the story oF GANGA -the holy river

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According to the Indian mythology King Sagar had 60,000 sons. He

defeated all the asuras (daemons) in the earth and wanted to stage a

Ashwamedha Yagya to declare his supremacy. For this as was the

practice prevalent in ancient times, he sent his horse across the

earth accompanied by his sons.

The King of Heaven, Lord Indra feared the power of King Sagar and to

stop him, he stole the horse and tied it to the ashram of Sage Kapil.

When the 60,000 sons saw the horse in Kapil's ashram they got furious

and started to attack the hermitage. Sage Kapil was in deep

meditation and on hearing the disturbance he opened his eyes in anger

and all the 60,000 sons of King Sagar were reduced to ashes, except

for prince Asamanjas.

Anshuman the grandson of King Sagar brought the horse back from the

Sage and asked for his forgiveness. Sage Kapil told him that the

sons can be brought to life only if Ganga is brought from heaven to

earth. Neither Anshuman nor his son Dilip were successful in this

task. But Dilip's son, Bhagirath was determined to get this task

done. He started meditating intensly for several years and finally

Ganga got pleased and descended to the earth. To prevent the earth

from flooding, Lord Shiva received Ganga on his matted locks. King

Bhagirath then worshipped Lord Shiva and Shiva blessed him and

released Ganga from his locks in seven streams. The water of Ganga

touched the ashes of Sagar sons who rose to the their eternal rest in

heaven. The seven streams of Ganga are Bhagirathi, Janhvi,

Bhilangana, Mandakini, Rishiganga, Saraswati and Alaknanda which

merge into Ganga at Devprayag. The rock on which King Bhagirath is

believed to have meditated, is called Bhagirath Shila and is located

near the temple of Ganga. To this date the water of holy Ganga is

believed to have Amrit (nectar) in it. It has been studied by

Scientists that the water collected from Ganga at its origin is in a

pure state and even after being kept for several years, does not get

contaminated.. These medicinal properties of Ganga-Jal are attributed

to the medicinal secretions of herbs and mineral content which get

mixed with the water.

 

from a web source