Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
The Ganga in Mythologies
The Legend
Indians look upon their rivers with reverence and consider them holy. From time
immemorial, their mythologies have been harping on the sacredness of rivers but
there is none holier and popular than the Ganga. In the great Hindu epic, the
Ramayana, written in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki between 1400 and 1000 BC, which
remains the bedrock of the Hindu civilisation, she is personified as a goddess.
In Hindu mythology, she is the eldest daughter of Himavat and Menoka; her sister
being Uma, or goddess Durga who is worshipped in autumn and spring by Bengalis,
particularly. The Ganga became the wife of King Santanu and bore a son, Bhisma,
who is known as Gangeya, after his mother. She is also the mother of Kartikeya, the
chief celestial warrior whom she bore, being in love with Agni. She has many other
names too - Bhadra-soma, Gandini, Kirati, Devabhuti, Hara-Sekhara, Khapaga,
Mandakini, Tripathaga or Trisrota ; the last means three streams, flowing in heaven,
earth and hell (in the third, she is called Patal-Ganga). In Hindu mythology, she
plays various roles - a child of Brahma, wife of Shiva, the metaphysical offspring
of Vishnu, mother of eight Vasus and of Kartikeya. In the Rigveda, she is mentioned
twice. Before descending on earth, she flowed in heaven and was the consort of
gods. She was brought down to the earth by a scion of King Sagara whose 60,000
sons were burnt to death by the angry gaze of a philosopher sage, Kapil (founder of
Sankhya Darshana ) when they were looking for their missing sacrificial horse for
the Ashwamedha Yagna and had arrogantly scattered ashes on his hermitage. They
could be revived and their souls delivered in heaven if the Ganga flowed over and
purified their ashes. King Sagara's scions performed pious rites to bring down the
Ganga on the earth but their two generations failed.
The third generation king, Bhagirath obtained the blessings of Lord Brahma
through tapasya (penance) and succeeded in breaking, The Ganga's obstinacy of
flowing only in heaven. She was angry at being brought down to earth. The heav-
enly king, Indra's tusker, Airabat pierced the hills of the Himalayas to contain her
tremendous surge, unsuccessfully. Being entreated by gods, Lord Shiva caught her
on his brow and checked her turbulence with his matted locks to save the earth from
the shock of her fall. Because of this action, Shiva is called Gangadhar, or 'Holder
of the Ganga'. She descended from Shiva's brow in several streams, four according
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