Week 3 Story: Bhagaritha's Remorse

King Sakara sat atop his throne, surveying the lofty view of his kingdom. At the top of the palace, one could see the horizon curve and the land give way to the sky, yet the edges of Sakara's domain were further still. Sitting now in quiet contemplation, he had a pleasant view of the sun setting over his lands. While the last rays of light were fading, Sakara wished for them to stay, and keep his kingdom shining so beautifully. Suddenly the king sat upright, a smile on his face. The light would always shine on his kingdom if only the whole earth were his. 

Calling his many sons together, King Sakara set forth a plan to complete the ritual of aswamedha. Sakara would then become the true king of all the lands. Hearing this, the gods grew fearful of one man ruling all of earth, no matter his purpose. 

When the ritual commenced, the great god Indra descended from heaven and stole the sacrificial horse. He descended deep into the underworld and released the beast.

Outraged, Sakara dispatched his sons to return the horse and complete the ritual. Having no way to reach the underworld , they began digging great pits into the face of the earth. Across the planet, the men left great scars in search of the horse.

Bhagiratha watched his kinsmen dig from the edge of these scars, too ashamed to partake in the mass mutilation of nature. Before his very eyes, the men dug too deep, and the earth brought forth fire and hellish landscapes of burning corpses. Magma spewed forth into the great pits and threatened to overflow into the kingdom.

Bhagiratha fell to his knees and begged the gods for aid. Shiva came to him and told him of Ganga, a beautiful river in heaven from which all life flows. She could put the fires out and cool the earth's fury. Shiva granted Bhagiratha a lock of hair from his head with which to lasso Ganga and pull her down. 

With the divine lasso in hand, Bhagiratha began his journey. To reach heaven with his lasso, he climbed high into Himalaya mountains until at last he saw the goddess Ganga high in the sky. With a mighty effort, Bhagiratha roped the goddess and pulled her from heaven. 

Ganga was deeply upset with her fate, and began to weep great tears of despair. Bhagiratha left in shame, unable to ask her forgiveness for forcing her to earth in his haste. Returning to his grandfather's kingdom, Bhagiratha meditated and prayed for the rest of his days for forgiveness.

From the mountains, the tears of the goddess flowed into the lands below and finally down into the scars left in the earth by the men. They quenched the fires of the earth's fury. There they pooled and formed the great oceans and seas, forever a remorseful landmark of Ganga's despair and a testament to man's foolishness.

Bhagiratha

Author's note:

I enjoyed this story a great deal, and didn't want to change too much in it. I believe it helps to keep the context and the characters here original. That being said, the part with the sage just didn't feel as important to me, and neither did the men finding the horse. Part of the message of the story I think is that men are too hasty, and jump to wild conclusions. In the original story, Sakara's sons assault the sage on false accusations and he incinerates them. To put these men to rest, Sakara's grandson, Bhagiratha, convinces Ganga to come down to earth to wash over their bones.

 I changed this portion of the story quite a bit. Rather than finding a sage, the sons just dig too deep and run into magma and die as retribution for mutilating the land.To stop their folly from spreading to the rest of the earth, Bhagiratha pulls down Ganga, but I wanted to showcase the consequences of hasty actions once again, and this does not end happily for everyone, regardless of the intentions. This fits well with the name of the headwaters of the Ganges, which are called Bhagirathi, or "caused by Bhagiratha."

Bibliography

Story: Bhagiratha

Book Title: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

Author:R. K. Narayan