THE DESCENT OF GANGÁ ON EARTH.
Argument:--Reinstatement of Bhagíratha in his Kingdom, and his bringing
down the heavenly stream by means of his austere Devotion.
Vasishtha continued:--It came to pass at one time as Bhagíratha was
passing through a large metropolis, he beheld the ruler of that
province, who was childless to be snatched away by the hand of death,
as a shark seizes a fish for its prey.
2. The people being afraid of anarchy and lawlessness for want of a
ruler, were in search of a proper person joined with noble endowments
and signs to be made their future king.
3. They met with the silent and patient prince in the act of begging
alms, and knowing him as the king Bhagíratha himself, they took him
with them escorted by their own regiments, to install him on the throne
as their king.
4. Bhagíratha instantly mounted on an elephant, and was led by a large
body of troops, who assembled about him as thickly, as the drops of
rain water fall into and fill a lake.
5. The people then shouted aloud, "Here is Bhagíratha our lord; may he
be victorious for ever", and the noise thereof reached to the furthest
mountains, and filled their hollow caves (which reached to the sound).
6. Then as Bhagíratha remained to reign over that realm, the subjects
of his own and former kingdom came reverently to him, and thus prayed
unto their king saying:--
7. The people said:--Great king! the person who thou didst appoint to
rule over us, is lately devoured by death as a little fish by a large
one.
8. Therefore deign to rule over thy realm, nor refuse to accept an
offer which comes unasked to thee (so it is said:--It is not right to
slight even a mite, that comes of itself to any body, but it is to be
deemed as a God-sent blessing).
9. Vasishtha said:--The king being so besought accepted their prayer,
and thus became the sole manager of the earth, bounded by the seven
seas on all sides.
10. He continued to discharge the duties of royalty without the least
dismay or disquietude, though he was quite calm and serene in his mind,
quiet in his speech, and devoid of passions and envy or selfishness.
11. He then thought of the redemption of his ancestors, who excavated
the coast of the sea (and made this bay of Bengal); and were burned
alive underneath the ground (by the curse of sage Kapila); by laving
their bones and dead bodies with the waves of Ganges, which he heard,
had the merit of purity and saving all souls and bodies. (The ancestors
of Bhagíratha were the thousand sons of sagara, who were masters of
Saugar islands in the bay of Bengal).
12. The heavenly stream of the Ganges did not till then run over the
land, it was Bhagíratha that brought it down, and first washed his
ancestral remains with its holy waters. The stream was thence forth
known by his name as Bhagíratha.
13. The king Bhagíratha was thenceforward resolved, to bring down the
holy Gangá of heaven to the nether world. (The triple Ganges is called
the Tripathagá or fluvium trivium or running in three directions).
14. The pious prince then resigned his kingdom to the charge of his
ministers, and went to the solitary forest with the resolution of
making his austere devotion, for the success of his undertaking.
15. He remained there for many years and under many rains, and
worshipped the Gods Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu by turns, until
he succeeded to bring down the holy stream on the earth below. (It is
said that Gangá was pent-up at first in the water pot of Brahmá, and
then in the crown of Siva and lastly under the thighs of Jahnu, all
which are allegorical of the fall of the stream from the cascade of
Gangotri in Haridwar).
16. It was then that the crystal wave of the Ganges, gushed out of the
basin of Brahmá the lord of the world and rushed into the moony crest
of Hara; and falling on earth below it took a triple course, like the
meritorious acts of great men (which were lauded in all three worlds of
their past, present and future lives).
17. It was thus the trivium river of Gangá, came to flow over this
earth, as the channel to bear the glory of Bhagíratha to distant lands.
Behold her running fast with her upheaving waves, and smiling all
along with her foaming froths; she sprinkles purity all along with the
drizzling drops of her breakers, and scatters plenty over the land as
the reward of the best deserts of men.