Chapter XXIX: Book XXVI (3)

THE DESCENT OF THE GANGES.

FIRST PRINTED IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, VOL. XLV.

The descent of the Ganges is the sequel of another fiction still more monstrous, but perhaps one of the most singular of the cosmogonical notions of the ancient Indians. Sagara, the king of Ayodhya (Oude), was without offspring--in almost all eastern countries the most grievous calamity incident to man, more especially to those of noble or royal race. By the most surpassing penances he obtains an oracle from the wise Brighu, predicting that one of his wives will bring forth a single son, the other _sixty thousand_! Accordingly the fair Cesina gives birth to Asamanja; his other wife to a gourd, which, like the egg of Leda, is instinct with life. From the seeds of this gourd, preserved with great care, and fed with ghee, come forth in due time the sixty thousand boys. The son of Cesina was a youth of the most malicious and cruel disposition; his pastime was to throw little infants into the river, and solace himself with their cries. He is sent into exile by his just and humane father, where he has a son, Ansuman, as gentle and popular as Asamanja was malignant and odious. King Sagara prepares to offer the Aswameda, the famous sacrifice of the horse. The holy and untouched steed is led forth, as in the 'Curse of Kehama,' among the admiring multitude, by the youthful Ansuman, when on a sudden a monstrous serpent arises from the earth, and drags it into the abyss. Sagara, in wrath, commands his sixty thousand sons to undertake the recovery of the steed from the malignant demon who has thus interrupted the sacrifice. Having searched long in vain, they begin to dig into the bowels of the earth, until,--

'Cloven with shovel and with hoe, pierced by axes and by spades,
Shrieked the earth in frantic woe; rose from out the yawning shades
Yells of anguish, hideous roars from the expiring brood of hell--
Serpents, giants, and Asoors, in the deep abyss that dwell.
Sixty thousand leagues in length, all unweary, full of wrath,
Through the centre, in their strength, clove they down their hellward path.'

The gods, expecting the whole frame of the world, thus undermined, to perish in total ruin, assemble around Brahma to implore his interposition. He informs them that Vishnu, in the form of Kapila, has been the robber of the horse, and that in due time the god will avenge himself. From Patala, the hell of Indian mythology, the Sagaridae recommence their impious and destructive work.

'And downward dug they many a rood, and downward till they
saw aghast, Where the earth-bearing elephant stood, ev'n like
a mountain tall and vast. 'Tis he whose head aloft sustains
the broad earth's forest-clothed round, With all its vast and
spreading plains, and many a stately city crown'd. If
underneath the o'erbearing load bows down his weary head,
'tis then The mighty earthquakes are abroad, and shaking down
the abodes of men. Around earth's pillar moved they slowly,
and thus in humble accents blest Him the lofty and the holy,
that bears the region of the East. And southward dug they
many a rood, until before their shuddering sight, The next
earth-bearing elephant stood, huge Mahapadmas' mountain
height. Upon his head earth's southern bound, all full of
wonder, saw they rest. Slow and awe-struck paced they round,
and him, earth's southern pillar, blest. Westward then their
work they urge, king Sagara's six myriad race, Unto the vast
earth's western verge, and there in his appointed place The
next earth-bearing elephant stood, huge Saumanasa's mountain
crest; Around they paced in humble mood, and in like
courteous phrase addrest, And still their weary toil endure,
and onward dig until they see Last earth-bearing Himapandure,
glorying in his majesty.'

At length they reach the place where Vishnu appears in the form of Kapila, with the horse feeding near him; a flame issues forth from the indignant deity, and the six myriad sons of Sagara become a heap of ashes.

The adventure devolves on the youthful Ansuman, who achieves it with perfect success; Vishnu permits him to lead away the steed, but the ashes of his brethren cannot be purified by earthly water; the goddess Ganga must first be brought to earth, and, having undergone lustration from that holy flood, the race of Sagara are to ascend to heaven. Yet a long period elapses; and it is not till the reign of the virtuous Bhagiratha, that Brahma is moved by his surpassing penance to grant the descent of Ganga from heaven. King Bhagiratha had taken his stand on the top of Gokarna, the sacred peak of the Himavan, (the Himalaya,) and here

'Stands with arms outstretch'd on high, amid five blazing fires, the one
Towards each quarter of the sky, the fifth the full meridian sun.
Mid fiercest frosts on snow he slept, the dry and withered leaves his food,
Mid rains his roofless vigil kept, the soul and sense alike subdued.'

His prayers are irresistible; but Brahma forewarns him, that the unbroken descent of Ganga from heaven would be so overpowering, that the earth would be unable to sustain it, and Siva must be propitiated, in order that he may receive on his head the precipitous cataract. Under this wild and unwieldy allegory appears to lurk an obscure allusion to the course of the Ganges among the summits, and under the forests of the Himalaya, which are the locks of Siva.

'High on the top of Himavan the mighty Mashawara stood;
And "Descend," he gave the word to the heaven-meandering water--
Full of wrath, the mandate heard Himavan's majestic daughter.
To a giant's stature soaring and intolerable speed,
From heaven's height down rush'd she pouring upon Siva's sacred head.
Him the goddess thought in scorn with her resistless might to sweep
By her fierce waves o'erborne, down to hell's remotest deep.'

Siva, in his turn enraged, resists her fury.

'Down on Sankara's holy head, down the holy fell, and there
Amid the entangling meshes spread, of his loose and flowing hair.
Vast and boundless as the woods upon the Himalaya's brow,
Nor ever may the struggling floods rush headlong to the earth below.
Opening, egress was not there, amid those winding, long meanders.
Within that labyrinthine hair, for many an age the goddess wanders.'

The king again has recourse to his penances, Siva is propitiated, and the stream by seven[159] channels finds its way to the plains of India. The spirit and the luxuriance of the description which follows, of the king leading the way, and the obedient waters rolling after his car, appear to us of a high order of poetry.

'Up the raja at the sign upon his glittering chariot leaps,
Instant Ganga the divine follows his majestic steps, From the
high heaven burst she forth first on Siva's lofty crown,
Headlong then and prone to earth thundering rushed the
cataract down. Swarms of bright-hued fish came dashing;
turtles, dolphins in their mirth, Fallen or falling,
glancing, flashing, to the many gleaming earth. And all the
host of heaven came down, spirits and genii, in amaze, And
each forsook his heavenly throne, upon that glorious scene to
gaze. On cars, like high tower'd cities, seen, with elephants
and coursers, rode, Or on soft swinging palanquin, lay
wondering each observant god. As met in bright divan each
god, and flash'd their jewell'd vestures' rays, The
coruscating aether glow'd, as with a hundred suns ablaze. And
with the fish and dolphins gleaming, and scaly crocodiles and
snakes, Glanc'd the air, as when fast streaming the blue
lightning shoots and breaks: And in ten thousand sparkles
bright went flashing up the cloudy spray, The snowy flocking
swans less white, within its glittering mists at play. And
headlong now poured down the flood, and now in silver
circlets wound, Then lakelike spread all bright and broad,
then gently, gently flowed around, Then 'neath the cavern'd
earth descending, then spouted up the boiling tide, Then
stream with stream harmonious blending, swell bubbling up or
smooth subside. By that heaven-welling water's breast, the
genii and the sages stood, Its sanctifying dews they blest,
and plung'd within the lustral flood. Whoe'er beneath the
curse of heaven from that immaculate world had fled, To th'
impure earth in exile driven, to that all-holy baptism sped;
And purified from every sin, to the bright spirit's bliss
restor'd, Th' etherial sphere they entered in, and through
th' empyreal mansions soar'd. The world in solemn jubilee
behold these heavenly waves draw near, From sin and dark
pollution free, bathed in the blameless waters clear. Swift
king Bhagiratha drave upon his lofty glittering car, And
swift with her obeisant wave bright Ganga followed him afar.'

[Footnote 159: Schlegel supposes the three western streams to be the Indus, which appears under its real name the Sind, the Iaxartes, and the Oxus; are not the Sareswatie, or perhaps the Sutlej, under the name of Sita, and the Jumna meant? Of the eastern branches, it is not difficult to fix the Burhampooter. Schlegel suggests the Irawaddy, and the Blue River of China. Why not the Alacananda and the Gogra? The main stream bears the name of the Bhaghiratha, till it joins the Alacananda and takes the name of the Ganges.]

THE END.