Panch Prayag

Panch Prayag (Pañcha prayāga) is an expression in Hindu religious ethos, specifically used to connote the five sacred river confluences in the Garhwal Himalayas in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The five prayags - prayaga meaning "place of confluence of rivers" in Sanskrit - also termed as "Prayag pentad" are Vishnuprayag, Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag and Devprayag, in the descending flow sequence of their occurrence.

Alaknanda + Dhauliganga = Vishnu Prayag

Alaknanda + Nandakini = Nand Prayag

Alaknanda + Pindarganga = Karna Prayag

Alaknanda + Mandakini = Rudra Prayag

Alaknanda + Bhagirathi = Dev Prayag

The three most holy rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati, originate in this area. According to the holy texts the river Sarasvati too was a tributary of Ganga and used to join it at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj along with Yamuna. But, the Mahabharat mentions that it later dried. Today Sarasvati joins Alaknanda at Keshav Prayag in Mana village before the confluence of Dhauliganga and Alaknanda at Vishnu Prayag. But Keshav Prayag is not included in the list of the Panch Prayag, hence it starts with the Vishnu Prayag on the Alaknanda River, which is one of the two source streams of the river Ganga in the Garhwal Himalayas; the other streams are the Dhauliganga, Nandakini, Pindar, Mandakini and the Bhagirathi - the head stream of the Ganges.

Alaknanda descending from the foot of the Satopanth (a triangular lake, which is located at a height of 4,402 m (14,442.3 ft), above the sea level and named after the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers near the Nanda Devi peak, in Uttarakhand cascades over a length of 229 km (142.3 mi) encompassing the five prayags and is joined at Dev Prayag by the Bhagirathi, a shorter river source vis-à-vis Alaknanda to form the main stream of the Ganges. It flows down south towards Rishikesh and Haridwar, two holy places on the bank of the Ganges in Uttarakhand.