marble rocks in BandarKudni and here the water seems very enigmatic here.
After Jabalpur Narmada crosses various places, she visits her father Shiva in the sacred Maheshwar, Omkareshwar; among which Omkaleshwar are among the 12 Jyotirlingas.
Besides the ghats of Narmada there thrived the kingdom of a great queen in the region of Malwa, Indore and she established Maheshwar as the ruling seat for Holkar Dyansty and her name was Ahilya Bai Holkar.
Ahilya Bai Holkar was a huge devotee of Shiva and a great queen she was known for her patience, faith and good governance, Ahiliya Bai constructed many temples and ghats and she was also known for her army’s soldiers and warriors were women and this women army defeated many kings in battle.
Ahilya is always considered as Ranimata and she never showed arrogance for being a queen, in and early age she lost her husband Khande Rao Holkar later two of her children despite after all the pain she suffered Ahilya decided to rule as a queen.
Now let’s return back to our journey of Narmada; later on Narmada crosses Madhya Pradesh crosses few places in Maharashtra and the enters Gujrat.
As Narmada enters Gujrat she passes by many places like Navagam, Garudeshwar, Sisodra ect.
Ultimately Narmada a little tired and exhausted after this enormous voyage goes towards her best friend which is the Arabian Sea and she makes her final leap to rest is the Arabian Sea thus concluding the herculean voyage of Narmada.
But are we really taking care of Ma Narmada the way it should be???
Answer is simply No…
As the level of pollution of Narmada is increasing every year and we humans are fully responsible for it; thus it is already too late for us make Ma Narmada pollution free but still we should make one more try as it should be everyone’s duty to clean these life giving mothers it should not be limited to just one or two people as this is becoming an emergency now other wise be ready to fall prey to mother nature’s fury…