Story of Bhagiratha bringing Ganga to Earth

             King of Himalayas Himavantha had two beautiful daughters Ganga and Uma with his wife Menu.  One day the gods of heaven approach Himavantha and his wife. They ask him to give  his daughter Ganga to them for the welfare and prosperity of the world. Himavantha happily accepts this request and sends Ganga away with the Gods. Ganga starts living among the other damsels and demigods in heaven.


              King Bhagiratha is a ruler iof the Ikshvaku dynasty into which Lord Rama will be born later. Several of his ancestors try to bring Ganga to earth and die without succeeding. Bhagiratha is determined to bring Ganga down to earth so that her divine waters could liberate his ancestors. He leaves his kingdom to the management of his ministers and goes to perform severe penance and austerities in the forest. He spends hundreds of years in penance to impress God Brahma. Brahma becomes pleased with his dedication and appears in front of him along with other demi gods. Brahma asks Bhagiratha what he wishes for and for what he has performed such severe penance. Bhagiratha folds his hands in respect and asks Brahma to grant him a wish of bringing river Ganga down to earth. He also asks Brahma to provide him with a child because he is childless. Brahma smiles on listening to his request and agrees to grant both his wishes. But he warns Bhagiratha that Earth may not be able to bear the velocity of Ganga flowing from the heavens. He suggests Bhagiratha to request Lord Shiva for assistance.

So Bhagiratha performs penance for Shiva for an year standing on one foot in the forest. Lord shiva appears and agrees to hold Ganga in the folds of his hair and leave a stream of water to flow down to earth. Ganga looks at Shiva's hair and wonders if flowing through it will contaminate her. Shiva understands the reason for her hesitation and feels immediately chagrined. Imploding with anger, he envelops her in the folds of hair and arrests her flow. Bhagiratha pleads with Shiva to release Ganga and starts offering prayers to him. Shiva cools down after a while and allows a stream of water from Ganga to trickle down to earth. Ganga upon falling on earth breaks down into several tributaries and one of the rivulets starts following the directions of Bhagiratha. He takes her to the place where his ancestors are resting and Ganga washes their tombs with her water delivering them to heaven.

     On the way to his ancestors' resting place, the waters of Ganga accidentally wash away Bhagiratha's shrine of penance. This angers him and he consumes the waters of Ganga and stores her in his stomach. The gods appear before him and request him to let her go. They grant him the wish of making Ganga his daughter in return for releasing her. So he unbounds her and she gets known as his daughter 'Bhagirathi' from then onwards. This way King Bhagiratha gets both his wishes granted by teh Gods. He was able to liberate the souls of his ancestors and also get a beautiful daughter to carry on his legacy.