Bhagīratha Brings Down the Gaṅgā

Classical

Lomaśa answers Yudhiṣṭhira's question about how the dry ocean was filled. King Sagara of the Ikṣvāku line had no son. With his two wives, a princess of Vidarbha and a princess of Śibi, he practised austerities on Kailāsa. Śiva appeared and granted a choice with a twist: one wife would bear sixty thousand proud sons who would all die together, and the other a single son to carry the line. The Vidarbha queen bore a gourd; the Śibi queen a handsome boy. When Sagara decided to throw the gourd away, a voice from the sky told him to keep the seeds in jars of ghee, and from them came the sixty thousand sons.

Their strength made them arrogant, and they troubled gods, men and demons. Brahmā told the gods that their end was near. When Sagara began a horse sacrifice, the horse vanished at the seashore, and the sons dug into the ocean and its creatures to search for it. In the nether world they found it beside the sage Kapila, and in disrespect rushed to seize it. Kapila burnt them to ashes with a glance. Nārada brought the news to Sagara, who grieved and remembered Śiva's words.

Sagara's eldest son Asamañja, born of the Śibi princess, had been banished for throwing townspeople's children into the river. So Sagara sent his grandson Aṃśumān, who humbled himself before Kapila. Pleased, Kapila gave back the horse, said the dead sons would reach heaven, and prophesied that Aṃśumān's grandson would please Śiva and bring down the three-streamed Gaṅgā. The sacrifice was completed. Aṃśumān's son Dilīpa tried and failed to bring the river, grieved, and retired to the forest, leaving the task to his son Bhagīratha. Bhagīratha handed his kingdom to a minister and went to the Himalaya, where he lived a thousand years on fruit, roots and water. Gaṅgā took bodily form and asked what he wanted. He asked her to flow over the ashes of his forefathers, who were denied the funeral rites. She agreed but warned that her fall would break the earth, and only Śiva could bear it. Bhagīratha went to Kailāsa and did penance, and Śiva agreed to catch the Gaṅgā on his head.

Śiva went to the snowy mountain with his fearsome attendants. At Bhagīratha's prayer Gaṅgā fell from the sky in three streams, and gods, sages, Gandharvas and snakes gathered to watch; her foam covered the water and she stumbled on her course like a woman who has been drinking. She asked the king to show the way, and he led her to the ashes of Sagara's sons. Then, followed by her, he reached the sea, which her waters filled. Bhagīratha adopted the river as his daughter, which is why she is called Bhāgīrathī, and offered water to his ancestors.

Told by Lomaśa → Yudhiṣṭhira

Who: Bhagīratha, Sagara, Kapila, Śiva, Gaṅgā, Aṃśumān

Bound to

Agastya Humbles the Vindhya and Drinks the Ocean origin

Places: Kailāsa, Himalaya, Ocean

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CVI (Sagara's sons born)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio sripedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CVII (Sagara's sons burnt, Aṃśumān)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio sripedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CVIII (Bhagīratha's penance)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CIX (the descent of the Gaṅgā)

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