Gangotri Temple – Legends

Gangotri Temple – Legends

Bhagiratha penance:

As per legends, King Sagara, the great grandfather of King Bhagirath killed the demons on earth. He decided to perform Aswamedha Yagna to prove his superiority. In this Yagna, a horse will be set loose to go on an uninterrupted journey across empires. Indra, King of Devas, feared that he might be deprived of his celestial throne if the yagna was performed successfully. Indra took away the horse with his powers and tied it in the ashram of Sage Kapila without the knowledge of Sage Kapila.

Soldiers of King Sagara realized that they had lost track of the horse and informed to King Sagara. Sagara sent all his all 60, 000 sons all over the earth to search for the horse. They found the horse tied next to Sage Kapila in his Ashram. Believing that the sage had stolen the horse, they hurled insults at him and caused his penance to be disturbed. The sage opened his eyes for the first time in several years and looked at the sons of Sagara.

With this glance, all sixty thousand were burnt to death. He also cursed that their souls would attain Moksha, only if their ashes get washed by the holy waters of River Ganga, which was then a river, flowing in heaven. The souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not been performed. For the moksha of all the sons of Sagar, Anshuman (nephew of those 60,000 sons) started to pray Brahma to bring Ganga to the earth till the end of his life but was not successful. Then his son Dilip did the same but did not succeed.

When Bhagirathi (means, one who does great hard work – he got his name from his great hard work for bringing Ganga to earth), one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learnt of this fate, he vowed to bring Ganga down to Earth so that her waters could cleanse their souls and release them to heaven. Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga comes down to Earth.

Brahma agreed, and he ordered Ganga to go down to the Earth and then on to the nether regions so that the souls of Bhagiratha's ancestors would be able to go to heaven. Ganga felt that this was insulting and decided to sweep the whole Earth away as she fell from the heavens. Alarmed, Bhagiratha prayed to Lord Shiva that he break up Ganga's descent. Ganga arrogantly fell on Shiva's head. But Shiva calmly trapped her in his hair and let her out in small streams.

The touch of Shiva further sanctified Ganga. As Ganga traveled to the nether-worlds, she created a different stream to remain on Earth to help purify unfortunate souls there. She is the only river to follow from all the three worlds – Swarga (heaven), Prithvi (Earth) and Patala (netherworld or hell). This is called Tripathaga (one who travels the three worlds) in Sanskrit language.

As soon as Ganga's water touched the ashes of the Bhagirath's ancestors, the 60,000 sons rose from eternal rest. The stone on which Bhagirath is believed to have meditated is known as the Bhagirath Shila which is located fairly close to the Gangotri Temple.

Birth of Ganga from Brahma Kamandalu:

As per legend, Ganga, was a vivacious beautiful woman who was born out of Lord Brahma's Kamandalu (water vessel). Lord Brahma while washing Lord Vishnu's feet had collected this water in his Kamandalu after Lord Vishnu had freed the universe from demon Bali in his rebirth as Vaman.

Ganga marriage with ancestor of Pandavas:

Another legend states that Ganga came down to earth in the form of a human and married an ancestor of the Pandavas of the Mahabharat, King Shantanu. She is believed to have yielded seven sons who were thrown into the river by her and the reasons behind this are unexplained. Her eighth child, Bheeshma, was spared due to the intervention of King Shantanu. Ganga left him. Bheeshma is the one who later played a very crucial role throughout Mahabharata, the grand epic.

Jahnavi:

Another name of Ganga is Jahnavi. There is a story behind this name. When Ganga came down to Earth, on her way to Bhagiratha, her rushing waters created turbulence and destroyed the fields and the sadhana of a sage called Jahnu. He was angered by this and drank up all of Ganga's waters. Upon this, the Gods prayed to Jahnu to release Ganga so that she could proceed with her mission. Pleased with their prayers, Jahnu released Ganga (her waters) from his ears. Hence the name Jahnavi (daughter of Jahnu) for Ganga.

Gangas will dry up at the end of Kali Yuga:

It is sometimes believed that the river will finally dry up at the end of Kali Yuga, the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas (the era of darkness, the current era) just as with the Sarasvati river and this era will end. Next in(cyclic) order will be the Satya Yuga or the era of Truth.