If the Himalayan peaks form an indelible part of the Indian imagination, so do the vast Gangetic plains and the numerous rivers of India. Civilizations began around rivers and deltas, and rivers remain an enduring icon of national culture: as the name of London conjures up the image of the Thames, so one undoubtedly associates Egypt with the Nile. The Punjab, as every schoolchild in India is aware, is the land of the Five Rivers. In India, it has been argued, this association is even more compelling, as rivers are not merely great carriers of goods, passageways to the beyond, and the source of life and sustenance for millions, but harbingers of fertility and repositories of the sacred. The recent and continuing struggles over the attempts to construct a series of large dams along the Narmada testify to the deep feeling that Indians have for their land and rivers. Most of India's rivers, such as the Narmada, Yamuna, and Saraswati, have given rise to vast realms of lore, none more so than the Ganga, known to the West as the Ganges.