Ganga

In Hindu mythology, the goddess whose
material form is the Ganges River. The
Ganges is sacred because the river is
considered to be a goddess who has the
power to take away the sins of those who
bathe (snana) in her. There are numerous legends to explain her origin. The
best-known is the tale of King Bhagirath,
who by his ascetic practice succeeds in
bringing the Ganges down from heaven
to earth. Bhagirath is the great-greatgrandson of King Sagar, whose 60,000
sons had been burned to ash by the sage
Kapila’s magic power after they had
erroneously accused Kapila of being a
thief. Kapila later tells Anshuman, King
Sagar’s grandson and sole surviving
descendant, that the only way to bring
peace to the souls of Sagar’s sons is to
bring the Ganges down from heaven to
earth. Anshuman strives unsuccessfully
to do this, as does his son Dilip after
him. Dilip’s son Bhagirath takes their
efforts to heart and retires to the
Himalayas, where he performs asceticism until the gods finally agree to send
the Ganges down to earth. Yet
Bhagiratha’s efforts are not yet over.
Next, he has to gain the favor of the god
Shiva, so that Shiva will agree to take the
shock of the falling river on his head.
Otherwise, its force will destroy the
earth. When all is finally in place, the
Ganges falls to earth onto the head of
Shiva. Bhagirath leads Ganga out of the
mountains to the sea, where she touches
his ancestors’ ashes and they finally find
peace. This myth highlights both the
salvific touch of the Ganga and her intimate association with the last rites
(antyeshthi samskara) for the dead.
According to another story, the
Ganges comes down to earth because of
a curse pronounced during a family
quarrel between Vishnu and his wives
Ganga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. When
one day Ganga and Vishnu begin
exchanging lustful glances in public,
Saraswati gets angry and begins to beat
Ganga. As Lakshmi tries to stop her,
Saraswati let loose a string of curses:
that Vishnu will be born as a stone (the
shalagram), that Lakshmi will be born
as a plant (the tulsi plant), and that
Ganga will be born as a river and take
the sins of the world on her. In the struggle, Saraswati is cursed to become a
river. Vishnu sweetens Ganga’s curse by
telling her that she will be considered
very holy on earth and have the power to
remove people’s sins. Vishnu also tells
her that she will fall from heaven onto
the head of the god Shiva and become
his consort.