Eulogy to Ganga at Walden

The waters of Ganga have a centuries old relationship with our very own Walden Pond just 15 miles away in Concord, Massachusetts. In the early 19th century, ice was often harvested in winters from freshwater lakes, such as Walden Pond, and supplied throughout the United States and beyond. Walden Pond’s proximity to the Boston Harbour rendered its ice to be easily shipped even to tropical colonial cities in South America, Africa and Asia. This proved to be a good arrangement since the East had not yet developed an interest or dependence on western commodities, and the ships that sailed to them were usually empty and loaded with rocks as ballast. In 1833, the first shipment of ice reached India at Calcutta’s Diamond Harbour on the banks of the river Hooghly, a local name for Ganga.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), a leading Transcendentalist who famously lived in a cabin by Walden Pond, records witnessing blocks of ice being harvested for ships sailing to the East. Given his interest in Indian Philosophy, he was quick to remark at the thought of Walden’s ice melting with Ganga. Incidentally, when our Research Assistant Raghunath Akarsh visited Walden Pond in July, he too was quick to sing a eulogy to Ganga with rhythmic taps on Walden’s waters by Madi Cook-Comey, recorded by Trevor Menders and Rebecca Selch.