Gaṅgā Avatāraṇa

The Gaṅgāvatāraṇa is the account of the Gaṅgā coming down to the earth. It is one of the longest and grandest upākhyānas (side-narratives) in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. It fills ten chapters, 36 to 45, of the Bāla Kāṇḍa. It follows three generations of effort. It begins with King Sagara, goes on through his grandson Aṃśumān and his son Dilīpa, and ends with the great tapas of Bhagīratha. That tapas brought the divine river Gaṅgā from svarga (heaven) to the earth, to purify the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara.

King Sagara and the Aśvamedha horse

King Sagara of the Ikshvāku line performed an Aśvamedha yajña (a fire ritual with a sacred horse). The horse was stolen by someone, and it was in the end traced to the nether worlds. It was hidden near the āśrama of the ṛshi Kapila in Pātāla. Sagara ordered his sixty thousand sons to search the earth and find the horse. The sixty thousand were strong and proud princes. In their wild search they tore up the earth and disturbed the beings who lived in its depths.

At last the sixty thousand sons went down into Pātāla and found the horse near Kapila, who was in meditation. In their pride they accused Kapila of the theft and rushed at him with weapons. The disturbance woke the ṛshi from his deep samādhi. He opened his eyes, and the fire of his tapas at once burned all sixty thousand sons. They became heaps of ash.

This part is from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 36-38.

Aṃśumān’s difficulty

Sagara’s grandson Aṃśumān, the son of Asamañja, was sent into Pātāla to find out what had happened. The divine bird Garuḍa guided him. He found the ashes of his forefathers and the yajña horse. He wished to offer water-rites for the sixty thousand. He was told that only the waters of the Gaṅgā, the divine river that flows in svarga, could purify the ashes of those burned by the fire of a brahmarshi. Ordinary water would not do. Only the Gaṅgā had the power to give liberation to those destroyed by sacred fire.

Aṃśumān took the horse back to Sagara, and Sagara finished the Aśvamedha. But the sixty thousand sons stayed as they were: their ashes were not purified and their ātmās were not at rest. Aṃśumān himself later did great tapas to bring the Gaṅgā down, but he did not succeed. His son Dilīpa also did tapas and also did not succeed. The task waited for Bhagīratha.

This part is from Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 40-42.

Bhagīratha’s tapas

Bhagīratha felt pity for his sixty thousand forefathers. He resolved to do what no one in his line had been able to do, and bring the Gaṅgā from svarga to the earth. His tapas was extremely hard. He stood on one leg for a thousand years. He lived only on leaves and air. He gave his whole being to this one aim. His tapas shook svarga. Brahmā Deva was pleased and appeared before him.

Bhagīratha asked for the descent of the Gaṅgā. Brahmā agreed, but he named a serious problem. If the Gaṅgā fell straight from svarga onto the earth, the force of her fall would break the earth. Only Bhagavān Śiva could take the fall of the Gaṅgā on his head and so break the force of her descent. So Bhagīratha did more tapas for Bhagavān Śiva, who agreed to receive the Gaṅgā.

This part is from Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 43-44.

The descent through Śiva’s jaṭā

Brahmā ordered the Gaṅgā to come down. She came from svarga with the full force of her divine power. That force alone would have been enough to pierce the earth and rush down into Pātāla. But Bhagavān Śiva stood with his matted locks spread wide, and the river fell into the winding paths of his jaṭā (matted hair). For years the Gaṅgā wandered inside Śiva’s locks and could not find her way out.

Bhagīratha prayed to Bhagavān Śiva, who at last let the river go. She flowed out in seven streams. Three went east, three went west, and one followed Bhagīratha toward Pātāla in the south. This part is also from Chapters 43-44.

The purifying of the ashes

Gaṅgā followed Bhagīratha’s chariot as he led the way. She flowed across the earth and at last went down into Pātāla through the hole that Sagara’s sixty thousand sons had made. When her waters touched the ashes of the sixty thousand, the ashes were purified, and the ātmās of Sagara’s sons were freed. The great tapas of three generations, Aṃśumān, Dilīpa and Bhagīratha, was fulfilled at the moment the river touched the ashes.

This part is from Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 44-45.

The three names of the Gaṅgā

The Bāla Kāṇḍa gives the Gaṅgā three names for the three worlds where she flows. In svarga she is Mandākinī. On the earth she is Gaṅgā. In the nether world she is Bhāgīrathī, named for the tapas of Bhagīratha that brought her. She is also called Tripathagā, she who moves along three paths.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 36-45