Descent to Earth Ganges in Hinduism

descent of ganga – painting raja ravi varma

several years later, king named sagara magically acquired sixty thousand sons. 1 day, king sagara performed ritual of worship of kingdom. 1 of integral parts of ritual horse, stolen jealous indra. sagara sent sons on earth search horse. found in nether-world (or underworld) next meditating sage kapil tied lord indra(the king of swarg). believing sage had stolen horse, hurled insults @ him , caused penance disturbed. sage opened eyes first time in several years , looked @ sons of sagara. glance, sixty thousand burnt death.

the souls of sons of sagara wandered ghosts since final rites had not been performed. moksha of sons of sagar, anshuman(nephew of 60,000 son) started pray brahma bring ganga earth till end of life, not successful. son dilip did same did not succeed. when bhagiratha (means, 1 great hard work- got name great hard work bringing ganga earth), 1 of descendants of sagara, son of dilip, learnt of fate, vowed bring ganga down earth waters cleanse souls , release them heaven.

bhagiratha prayed brahma ganga come down earth. brahma agreed , ordered ganga go down earth , on nether regions souls of bhagiratha s ancestors able go heaven. ganga felt insulting , decided sweep whole earth away fell heavens. alarmed, bhagiratha prayed shiva break ganga s descent.

gupta era terracotta of ganga found @ ahichchhatra, in national museum, new delhi.

ganga arrogantly fell on shiva s head. shiva calmly trapped in hair , let out in small streams. touch of shiva further sanctified ganga. ganga travelled nether-worlds, created different stream remain on earth purify unfortunate souls there. river follow 3 worlds – swarga (heaven), prithvi (earth) , patala (netherworld or hell). called tripathagā(one travels 3 worlds) in sanskrit language.

because of bhagiratha s efforts, ganga descended earth , hence river known bhagirathi , term bhagirath prayatna used describe valiant efforts or difficult achievements.

another name ganga known jahnavi, story has once ganga came down earth, on way bhagiratha, rushing waters created turbulence , destroyed fields , sadhana of sage called jahnu. angered , drank of ganga s waters. upon this, gods prayed jahnu release ganga proceed on mission. pleased prayers, jahnu released ganga(her waters) ears. hence name jahnavi(daughter of jahnu) ganga.

it believed river dry @ end of kali yuga, last of 4 stages world goes through part of cycle of yugas (the era of darkness, current era) sarasvati river , era end. next in(cyclic) order satya yuga or era of truth.