Why Ganga River has a different name in Bangladesh; Read to find out

Ganga is one of the most sacred rivers in India, which is believed to flow from all three worlds—Heaven/Swarga, Earth/Prithvi, and Hell/Patala. In Hinduism, Ganga is the manifestation of the Goddess Ganga. This trans-national river flows through two nations—India and Bangladesh—before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. It rises from the southern Great Himalayas on the Indian side of the border with Tibet and travels through the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and finally West Bengal.For most parts, Ganga flows in India, however, its largest delta lies mostly in Bangladesh.
For about 144 kilometers, Ganga forms the western boundary between Bangladesh and India and then enters Bangladesh’s Kushtia district and comes to be known as Padma. The delta which the Ganga shares with the Brahmaputra river is described by landscape architect Kelly Shannon as follows: “...is essentially a gigantic floodplain, with the Ganges (called the Padma) carrying the silt of India and the ashes of millions of Hindus, the Brahmaputra (called the Jamuna), principal river of the eastern Himalayas, joining in what is known as the Mighty Meghna, which then flows southeast to the Bay of Bengal.”
In the Bangla language, Padma translates to poddo, which essentially means the lotus flower, another name of Goddess Laxmi. This could be the reason for its name. Another reason can be found in the Ramayana, where a saint named Poddo ordered Ganga to flow east.
Padma’s main tributary is the Mahananda, and its principal tributary is the Madhumati, also known as Garai. The river contributes majorly to the agriculture sector of the country, providing water for irrigation and also supporting the livelihoods of people living along its banks. However, its flow is controlled by the Farakka Barrage, which divides the river Ganga into Bhagirathi (Hooghly) on the right and Padma on the left. This barrage is situated in western Bengal and was built in 1975. This barrage is a point of contention between the two rivers, as the man-made structure intervenes with the natural flow and affects the salinity, river tributaries, the ecology of fishes, and human lives.
Padma joins the Jamuna in Goalando, and the two rivers move further east to Chandpur, where it is joined by Bangladesh’s widest river, Meghna. The combination of the three rivers moves down south to empty into the Bay of Bengal.