Ganga Dussehra

Ganga Dussehra (03-June-2017)

Ganga Dussehra is a festival celebrated over the first 10 days of the hindu month of Jyeshtha (in June) commemorating the descent of Ganga Devi to the earth. The Ganga, or the Ganges is India’s oldest and largest river. The river is considered highly sacred to Hindus around the world and is treated with utmost reverence. River Ganga is believed to be a celestial river originating from the heavens. People strongly believe that the divine mother Ganga absolves all their sins on taking a holy dip into her.

The festival of Ganga Dashahara is celebrated as a mark of respect to the Goddess Ganga Devi. Offering sincere prayers to the goddess on this day is said relieve a person from ten sins and thereby helps in attaining salvation. The name “Dussehra” is derived from the Sanskrit words ‘Dus’ and ‘ hara’ which means ‘ten’ and ‘defeat’ respectively. Hence the festival is rightly called Ganga Dusshera.

Ganga-Dussehra-(03-June-2017)

Celebrations During Ganga Dussehra

The first ten days of the Jeyestha month are exclusively devoted for the worship of the Holy mother Ganga. The lenghty river flows through the North Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal after which merges with the Bay of Bengal. Devotees visit pilgrimage centres such as Rishikesh, Haridwar, Garh-Mukteshwar, Prayag and  Varanasi every year in large numbers take a holy dip in this sacred river. They clay from the river bed is also worship.

Thousands of leaf boats with flames, flowers, and sweetmeats are offered to the river as part of the worship. It is beautiful to see these boats carried by the river currents with the auspicious sounds of bells and mantras ringing at the background. The sacred “Aarthi” is also performed to the river.

For those devotees unable to visit and bathe in the river on these ten auspicious days of Ganga Dhusshra, the Ganga jal (water) kept in most Hindu homes. Sprinkling this water on one’s head is said to purify his/her sins.

 

Legend – How River Ganga came to earth

According to Hindu Mythology, King Sagara of the Ikshvaku dynasty was ruling at the Kingdom of Ayodhya. He had two queens namely Keshani and Sumati, but neither had a child. Hence the grieved Sagara performed severe austerities so that his wives could birth sons. While Keshani gave birth to a son called Asmajas, Sumati bore 60,000 sons. The happy King decided to perform the Ashwamedha Yagha, to declare his suzerainty over the neighbouring kingdoms. As per the traditional norms of the yaga, the sacrificial horse was to be let loose and allowed to wander into the neighbouring kingdoms. If the horse was caught, a battle would have to be fought out by the two opposite parties and the winner will be decided accordingly. The 60,000 sons of Sagara were following the horse when they noticed it entering a cave where sage Kapila was supposedly meditating. On not finding the horse within the cave, Sagara’s sons presumed that the sage had captured the horse. Since Kapila, as he was a great sage, they did not want to kill him but instead hindered his meditation.

Annoyed at being disturbed, Sage Kapila burnt all the 60,000 sons of Sagara with a single curse. Centuries later, Bhagiratha, the great grandson of Sagara, came across the bones of his dead ancestors. He wanted to perform the customary shraddha (ceremony honouring the dead person’s soul) to his ancestors but could find water anywhere in the kingdom. Sage Agastya had drunk all the waters of the ocean and thus the kingdom was struck by severe drought. Bhagiratha then prayed Lord Brahma, the divine Creator, to end the drought. Brahma who appeared before Bhagiratha instead asked him to pray to Vishnu to allow Ganga which sourced from his toe to come down to earth.

Bhagiratha then prayed Vishnu who agreed to his request but asked him to get Lord Shiva’s consent too, to allow the torrential rain to fall on his head before it came to the earth as the river was very forceful and if she were allowed to come down unchecked, her fall would split the earth. Lord Shiva agreed to hold the gigantic weight of the cascading Ganga in the matted hair piled high on his head. This slowed the speed of the river which smoothly flowed over the plains, thereby bringing the much-needed elixir to the drought stricken earth.

-Radhika T V

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