Early morning they all started after the morning worship and Vishwamitra told all to cross the river Sonna by foot as there was not much water flowing. By noon they reached the banks of the river Ganga (Ganges). They all took baths and made offerings to their ancestors and performed a Homa (small yaga). Then Rama requested Vishwamitra to explain to them the history of Ganga.
Vishwamitra gives a long account. It is a bit confusing because he personifies Ganga as the daughter of Himavan and then says that she is flowing in the Deva Loka. At the same time, Ganga as a river flows on the Earth and they were on her bank. However, I will give below the account as told by Vishwamitra.
Vishwamitra started telling the story of Ganga and Parvati. He said "Himavan was the mountain king and Ganga and Uma were his daughters, Ganga being the elder one. Himavan gave Ganga to the Devas in order to do good things to the three worlds. She is described as Tripathaga meaning going in three ways. Uma was always doing penance and she was given in marriage to handsome Rudra. So Ganga ascended to the Deva Loka.
Rama then thanked Vishwamitra for his explanation and requested him to tell them why Ganga was considered the most sacred. Vishwamitra explained that long long ago Lord Shiva who was famous for his penance married Devi. Hundred years passed by but they had no children. Then Devas feared who could bear Shiva's Veeryam (semen) and so they went to Lord Shiva and requested him to continue to do penance along with his wife and to hold his power (of producing a child) and thus save the world. Lord Shiva agreed to their prayers and promised to hold his power. He also said that if his power were to fall off who could bear it. The Devas replied that Mother Earth would do that. Then Shiva let his power off and the Devas requested Vayu the wind God and Agni the fire God to enter that power. This ended in the creation of a baby boy who is Lord Subrahmanya as would be described in the next paragraph. The Devas praised Lord Shiva and Parvati Devi. However, Parvati was so angered because she could not bear that child because of the deeds of Devas. Hence she cursed the Devas that they would be unable to get any child with their wives. Then Lord Shiva and Parvati went north to the Himalayas and started doing penance again.
Then Vishwamitra continued to describe the importance of the river Ganga and also the birth of Skanda or Subrahmanya. The Devas approached Lord Brahma for help who said that the curse on the Devas could not be removed. He advised Devas to go and request Agni to absorb the power of Shiva and then leave it with Ganga. Accordingly, Agni did so but then Ganga could not bear it so she left it on the slopes of the Himalayas with her permission of Agni.
Vishwamitra said that this power reacted with the earth and produced several metals, such as silver, copper, steel (Kashnayasa), tin (Thrapu), and lead (Seesaka). It is indeed of great interest to note that so many metals were known to them at that period. So once again we get some evidence for the knowledge of those people in metallurgy. Valmiki said that the power of Shiva that was just left so also turned some vegetation and trees into gold. A baby boy was then created and the Devas along with Indra and Agni asked the Krittika ladies to take care of the child. They were six in number and the boy suckled from all of them at once taking six months. Being fed by Krittikas the boy was named Kartikeyan. Since he arose from the power (semen) which had slipped onto the earth he was also named Skanda (meaning one who slipped).
Vishwamitra continued to tell more in which some more details of Ganga are found. The well-known story of Bhageeratha is told. Sagara was the ancestor of Rama and he had two wives, Keshini the daughter of Vidharbha country, and Sumati the daughter of Rishi Kashyapa. Blessed by Bhrigu Muni, Keshini got one son and Sumati 60,000 sons.
Vishwamitra gives an interesting detail hard to understand though. He says that Sumati left her 60,000 foetus and they were all preserved in pots containing ghee (the translation is probably not adequate) until they all matured into babies! Would this not correspond to in vitro fertilization!
They all grew into handsome youths. Azumanga son of Keshini turned out to be an evil person who amused himself by throwing babies into the river and watching them die. Therefore Sagara banished him to the forest. Amsuman was Asumanja's son who was a very righteous person. Sagara performed Ashwamedhayaga and set his horse to wander in all the countries as was the custom. But the horse was stolen by Indra and was hidden in the underground (Patala) world. Sagara sent his 60000 sons to go in search. They dug the earth and ended up in the Patala Loka and located the horse tied next to the rishi Kapila who was doing penance. They misunderstood the situation and accused Kapila who in his anger burnt all of them to ashes. Sagara seeing that he had no news from his sons, sent his grandson Amsuman in search. He located and learned what had happened. He was told that only by the holy water of the Ganges that the dead sons could be redeemed and sent to the Heavens. So he brought the horseback and Sagara could complete the great yaga. However, neither Sagara nor Amsuman knew how to bring Ganga to the netherworld. Dilip was Amsuman's son and was a great king. He too did not succeed in this task. His son was Bhageeratha and he was crowned after Dilipa. Bhageeratha wanted to liberate his forefathers and left his kingdom to his ministers and did great penance. Lord Brahma was pleased and granted him his wish but warned him that the earth would not be capable of bearing the descent of Ganga and hence suggested that he pray to Shiva who alone could solve that. Bhageeratha then did great penance for a year to please Lord Shiva who accepted to bear Ganga the daughter of Mountain on his head. Upon this Ganga got proud and said to herself that she would come down with such a force that she would take even Lord Shiva with her to the Patala Loka.
Ganga fell on the head of Lord Shiva but she could not get out and started going round and round for years but could not descend on the earth. Bhageeratha again did penance to Lord Shiva who finally let Ganga out. Then it split into seven rivers. (The concept of Ganga as a lady and also as a river is constantly used). Three of the rivers (Hladini, Pavani, and Nalini) flowed eastwards and three others (Suchakshu, Sita, and Sindhu) westwards. The seventh followed Bhageeratha. Valmiki describes the splendor of the river that was flowing making a loud noise and carrying a lot of fish, tortoises, and crocodiles with it. All the Devas assembled to admire the descent of Ganga.
I may be permitted to make a comment here. The above account would not be easily acceptable to the modern mind however much it tries not to brand things as impossible. I wish to offer a possible explanation for the above account of Valmiki which I give below. It is up to the others to accept or develop this further because I think that our Itihasas and Puranas do not speak nonsense but only we are unable to grasp the full inner meaning. This is a pity that our ancient works hide more than they reveal as is well known to many. For instance, the Vedas are called in Tamil "Marai" which means to hide. How can we understand the above? Valmiki describes the lock of hair of Shiva thus. He says "Ganga fell in the lock of hair comparable to the Himalayas with so many caves". I am tempted to think that Ganga was still flowing in the mountain and was winding her way but still in the mountain. Bhageertha's penance could correspond to his deep thinking about how to solve the problem. It is possible that by an engineering feat he broke some boulders and made way for the river to flow down to the plains. It is believed that the present Haridwar is the place where Ganga descended from the mountain on the plain. Now we know the Ganges (Ganga) is already flowing on the plains much ahead of Haridwar for instance, at Rishikesh. Obviously, so many thousands of years have gone by and there might have been so many landslides and changes in the landscape. Also, Vishwamitra did not mention specifically the famous river Saraswati a river known to have flown during Vedic periods and which had gone underground only in 2000 BCE or so, a fact which had been proven by satellite observations. But it is interesting that Vishwamitra mentions seven branches and also the river Sindhu which still flows.
Vishwamitra continued his story of Ganga. People considered Ganga sacred because it flowed from Lord Shiva's head. As Bhageeratha was leading Ganga to the netherworld, at some point it had to cross the Ashram of the rishi Janhu which was flooded. The rishi in order to punish her drank her and the flow stopped. But Bhageeratha had to appease the rishi by his prayers who then released Ganga through his two ears and she flowed once again. (Here again, it could be figurative and the river had gone underground and came up at some other point). Vishwamitra said that Ganga now got the name Jahnnavi (Jahnu's daughter), reached the sea and also the Patala Loka, and submerged the heap of ash. Upon this, all the sons of Sagara were liberated and reached the Heavens. Vishwamitra concluded this long account on Ganga and said that those who listen to this will attain good things. Rama was so thrilled to hear all this and he thanked Vishwamitra for this very interesting detail about Ganga and added that in listening to it they did not even realize the passing of the night so quickly.
We know that even today if someone achieves something after very great efforts we say that he did "Bhageeratha Prayatna" meaning colossal efforts!
It is interesting to note that in Rig Veda River Ganga has been mentioned only twice whereas River Saraswati figures several times. Since Vedas are much more ancient than the period of Sagara, this is a bit puzzling. Maybe Ganga was a tiny river and became a mighty one due to Bhageeratha's efforts?
The next morning they all crossed Ganga by boat and reached the northern bank. There they saw a city called Vishala and Rama requested Vishwamitra to tell them all about that city.
Vishwamitra said he was only too happy to explain to Rama all about the place they were in. He then described how the Milk Ocean was churned by the Devas and Asuras. This story is well known to all and hence I skip it but just mention that Valmiki does not make any allusion to Shiva falling in love with Vishnu in the form of Mohini, which normally one hears.
While churning the Milk Ocean came Varuni the daughter of Lord Varuna. Aditi's sons refused to marry her but Diti's sons married her and so they came to be known as Asuras whereas Aditi's sons were called Suras (Devas). At the end of churning, Indra killed the Asuras and Diti made a great penance and through Kasyapa rishi conceived to get a son who would kill Indra. But Indra tricked and cut the foetus into seven. Finally, upon the request of Diti, Indra lets them live and they become known as The Maruts. Vishwamitra said that all those events happened there.
Vishwamitra then told about the Ikshvaku kings who were the ancestors of Rama. Vishala was a great king who built the city Vishala. His son was Hemachandra and his son was Suchandra. Dhoomrashwa was his famous son and his son was Shrunjaya. Their descendants were, Shreeman, Sahadeva, Kushaashwa, and Somadatta. Somadatta's son was Kakustha and his son was Sumati he was ruling the city Vishala at the time when Vishwamitra and all arrived there.
King Sumati came there to meet them and provided them hospitality for that night.
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