Bhagīratha

Bhagīratha was a great king of the Solar dynasty (the Sūryavaṃśa). His tapas (austerity) brought the river Gaṅgā from the sky down to earth. Her waters freed the sixty thousand sons of his ancestor Sagara, whom Kapila Maharshi had reduced to ash. The Purāṇas remember him as the model of one who keeps on toward an impossible goal for the sake of his departed ancestors. His name became a word for any very hard task done through steady effort (bhagīratha-prayatna).

His story is told in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa and the Mahābhārata. Each account is given below under its own text.

Lineage

Bhagīratha was the son of Dilīpa and the grandson of Aṃśumān. Three generations tried to bring Gaṅgā to earth and free the sons of Sagara. Aṃśumān and Dilīpa both did great tapas for this and died without success. The task fell wholly to Bhagīratha.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa gives his line in the Ikshvāku-vaṃśa (the Sūryavaṃśa) as: Vivasvān, Vaivasvata Manu, Ikshvāku, and so on, then Bāhu, Sagara, Asamañjas, Aṃśumān, Dilīpa, Bhagīratha (Pūrvārdha, Chapters 7–8).

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa account

The Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa has one of the fullest and best-known accounts of Bhagīratha’s tapas and the descent of Gaṅgā. Viśvāmitra told it to Rāma and Lakshmaṇa on their way to Mithilā. It fills Chapters 38–44.

Sagara and the sixty thousand sons

The account begins with the great king Sagara of the Ikshvāku line. He had two wives, Keśinī and Sumatī. Keśinī bore him one son, Asamañjas. Sumatī bore sixty thousand sons through a divine vara (a boon).

Sagara performed an aśvamedha yajña (a horse sacrifice). Indra was jealous of Sagara’s glory. He stole the sacrificial horse and hid it in pātāla (the nether world), near the āśrama (hermitage) of Kapila Maharshi, who was in meditation. Sagara sent all sixty thousand sons to look for the horse.

They dug up the earth in their search and at last found the horse near Kapila. In doing so they disturbed the meditating ṛshi. The fire of Kapila’s yogic anger reduced all sixty thousand sons to ash in a moment. Their ātmās (souls) stayed bound and could not reach a good destination, because no funeral rites had been done for them (Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 38–40).

Aṃśumān and Dilīpa

Aṃśumān, the son of Asamañjas, went to pātāla. He found both the horse and the ash of his uncles. Garuḍa told him that only the holy waters of Gaṅgā could free the sixty thousand. Aṃśumān brought the horse back and finished Sagara’s yajña. But in spite of effort all his life, he could not bring Gaṅgā to earth. His son Dilīpa also spent his whole life in austerity for this aim and could not succeed (Chapter 41).

Bhagīratha’s great tapas

Dilīpa’s son Bhagīratha began tapas of the hardest kind. He stood on one foot with his arms raised and lived on water alone, through a thousand years of strict austerity. Brahmā appeared and offered him a vara. Bhagīratha asked for the descent of Gaṅgā.

Brahmā warned him that the earth could not bear the speed of Gaṅgā’s fall from the sky. Only Śiva could bear that force in his matted locks. Bhagīratha then pleased Śiva with hard tapas for one more year, until Śiva agreed to receive Gaṅgā on his head (Chapter 42).

The descent of Gaṅgā and Jahnu

Gaṅgā came down from the sky in great rushing floods and filled the three worlds with her thunder. She fell first on Śiva’s head. She became tangled in his matted locks and wandered among them for many years, unable to find a way out, until Śiva let her go as a gentle stream.

Bhagīratha rode in a divine chariot and led Gaṅgā forward. She followed him southward. At the āśrama of Jahnu Maharshi her strong current flooded his place of yajña and broke his tapas. In anger Jahnu drank all the waters of Gaṅgā. The devas and ṛshis were amazed.

Bhagīratha and all the devas pleased Jahnu with deep devotion. The ṛshi was pleased and let Gaṅgā out from his ears. After this she was also called Jāhnavī. Bhagīratha led her on until her waters reached pātāla and the ash of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara. The moment her waters touched the ash, all sixty thousand were freed and went up to svarga (heaven) (Chapters 43–44).

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa account

Pleasing Gaṅgādevī

Bhagīratha did great austerities to please the devī Gaṅgā. When she appeared and offered a vara, he asked her to come down to earth and make his ancestors’ ash holy. Gaṅgādevī had two worries.

First, when she fell with great speed she would split the earth and go into Rasātala, unless someone bore the force of her fall. Second, people would wash their accumulated pāpa (sin) in her waters, so who would then purify her?

Bhagīratha answered both:

• For the first worry: Śiva is the ātmā of all beings, and this whole world is woven in him like warp and weft in cloth. He alone has the power to bear her force.
• For the second worry: holy people who have given up all attachment and live in Brahmannishṭhā (steady rest in Brahman) purify the world. When such holy people bathe in Gaṅgā, their own purity, which comes from Śrī Hari living in them, will cleanse whatever impurity she carries.

Pleasing Śiva

Bhagīratha then turned his tapas to Mahādeva. In a very short time the kind Śiva was pleased. Bhagīratha told him of Gaṅgādevī’s request. Śiva always works for the welfare of all beings, and he gladly agreed. He held Gaṅgā in his matted locks and let her go gently to flow on the earth.

The descent

Bhagīratha rode a chariot as swift as the wind and led Gaṅgā forward. She flowed behind him and made holy every land she crossed. He brought her to the north-eastern region where the ash of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara lay. The moment Gaṅgā’s waters touched the ash, the souls of all sixty thousand were freed and went up to svarga.

The Bhāgavata then says that Gaṅgā comes down from the sky, from the lotus feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu. She flows through Śiva’s matted locks and reaches the earth. Those who serve and honour Gaṅgā with faith and steadiness will reach svarga. The text says there is nothing surprising in Gaṅgā’s power to purify, because she rises from the lotus feet of Ananta (Śrī Hari). Those feet are themselves the source of freedom from saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death).

Legacy and descendants

After Bhagīratha, Gaṅgā is also called Bhāgīrathī. The Bhāgavata lists his descendants: Śruta, Nābha, Sindhudvīpa, Ayutāyus, Ṛtaparṇa (who became the friend and dice-teacher of Nala), Sarvakāma, Sudāsa, Mitrasaha (also called Kalmāshapāda). Through this line came the great rājarshis, including the ancestors of Bhagavān Śrī Rāma (9th Skandha, Chapters 8–9).

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa account

Why he did tapas

In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, the sixty thousand sons of Sagara were born from a gourd-vessel from the womb of his first wife. They set out to find the Aśvamedha horse that Indra had stolen. They dug through the earth to Pātāla and found Kapila Maharshi deep in meditation. They took him for the horse-thief and surrounded him with weapons and insults. Kapila was woken from his samādhi (deep absorption) and with one glance turned all sixty thousand to ash.

Later Aṃśumān, the grandson of Sagara, found the ashes. Kapila told him, “Only the waters of Gaṅgā can free them.” Kapila gave Aṃśumān a vara that his grandson would do this. Aṃśumān and his son Dilīpa both did tapas for this aim, but they passed away before it was done (Pūrvārdha, Chapter 8).

Bhṛgu at the Godāvarī

Bhagīratha gave the kingdom into the care of his ministers and set out for the Himālaya. On the way he stopped at the āśrama of Bhṛgu Maharshi, on the bank of the river Godāvarī.

Bhṛgu taught him the base of dharma: satya (truthfulness), ahiṃsā (non-violence) and sarvabhūta-hita (the welfare of all beings), as the three highest qualities. He also taught remembrance of Bhagavān Vishṇu (vishṇu-smaraṇa) and śānti (peace). Then he gave Bhagīratha the most sacred mantras:

• Ashṭāksharī (eight syllables): Oṃ Namo Nārāyaṇāya
• Dvādaśāksharī (twelve syllables): Oṃ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

Bhṛgu said that both are equal in phala (fruit). He also gave the full dhyāna-śloka (meditation verse) on Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. In it Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa sits on the thousand-hooded Ādiśesha in the Kshīrasāgara. He holds the śaṅkha, cakra, gadā and padma. Lakshmī sits at his feet. His form is the colour of a new rain-cloud. He wears the Vanamālā and the Kaustubha gem. He is the all-pervading antaryāmin (the indweller) who lives in the heart of all beings (Chapter 16).

The great tapas at Nādeśvara Kshetra

Bhagīratha went on to the Himālaya. He settled on a peak near the Naranārāyaṇa āśrama, on its western side, sixteen yojanas from it. At a spot covered with snow, he did great prāṇāyāma-pūrva tapas: he held his breath within for sixty thousand years. He ate nothing and did not move, and his mind was fixed wholly on Śrī Mahāvishṇu.

As the tapas grew stronger, flames came from his nostrils and terrified the three worlds. The devatās were alarmed. They went to Bhagavān Vishṇu and prayed to him in haste. Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared to them and told them that this was a devotee’s tapas for a noble purpose, and that they should not fear.

One account says Bhagavān Vishṇu then appeared before Bhagīratha and said, “I am pleased. Ask your vara.” Bhagīratha asked for the descent of Gaṅgā to free his ancestors. Bhagavān Vishṇu told him: “Go and please Śiva, for only Śiva can bear the force of Gaṅgā’s fall.”

Another account of the same chapters says Brahmā was pleased with the tapas, appeared and gave the vara. In this account too, Gaṅgā’s worry about the force of her fall, Śiva bearing her in his jaṭā (matted locks), and Bhagīratha leading her to Pātāla follow the same outline (Chapters 15–16).

The stotra to Śiva and the descent

Bhagīratha then pleased Parameśvara with a long stotra (hymn of praise) that names Śiva in his many forms. He is the father of Skanda. He already bears Gaṅgā in his jaṭā. He destroyed the three cities. He is the devotee of Vishṇu and also not different from Vishṇu. He wears the half-moon and the serpents. The stotra runs through many verses that tell of Śiva’s greatness and ask for his grace.

Śiva was pleased and let Gaṅgā go from his matted locks. Gaṅgā came down through Śiva’s jaṭā, which broke her fall, and reached the earth. From then on she was called Bhāgīrathī in Bhagīratha’s honour.

Bhagīratha led Gaṅgā through the land of the Himālaya and down to Pātāla. When her waters touched the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara, they were purified at once, took on divine forms and went up to Vishṇu-loka (Chapter 16).

The name Bhāgīrathī remains the name of Gaṅgā in the region where she comes down from the mountains. The Nārada Purāṇa gives equal weight to his meeting with Bhṛgu and to the Ashṭāksharī and Dvādaśāksharī mantras he received. In this way it places the descent of Gaṅgā within the wider setting of devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Throughout the Purāṇas, Bhagīratha’s deed is given as the best example of pitṛ-bhakti (devotion to ancestors), and of steady effort in dharma even across many lifetimes.

The Brahma Mahā Purāṇa account: Gautamī Māhātmya

The Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 8) gives a short and devotional account with several features of its own.

When Bhagīratha learned how his ancestors had died, he went first not to the Himālaya but to the nether world, to Kapila Maharshi himself. He bowed to the ṛshi, told him his purpose and asked what he should do. Kapila meditated for a long time and then said: “Please Śaṅkara through tapas, O excellent king, and sprinkle your ancestors with the water that rests in the matted hair of Śiva. Then you and your ancestors will be satisfied.” He sent Bhagīratha to the great mountain Kailāsa. He told him to praise Maheśvara and do tapas as far as he was able.

The boy Bhagīratha is described again and again as a child in mind, in body and in prayer. He went to Kailāsa and made himself pure. His prayer to Śiva is full of a child’s humility: “O Śiva, who wears the crescent moon, I am a boy and my mind is also childish. I do not know anything. Even so, be pleased, O Maheśvara.” He prayed for the welfare of those who had raised and helped him, and for all of his gotra and shared dharma.

Śiva appeared before him, pleased, and offered him whatever he wished. Bhagīratha asked for the river that was in Śiva’s matted hair, to make his ancestors holy. Śiva smiled and said, “She is given to you.” He also asked Bhagīratha to praise Gaṅgā herself.

Bhagīratha did this second prayer with a pure mind and received Gaṅgā’s grace as well. The Brahma Purāṇa says he did this “like a mature man although he was only a boy.” He led Gaṅgā from Maheśvara and went straight to the nether world. He told Kapila what had happened. He set up Gaṅgā with proper rites, walked around her, and asked her to free the sons of Sagara. The river agreed.

Her waters filled the holes that the sixty thousand sons had dug. They flooded toward Meru, and then went down also to fill the ocean that Agastya had drunk. The sixty thousand ashes were purified. Bhagīratha then asked Gaṅgā to stay in the holy land. She came down from the Himālaya into the land and flowed eastward to the sea as the Bhāgīrathī.

The chapter closes with these words: “The water stationed within the matted hair of Maheśvara attained two forms. To the south of the Vindhya, Gaṅgā is called Gautamī. In the north of the Vindhya, she is called Bhāgīrathī.” Bhagīratha, a kshatriya, brought Gaṅgā to the north of the Vindhya. Gautama, a brāhmaṇa, had earlier brought her to the south (Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 8).

The Brahmā and Bhagīratha dialogue: anaśana as the true cause

The Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata has a different account of Bhagīratha, set after his labours are done. He has already passed through the worlds of the devas, of the cows and of the ṛshis, and he comes before Brahmā in Brahmaloka. Brahmā asks how he reached so hard a place. Bhagīratha answers with a full list of the gifts and yajñas of his life:

• Hundreds of thousands of nishkas (gold coins) given to brāhmaṇas.
• The ekarātra, pañcarātra, ekādaśaka and jyotishṭoma yajñas.
• A hundred years of tapas on the bank of the Gaṅgā.
• Horses and cows given by the crore in gosava and soma yajñas.
• Thousands of adorned maidens given as gifts.
• Bāhlika horses.
• Seventeen thousand elephants.
• Eight rājasūyas and ten vājapeyas.
• Gifts of land as long as the course of the Gaṅgā.
• Thirty years spent bearing the Gaṅgā on his own head at Himavat.
• The śamyāprāsa and pauṇḍarīka yajñas.
• Thirty agnicayanas.
• Eight sarvamedhas.
• Seven naramedhas.
• The thirty-year turāyaṇa vrata (vow).

After each item he tells Brahmā plainly: “It was not through the fruit of this that I came here.”

The true cause he names is anaśana, complete fasting from food. It means giving up all enjoyment (bhoga) and also feeding brāhmaṇas with what one has given up. He says this is the guhya (secret) that Indra hid in a cave. Śukra, also called Uśanas Bhārgava, gained it through his own tapas.

A thousand ṛshis and brāhmaṇas, pleased by his practice of anaśana, told him to go on to Brahmaloka. It was by their word that he arrived. Brahmā honoured him with the rites of the śāstra. Bhīshma uses this story to urge Yudhishṭhira toward daily upavāsa (fasting) and the honouring of brāhmaṇas as the highest secret of dharma (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 103).

Bhagīratha in the list of givers

In the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 137, Bhīshma names kings who gave well. He says Bhagīratha, a rājarshi, gave his daughter Haṃsī, famous for her great glory, to the ṛshi Kautsa, and reached the puṇya-lokas (worlds of merit) that do not perish. He also gave a hundred thousand cows with their calves to the ṛshi Kohala and reached the best worlds (Chapter 137).

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skandha, Chapters 8–9
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 7–11
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 15–16
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 38–44
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 56
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Caturdhāṃśa, Chapter 4
• Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 8
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 103 and 137