Bhagiratha (, ) is a legendary king of the

Ikshvaku dynasty The Solar dynasty or (; ), also called the Ikshvaku dynasty, is a legendary Indian dynasty said to have been founded by Ikshvaku. In Hindu literature, it ruled the Kosala Kingdom, with its capital at Ayodhya, and later at Shravasti. They ...

Hindu literature Hindu texts or Hindu scriptures are manuscripts and voluminous historical literature which are related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. Some of the major Hindu texts include the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Itihasa. Scholars ...

. He is best known for his legend of bringing the sacred river

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

, personified as the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

river goddess

Ganga The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary riv ...

, from

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

upon the earth, by performing a penance. Birth of Ganga on Earth

Legend

Bhagirathaprayatnam

King Sagara, the great-grandfather of Bhagiratha, once performed the

ashvamedha The Ashvamedha () was a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be released to wander ...

sacrifice, but the sacrificial horse was stolen by

Indra Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes Indra is the m ...

. The deity had the animal sequestered in

Patala In Indian religions, Patala ( Sanskrit: पाताल, IAST: pātāla, lit. ''that which is below the feet''), denotes the subterranean realms of the universe – which are located under the earthly dimension. Patala is often translated as u ...

, where Sage

Kapila Kapila () (7th-6th-century BCE), also referred to as Cakradhanus, is a Vedic sage in Hindu tradition, regarded the founder of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy., Quote:"Kapila (fl. 550 BC), Vedic sage and founder of the system of Samkhya, ...

was performing a

penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derive ...

. The 60,000 sons of Sagara discovered the horse in Patala, whereupon they disturbed Kapila with their hoarse noises. Infuriated, the 60,000 sons of Sagara were reduced to ash by the fiery eyes of the sage. The responsibility of performing the funeral rites of these sons passed down from generation to generation, until it was acquired by Bhagiratha, who upon his ascension to the throne of

Ayodhya Ayodhya () is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ayodhya became th ...

, went to practice austerities in the Himalayas, to invoke the goddess

. Ganga told Bhagiratha that were she to descend from

Svarga Svarga (, ), also known as Swarga, Indraloka and Svargaloka, is the celestial abode of the devas in Hinduism. Svarga is one of the seven higher lokas ( esoteric planes) in Hindu cosmology. Svarga is often translated as heaven, though it is reg ...

to the earth, the force of her fall would be difficult to sustain. She asked him to obtain the favour of the matted-haired, blue-throated deity

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

, as no one except him would be able to sustain her. Heeding her words, the king then performed a penance that lasted for a millennium for Shiva at Kailasa, and sought his cooperation in allowing Ganga to flow through his hair. Shiva granted him the boon, and stood in position, even as the torrent of Ganga's stream rushed upon his hair. Ganga flowed along the matted hair of Shiva for a thousand years. Bhagiratha performed another penance to please Shiva, until the deity shook his hair and allowed a single drop to descend upon the

Indo-Gangetic plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses North India, northern and East India, easte ...

, which became the Ganges. For Bhagiratha, the river flowed along the plain to Patala, and performed the funeral rites of Sagara’s sons. This episode is referred to as ''Bhagīrathaprayatnam'', literally meaning, "Bhagiratha's labour". To commemorate his efforts, the head stream of the river is called

Bhagirathi The Bhāgīrathī (Pron: /ˌbʌgɪˈɹɑːθɪ/) is a turbulent Himalayan river in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and one of the two headstreams of the Ganges, the major river of Northern India and the holy river of Hinduism. In the Hindu f ...

by locals, till it meets the

Alaknanda river The Alaknanda is a Himalayan river in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and one of the two headstreams of the Ganges, the major river of Northern India and a river considered holy in Hinduism. In hydrology, the Alaknanda is considered the sourc ...

Devprayag Devprayag (Deva prayāga) is a town and a nagar panchayat, near New Tehri city in Tehri Garhwal District in the state of Uttarakhand, India, and is the final one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River where Alaknanda meets ...

. The mythical ''pātāla'' where the sage Kapila meditated is identified with the Sāgar Island, at the confluence of the Bhagirathi stream of the Ganges (flowing by Kolkata and revered as Ganga) and the Bay of Bengal. The sea (''sam-udra'') is called Sāgara in honour of Bhagiratha's ancestor the King Sagara. Kapila's ashrama is located at Sagar Island and hosts the annual Ganga Sagar Mela and bathing rituals on Makara Sankranti day every year. While flowing towards Patala, the Ganga flooded the

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Sage Jahnu. To punish the haughtiness of the goddess, the sage swallowed the river. It was with the insistent entreaties of Bhagiratha that the sage consented to push the river out through his ear, which offered the goddess the epithet ''Jahnavi''.

Reign

After completing the funeral rites of his ancestors, Bhagiratha governs once more as king, and his people were wealthy and prosperous under his reign. The

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

states that the king had a great efficacy of gifting cows, offering hundreds of thousands of cows and their calves to the sage Kohala. He marries his famous daughter, Haṃsī, to the sage Kautsa, before departing the earth.

Literature

Narada Purana

In the

Narada Purana The ''Naradiya Purana'' (, ) or ''Narada Purana'' (), are two Vaishnavism texts written in Sanskrit language. One of the texts is termed as a Major Purana, also called a Mahapurana, while the other is termed as a Minor Purana (''Upapurana'' ...

, King Bhagiratha appeases

Yama Yama (), also known as Kāla and Dharmarāja, is the Hindu god of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Naraka. He is often identified with Dharmadeva, the personification of ''Dharm ...

, and holds a discussion with him regarding the nature of righteousness. Yama offers the king various modes of being righteous, including offering employment and donating wealth to

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

s, building

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

and

temples, rituals that should be performed for the aforementioned two deities, donating food to the hungry, and the acquisition of punya. Yama goes on to describe the nature of sin, as well as the various hells that exist. The deity instructs the king to worship Vishnu, who is the equivalent of Shiva, and informs him of his future of freeing his ancestors from

Naraka Naraka () is the realm of hell in Indian religions. According to schools of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, ''Naraka'' is a place of torment. The word ''Neraka'' (modification of ''Naraka'') in Indonesian language, Indonesian and Malaysian langu ...

by causing the descent of the Ganga.

Bengali literature

In most accounts of Bhagiratha, he is born to his father Dilipa and his unnamed mother in an unremarkable fashion. However, a number of Bengali accounts tell how Dilipa dies without begetting an heir. This story may first be attested in the Bengali-script recension of the Sanskrit ''

Padma Purana The ''Padma Purana'' (, or ) is one of the eighteen Puranas#Mahapuranas, Major Puranas, a genre of texts in Hinduism. It is an encyclopedic text, named after the lotus in which creator god Brahma appeared, and includes large sections dedic ...

''; it recurs in the influential, probably fifteenth-century CE Bengali ''

Krittivasi Ramayan ''Kṛttivāsī Rāmāyaṇ'',; also called ''Śrīrām Pãcālī'', composed by the fourteenth-century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha, from whom it takes its name, is a rendition of the '' Rāmāyaṇa'' into Bengali. Written in the traditional '' ...

'', and thereafter in other texts from Bengal such as Bhavananda's ''Harivansha'', Mukundarama Chakravartin's ''Kavikankanachandi'', and the sixteenth-century ''Ramayana'' by Adbhutacharya. Dilipa's lack of an heir troubles the gods, because it has been prophesied that

will be born to Dilipa's line, and this prophecy cannot come true unless Dilipa has a child. Therefore, through the advice of a sage or god, two of Dilipa's widows have sex with one another and in this way one gets pregnant and gives birth to Bhagiratha. However, the baby is deformed (in the ''Padma Purana'' version, for example he is boneless, while in the ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' he is merely a lump of flesh) until he encounters the crippled sage

Ashtavakra Ashtavakra (, ) is a revered Vedic sage in Hinduism. His maternal grandfather was the Vedic sage Aruni, his parents were both Vedic students at Aruni's school. Ashtavakra studied, became a sage and a celebrated character of the Hindu Itihasa ...

, who transforms him into a beautiful, strong child/youth. The ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' even goes on to describe Bhagiratha being bullied at school for having two mothers rather than heterosexual parents. Some of the texts too use the story to provide a folk-etymology for Bhagiratha's name, claiming that it comes from ''bhaga'' ('vulva').Ruth Vanita, '' Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).Ruth Vanita, 'Naming Love: The God Kama, the Goddess Ganga, and the Child of Two Women', in ''The Lesbian Premodern'', ed. by Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer, and Diane Watt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 119-30; .

Gallery

A sculpture of Bhagiratha can be seen beneath the spout of almost every

dhunge dhara A dhunge dhara ( ) or hiti () is a traditional stone drinking fountain found in Nepal. It is an intricately carved stone waterway through which water flows uninterrupted from underground sources. Dhunge dharas are part of a comprehensive drinki ...

(''hiti'') or

tutedhara A ( Nepali) or ( Newari) is a traditional drinking fountain found in Nepal. It is a water reservoir built out of stone with a tap that can be opened and closed. These structures are either free-standing or integrated into the wall of another b ...

(''jarun, jahru, jaladroni''), two types of drinking fountain found in the old settlements of Nepal. Bhagiratha is pictured sitting, standing or dancing while holding or blowing a

conch Conch ( , , ) is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high Spire (mollusc), spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point on both ...

. A similar figure can be seen below the

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...

s in some temples in India.Water Conduits in the Kathmandu Valley (2 vols.) by Raimund O.A. Becker-Ritterspach, , Published by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 1995 File:Sundhara, Kathmandu.jpg, Bhagiratha beneath a spout of Sundhara,

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

, Nepal File:Bhagiratha in Thanthu Darbar Hiti.jpg, Bhagiratha in

Thanthu Darbar Hiti The Thanthu Darbar Hiti, Thanthun Lu Hiti or Nag Pokhari, also known as Duguhiti, is a Dhunge dhara, sunken bath used by the Malla (Kathmandu Valley), Malla royal family in Nepal. It is in a courtyard of Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Bhaktapur. King ...

, Bhaktapur, Nepal File:Twale Hiti Dhunge Dhara Stone Fountain Changunarayan Bhaktapur Nepal Rajesh Dhungana (detail).jpg, Bhagiratha at the spout of Gahiti, Changunarayan, Nepal File:Bhaktapur Durbar Square (48789226388).jpg, Bhagiratha on a jarun in Bhaktapur, Nepal File:N-TN-C192 BigTemple-Abshieka-water-in-Decorative-Sprout.jpg, Bhagiratha beneath a gargoyle at the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, India File:Shiva Gangadhara, Parvati, Bhagiratha. Ravana Phadi, Aihole.jpg, Bhagiratha (left) at the Ravana Phadi Cave,

Aihole Aihole (ಐಹೊಳೆ), also referred to as Aivalli, Ahivolal or Aryapura, is a historic site of ancient and medieval era Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments in Karnataka, India that dates from the sixth century through the twelfth century C ...

, India File:Bhageeratha statue at film nagar, hyderabad (cropped).jpg, Bhageeratha statue in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, India

References

Sources

*''The Ramayana'' (2001) by

Ramesh Menon Ramesh Menon is an author, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and corporate trainer. He was one of the people to win the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2005, as well as the Madhavankutty Gold Medal for Excellence English J ...

*''

Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend The ''Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend'' (2002) is a book written by Anna L. Dallapiccola, and contains information on over one thousand concepts, characters, and places of Hindu mythology and Hinduism, one of the major religions of the India ...

'' () by Anna L. Dallapiccola {{HinduMythology Solar dynasty Characters in the Mahabharata Puranas