Yamunā

Geographical origin: The river Yamunā rises at the Yamunotri Glacier on the southwestern slopes of Bandarpunch in the Lower Himalaya (Uttarakhand), flows through Himachal Pradesh and the Indo‑Gangetic plains (Uttar Pradesh and Haryana) for approximately 1,376 km and merges with the Ganges at the Triveni Sangam, Prayagraj (source: geographic/encyclopedic accounts). Mythological/genealogical origin: In Hindu textual traditions the river is personified as a goddess; early texts refer to her as Yami and later literature also calls her Kalindi. Some accounts describe Yamunā as a daughter of the Sun and as sister to other solar offspring, and certain devotional (Vaishnava) sources identify her as the younger sister of Yamaraja and portray Krishna as intimately associated with the river (sources: textual and devotional summaries).

The supplied sources do not provide a sustained anthropomorphic or iconographic description of Yamunā-as-goddess. What the record does show is the river/goddess' visible presence in ritual spaces along its banks: ghats (for example Geeta Ghat in Delhi) where public festivals and immersion rites take place, and pilgrimage congregations at the Triveni Sangam. Photographic and archival references document ritual activity on the riverbank but not a canonical bodily iconography in the provided excerpts (sources: festival/archival notes; devotional texts).

The sources frame Yamunā primarily as a sacred, worshipped river-goddess with ritual and devotional functions rather than as a being of explicitly described magical attacks or malefic action. She is treated as sacral water—associated with purification and pilgrimage practices by virtue of being a holy river (sources: encyclopedic and ritual geography summaries). Mythic texts and devotional accounts situate her in relational networks with other deities: she is portrayed as a daughter of the Sun (textual/genealogical tradition) and, in Vaishnava accounts, Krishna is described as 'the life of the river' because of his pastimes on her banks; Indra is also mentioned in narratives affecting the river's waters (sources: mythological summaries; Vaishnava material).