Bhagiratha - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bhageeratha was a great king in Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology

Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...

who brought the River Ganges to Earth.

Early life

Bhageeratha was the king of Kosala

Kosala

Kosala was an ancient Indian region, corresponding roughly in area with the region of Awadh in present day Uttar Pradesh. According to the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya and the Jaina text, the Bhagavati Sutra, Kosala was one of the Solasa Mahajanapadas in 6th century BCE and its cultural and...

, a kingdom in ancient India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He was a descendent of the great king Sagara of the Suryavamsa, or Sun Dynasty. He was one of the forefathers of Lord Rama

Rama

Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

, of the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

, the epic in which Bhageeratha's tale is primarily recounted.

He lost his father when he was just a child, and was raised by his mother. Bhageeratha was very intelligent, virtuous and kind hearted. When he came of age, Bhageeratha ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Kosala

Kosala

, today located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

. He was a pious, benevolent ruler who adhered to his duties as a king as prescribed by dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

Kapila's curse

When king Sagara chose to perform the Ashwamedha yagna, his royal agents lost track of the sacrificial horse. Sagara ordered his sixty thousand sons by Sumati to track down the horse. The proud and mercurial princes raged across Bharat, burning down forests and uprooting life and property to find the horse. They finally arrived at a quiet spot where the Sage Kapila was sitting in meditation. Besides him was tied the white horse. The enraged princes condemned Kapila as a thief and attacked him. Using his terrible mystic power, Kapila instantly turned the princes into ashes.

Another version has it that the horse was stolen by a jealous Indra

Indra

' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...

who did not want the yagna to succeed, and hid it in cave where sage Kapila was meditating in order to escape being accused of the stealth.

One version has it that Kapila told the prince Anshuman, Sagara's grandson(Son of Asamanja

Asamanja

Asamanja or Asamanjan was Son of Sagara and Kesini.Sagara had 60,000 sons from wife Sumati and one son from Kesini. He was a wild and wicked young man, and was abandoned by his father. But his son Anshuman succeeded Sagara as king...

n, other son of Sagara who was thrown out of kingdom by him) who had come looking both for the horse and his brothers, that the only way for the souls of the dead princes to ascend to heaven would be through the offering of niravapanjali with the water of the sacred Ganga (Ganges) river, which was flowing only in Swarga.

Another version has it that Anshuman was told about the fate of his 60,000 uncles and about relief from Kapila's curse (by Ganga's waters) by Garuda

Garuda

The Garuda is a large mythical bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology.From an Indian perspective, Garuda is the Hindu name for the constellation Aquila and...

Bhageeratha's tapasya

Bringing Ganga back to Earth was a near impossible task and required many years to be spent in tapasya and prayer. The Kosala kings of successive generations could not do this while managing their duties as kings. As a result, the sins of the thousand princes multiplied in their destructive energy, and began resulting in natural disasters. The kingdom began to lose its peace and prosperity, and by the time Bhageeratha ascended the throne, he found it impossible to attempt to govern in this situation, that had only one solution.

Turning over the kingdom to trusted ministers, Bhageeratha set off to the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

to perform an arduous tapasya in the extreme climate. For one thousand years, he performed an excruciatingly harsh penance to please Lord Brahma

Brahma

Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...

. At the end of the thousand years, Brahma came to him and told him to ask for anything. Bhageeratha asked Brahma to bring down the river Ganges to earth so that he may perform the ceremony for his ancestors.

Brahma asked Bhageeratha to propitiate Lord Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

, for only He would be able to break the Ganga's fall. It was the largest river, and it would be impossible for anyone save Him to contain the destructive impact of this event.

Bhageeratha performed a tapasya for Lord Shiva, living only on air. The compassionate Shiva appeared only after a year's penance, and told Bhageeratha he should not have to perform tapasya to accomplish a noble goal such as this. He assured Bhageeratha that he would make Ganga fall.

Ganga's fall

After eons of being flattered and praised by the Devas

Deva (Hinduism)

' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...

, Ganga had become vain. She scoffed at Brahma when He asked her to flow down to earth, but could not disobey him as he was her father.

But Ganga was sure, as much as Bhageeratha was afraid that no one could stop her fall, which would devastate the earth for a long time. As she cascaded across and down from Swarga, Bhageeratha and celestial observers were terrified of the roar and volume of water coming down. But Lord Shiva

Shiva

appeared from out of nowhere and captured all of Ganga just as she launched herself onto earth, in His jata.

Ganga struggled to set herself free, but Shiva could not be budged. Bhageeratha worshipped Shiva, who let Ganga free after crushing her vanity. She flowed, and is still believed to flow, from Shiva's jata down to earth at a gentler pace.

Establishment of the river

King Bhageeratha led the way for Ganga on his chariot, and she followed him across the north and east of Bharat and finally merging with the ocean. In her course she washed the ashes of Sagara's sixty thousand sons, who ascended to heaven while praising and blessing Bhageeratha.

Commemoration

For its descent to Earth being owed to Bhageeratha's efforts, Ganga is also known as Bhageerathi (daughter of Bhageeratha) as proclaimed by Lord Brahma

Brahma

.

Bhageeratha's own great effort was praised by all the Gods and his ancestors, and is known as a Bhageeratha Prayatna, as proclaimed by Lord Brahma

Brahma

. It is a great inspiration to any man who seeks to do something noble despite facing overwhelming odds.

Early life

Kapila's curse

Bhageeratha's tapasya

Ganga's fall

Establishment of the river

Commemoration

See also