The Descent of the Gaṅgā

King Sagara's horse

Long ago, in the city of Ayodhyā, ruled King Sagara of the solar dynasty. He had one son, Asamañja, by his first queen, and by his second queen sixty thousand sons. When Sagara performed the great horse sacrifice, the aśvamedha, the sacred horse was sent out to roam — and it vanished. Indra, fearing the king's growing power, had stolen it.

Sagara sent his sixty thousand sons to find it. They searched the whole earth and then began to dig down into it, tearing up the ground, frightening every creature below. At last, deep in the underworld, they found the horse grazing peacefully — beside the sage Kapila, who sat in meditation.

Thinking Kapila was the thief, the princes rushed at him with weapons, shouting. The sage opened his eyes. In that single moment, all sixty thousand were burnt to ash.

Generations of prayer

Sagara's grandson Aṃśumān went down to find his uncles. He bowed to Kapila, who returned the horse and told him the truth: only the waters of the Gaṅgā, the river of heaven, could purify those ashes and free the souls of the princes. Aṃśumān prayed for it all his life and died without success. So did his son Dilīpa.

Then came Dilīpa's son, Bhagīratha. He handed his kingdom to his ministers and went to the Himālaya to do nothing but tapas. After a thousand years, Brahmā appeared and granted his wish: the Gaṅgā would come down. But Brahmā warned him — the earth could never survive the force of her fall. Only one being could bear it: Śiva.

Bhagīratha and Śiva

So Bhagīratha began again. He stood on the tip of one toe, arms raised, for a full year, thinking only of Śiva. At last Śiva appeared on the mountain, pleased, and said: I will hold the Gaṅgā on my head.

The Gaṅgā was proud. She thought: I will fall on this ascetic with such force that I will sweep him down with me into the underworld. Śiva knew her thought. As she came roaring out of the sky, he simply loosened his matted locks.

Lost in the forest of hair

The mightiest river in creation fell — and disappeared. The Gaṅgā found herself wandering in the dense forest of Śiva's jaṭā, round and round, unable to find a way out. She wandered there for years. Her pride was gone.

Bhagīratha prayed once more, and Śiva, softened, released her gently into Lake Bindusaras. She divided into seven streams. Three flowed east, three flowed west, and the seventh followed Bhagīratha's chariot wherever he led it.

Jahnu, and the ashes at last

On the way she flooded the sacrificial ground of the sage Jahnu, who in anger drank her up completely. The gods pleaded with him, and he let her out again through his ear — so the Gaṅgā is also called Jāhnavī, Jahnu's daughter.

At last she reached the sea, and then the underworld, and her waters flowed over the ashes of Sagara's sons. Sixty thousand souls rose to heaven. Because Bhagīratha brought her down, the Gaṅgā is called Bhāgīrathī. And because Śiva caught her, he is Gaṅgādhara, the Bearer of the Gaṅgā — shown to this day with a small stream flowing from his hair.