Varanasi, India (CNN)The River Ganges, or the Ganga to Indians, is one of Hinduism's most sacred waterways.
Considered the personification of goddess Ganga, it is worshiped by millions of the faithful.
It flows through Varanasi, one of Hinduism's holiest sites and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Millions of pilgrims flock to its temples and ghats -- or riverbank -- every year.
It is also politically significant.
When Narendra Modi, then a state-level leader for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), decided to seek national office in 2014, he chose the ancient city as his constituency.