Gangavatarana - The descent of Ganga

Gangavatarana (ಗಂಗಾವತರಣ)

Ganga Devi (Picture Courtsey : iskcondesiretree.net)

From jyeshtha pratipat to jyeshtha dashami (i.e, from 1st day to 10th day), devout people celebrate these days as 'dashahara vrat'(ದಶಹರಾ ವ್ರತ). Dasha = 10, hara = destroy, means a vrat which destroys ten sins.On the tenth day, Ganga, the divine river of heaven, descended to earth.It is believed that Ganga washed the feet of Lord Narayana in the course of her descent to earth, hence she is capable of washing away sins of people.

 

Puranic story of why Ganga came down to earth : There lived a king by name Trishanku, in Solar lineage(suryavamsha). He had a son by name, Harishchandra, who was the personification of honesty. His son was Rohita. Rohita had a son by name Harita. Champa was Harita's son. Sudeva was Harita's son. Sudeva had a son, Vijaya, who in turn had a son by name, Bharuka. Vruka was Bharuka's son and Baahuka was Vruka's son.

Baahuka lost his kingdom and wealth to his enemies. He was forced to live in exile in forest with his wives. There in forest, Baahuka breathed his last. And his wives were about to enter his pyre, as was the norm in those days, but a sage by name, Ourva (ಔರ್ವ), stopped them when he realised that one of Baahuka's wives was carrying his child. Realising the sage's compassion towards this pregnant wife, the other wives of Baahuka grew jealous of her and tried to poison her. As destiny would have it, she remained unaffected by the poison and gave birth to a son by name Sagara(ಸಗರ). Sa = with, gara = poison, hence he who is born with poison is known as Sagara.

By the grace of sage Ourva, Sagara claimed his father's kingdom back and became a chakravarti. He ahd two wives, Sumati and Keshi and sixty thousand sons. On the advise of his guru, sage Ourva, he undertook, Ashwamedha yaaga and let the  horse to roam about freely on earth, only to captured by any king who dared to oppose Sagara, and thus refusing his supremacy. Indra, king of gods, stole the horse and hid in sage Kapila's ashram in patala. Then the sixty thousand sons of Sagara set out to find the horse. Not findng it anywhere on earth, they suspected it to be in patala and went there. And there they did indeed spot it. And in a fit of rage, they tried to attack sage Kapila with a battle cry. This commotion disturbed the sage from his penance and he opened his eyes. Lo and Behold ! The sixty thousand sons of Ssgara were simply reduced to ashes by the light (ತೇಜಸ) emanating from the sage's eyes.

 Meanwhile, Sagara had a son by name, Asamanjas (ಅಸಮಂಜಸ), from his other wife, Keshi. Asamanjas had a son, Amshumaan. Though Asamanjas was born to a king, royalty did not interest him as he an ascetic in his previous life. To escape from his royal environment, he started indulging in a very peculiar, but disturbing act. He would throw his friends into the cean and kill them. Sagara then, banished him from his kingdom. Asamanjas went to forest, did penance, and with his yogic power, bought back to life all the people he had drowned. Then Sagara sent Amshumaan to search for the yagnic horse.

He finds the horse in the ashram of sage Kapila. With all humility, he prays to sage Kapila, earns his benovalance, and then asks him to return the horse. The sage return the horse, narrate the tragic incident involving his ancestors, and tells him his ancestors acn only be absolved from hell only if Ganga, the celetial river flows over them.

Sage Kapila blessing Amshumaan(Photo Courtesy : http://www.sanatansociety.com/)

Amshumaan recieves sage Kapila's blessings, returns the horse to Sagara, who then completes Ashwamedha yagna. Amshumaan then begins to pray to Ganga to flow down to earth. But his penance did not fructify. Then his son, Dileepa, too did similar penance, but with no result. Dileepa had a son by name, Bhageeratha, who followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps. And Ganga, finally pleased with his penence, yeilds to him.  



Ganga yeilds to Bhageeratha (Photo Courtesy : Pramukh Deviyan)


Ganga, appeared before Bhageerath and told him that she was pleased with his penance, and she is willing to descent to earth, but wondered, how will he manage to keep the earth from breaking into halves when she colloides earth with her velocity.

Bhageeratha assures her that he will pray to Lord Shiva to controGanga's velocity when she hits the earth. Lord Shiva agrees, and binds Ganga with his long matted hair.

Thus Lord Shiva came to be known as Ganga-dhara, the one who holds Ganga. Then Ganga, gingerly, starting trickling from Lord Shiva's locks of hair onto the earth. Bhageeratha then started to go in the direction of patala, with Ganga following him like a little girl. 

Ganga following Bhageeratha (Photo Courtesy : haveultimatefun.blogspot.com)

There in patala, Ganga flows over the ashes of Bhageeraths's ancestors, washing away their sins and enabling them to attain salvation(moksha). 

Bhageeratha's ancestors obtaining moksha through Ganga (Photo courtsey : http://www.sanatansociety.com/)

Thus Ganga, who was made to descent to earth by Bhageeratha to grant salvation to his ancestors, continues to absolve all our sins and help attain moksha.

|| ShreeKrishnaarpanamastu ||