The Ganga comes down to earth

1. 1The sage Lomasa tells of a great and much-loved king, Bhagiratha. The king learned that his ancestors had died a terrible death through the great sage Kapila and could not reach heaven.
2. 2Sad at heart, the king left his royal duties to his minister and went to the Himalaya mountains. He wanted to live a hard, simple life of prayer to wash away sins and win the favour of the goddess Ganga.
3. 3The king saw the Himalayas with their many-shaped peaks, rivers, groves and rocky ridges. Clouds rested on the mountain, lions and tigers hid in its caves, and many kinds of birds were singing.
4. 4The mountain had lovely lotus ponds and calling cranes. Heavenly beings sat on its rocks, great elephants had scraped its trees with their tusks, and it held many gems and also dangerous poisonous snakes.
5. 5In places the mountain looked like gold, in others like silver, and in others black as eye-paint. There the king began very strict penance and lived for a thousand years on only water, fruit and roots.
6. 6After a thousand years by the gods' counting, the great river Ganga took a bodily form and appeared before the king.
7. 7Ganga asked the king what he wanted and promised to give it. The king said his great-grandfathers, while searching for a lost horse, had been sent to the land of death by the sage Kapila.
8. 8The king explained that King Sagara's sixty thousand sons all died in an instant when they met Kapila, and they had no place in heaven. Only if Ganga sprinkled her water on their remains could they be freed, so he begged her to carry them to heaven.
9. 9Ganga was pleased and agreed to help Bhagiratha. But she warned that when she fell from the sky to the earth, the force of her fall would be very hard to bear.
10. 10Ganga said only Shiva, the god with the blue throat, could bear her fall. She told the king to pray hard to win Shiva's favour, so Shiva would catch her on his head and the king could help his ancestors.
11. 11Bhagiratha went to Mount Kailasa and did strict penance again. After some time he won Shiva's favour, and Shiva agreed to bear the falling Ganga so the king's ancestors could reach heaven.
12. 12Shiva, wanting to please the gods, told Bhagiratha, "So be it." He promised to hold up the pure, holy river Ganga when she came down from the sky.
13. 13Shiva came to the Himalayas with his fierce, armed followers. He told Bhagiratha to pray to Ganga, and said he would hold her when she fell from heaven.
14. 14The king bowed with devotion and fixed his mind on Ganga. Seeing Shiva ready, Ganga suddenly leapt down from the sky, and gods, sages and many heavenly beings gathered to watch.
15. 15Ganga came down with raging whirlpools, full of fish and sharks, and split into three streams heading for the sea. Covered in white foam and twisting and stumbling, she rushed along like a drunken woman.
16. 16Ganga roared and took many forms as she fell. When she reached the earth, she asked Bhagiratha to show her the way to go, since she had come down for his sake.
17. 17Bhagiratha led Ganga to where the remains of Sagara's sons lay, so her holy water could wash over them. Shiva went back to Mount Kailasa, and the king and Ganga reached the sea, which quickly filled up.
18. 18The king took Ganga as his own daughter and offered water in memory of his ancestors, so his heart's wish came true. Lomasa ends the story, which also told how the sage Agastya once drank the sea and destroyed the demon Vatapi.