National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

even so late as 130 years ago, its upper course has been confounded with those of
the Indus and the Satlej that we cannot omit paying some attention to the history
of human knowledge about the origin of this river. And as could be expected from
the immense importance of this river for north-eastern India, the Ganges has been
an object of illimited veneration of the Indians ever since the remotest antiquity. It
is said to be mentioned only twice in the Rig-veda. ¹

Gangā was Himavant's eldest daughter, and concerning her the following event
is related both by the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana: King Sāgara in Ayodhyā
had 60,000 sons. Once while they were searching for a horse that had been stolen
from a sacrifice of horses, they met the sage Kapila. They accused him of having
stolen the missing horse, and in consequence, in his anger, he transformed them into
ashes. Only by the aid of Gangā's holy waters could they again come to life. It
was Sāgara's great-great-grandson, Bhagiratha, who at last succeeded in bringing
the stream Ākāça-Gagā, Vyoma-Gagā, (Air-Ganges, Heaven-Ganges), down from
heaven, and its violence was only restrained by Çiva receiving it in the curls of his
hair. This tale is often referred to in the Mahābhārata, as: »Her, who is difficult
to bear even by mountains, bore after this the holder of Pinaka (Çiva) on his head
for hundred thousand years.» Or: »Here Mahādeva received the down-powring,
from heaven sent Gagā, and gave her to the world of men, o thou who is full of
Brahma knowledge.» And: »That holy Bhāgirathi, who is worshipped by gods and
Gandharvas shines far and wide over the heavens like a pennant banner by the
wind, it is perpetually conducted downwards over the lower mountain tops, lying like
a serpent King's mistress, trembling on the rocks, she, the dear queen of the sea
overflows all the southern district (nourishing it) like a mother after having first
streamed from Çambhu's (Çiva's) hair». And at another place in the Mahābhārata
we read of a sacrifice performed »on Himavant, in that place where Gagā bursts
forth from the mountains.» ²

According to Wilson the legend of the descent of the Gangā is told, in its
most ancient and authentic shape, in the Rāmāyana. The Ganges, he says, is
called Bhāgirathi, from King Bhagiratha, and the sea, which was formed by the
river, is termed Sāgara, after his great-grand sire. ³ Wheeler says that the legend
has no real value, excepting that it is universally believed by the Hindus. From
the Rāmāyana Wheeler relates a poetical description of the divine Ganges, the river
which Rāma saw flowing in three directions, »the river which dashes against its
strong banks with a terrific sound resembling a deep laugh, or smiling with its pure
foam . . ., the river which abounds with the pure lotos, and where the gods per-
form their ablutions, . . . the river which removing every load of impurity is itself
clear and pellucid, . . . the river which fell from the feet of the divine Vishnu, and