Ganges

Wikipedia says:

The Ganges , also Ganga, is a major river in the Indian subcontinent flowing east through the eponymous plains of northern India into Bangladesh. The 2,510 km (1,557 mi) river begins at the Gangotri Glacier in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, in the central Himalayas, and drains into the Bay of Bengal through its vast delta in the Sunderbans. It has enjoyed a position of reverence for millennia by India's Hindus, by whom it is worshipped in its personified form as the goddess Ganga.
The Ganges and its tributaries drain a large – about one million square kilometres – and fertile basin that supports one of the world's highest-density human populations. It should be noted that almost half of the population of India proper live on one-third of the landscape within 500 km of the Himalayan range along the Gangetic plains.
In his book Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru writes,
The Ganges, above all is the river of India, which has held India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. The story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India's civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man…