MAARKANDEYA presents MAHAABHAARATHAM

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W E L C O M E

"After praying to Naaraayana, Nara, Sarasvathi and Vyaasa, then one should read the Jayam."

DEDICATED TO MY DEAR NIECE VYSHNAVI KRISHNA

BHAGEERATHA

The BH in this name is pronounced like a hardened sound of 'b' in 'bus'. The TH is pronounced like 'th' in 'thick'.)

Bhageeratha was from the Solar dynasty. He was one of the sixteen ancient soverigns of India. He was an ancestor of Raama. In Mahaabhaaratham , his name was mentioned by Naarada to Yudhishthira in svargaarohana parva, while praising his achievement.

Sagara was a famous king who performed 99 asvhamedha sacrifces and started the 100 th one. Indra was afraid of its successful completion since a person of 100 successful sacrifices would be a contestent to his position in the heaven.

As a plan to render Sagara's performance useless, Indra stole the sacrificial horse and hid it in the hermitage of the great sage Kapila ( an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself ) in the underworld Paathaalam.

Sagara sent his 60000 sons to find the horse. They searched the entire earth and dug their way through the ocean ( it was dry then, due to sage Agasthya's drinking its entire water for the cause of the Gods at their request )to the paathaalam where they saw their horse in the hermitage of Kapila. They misunderstood that the old sage was the thief of the horse and tried to molest him. As soon as Kapila opened his eyes from meditation and looked at them, they were all burnt into ashes in an instant.

Then Sagara sent his grandson Amshumaan in search of the horse . He followed the course of his uncles and found the sage with the horse but Unlike them, he prayed to the sage for his mercy and obtained the horse. He also prayed him to tell how his dead uncles would go to the heaven, not obstructed by their offence to the sacred sage. Then Kapila said to him that they would reach heaven if the divine river Ganga flows over their ashes. Amshumaan bowed to the sage and returned to his grandfather who completed his performance.

Sagara could not attempt to bring the divine Ganga to the earth, due to his ripe old age. Amshumaan went on penance on Lord Shiva but he could not achieve success in his life. His son Dileepa too could not do anything for the cause of his grandfathers.

Then came Bhageeratha , a descendent of the dynasty. He first went on penance for propitiating Brahma, who suggested to him to pray the river Ganga herself. Then he took penance on Ganga who appeared before him and said that no one could bear her forceful fall from the heaven to the earth,except Lord Shiva and told Bhageeratha to win his faour first. Bhageeratha again undertook a concentrated penance for Lord Shiva who blessed him with his readiness to bear the falling Ganga.

As was arranged by Bhageeratha, Ganga jumped with a heavilyy roaring spaty flow from the heaven onto Lord shiva's head. Shiva didn't tolerate Ganga's proud course and he tied her up within his heavy plaits of hair, not allowing any opening for her to flow out, with a view to teach her a lesson for her self-conceit. Ganga couldn't do anything to flow down from his head for many years. Again at the humble prayers of Bhageeratha, Lord Shiva let an opening for Ganga through the fort of his thick plaits. That flow fell onto Himaalaya first and from there it split in to three lines and one line followed Bhageeratha to the Paathaalam. In the way, the river inundated the hermitage of a very great sage Jahnu, who became angry at that and drank the entire flow of the river. When pleasingly prayed by Bhageeratha, he let it out of his right ear. Finally, the river Ganga reached Paathaalam and flowed over the ashes of the sons of Sagar , making way for them to the heaven.

Since then the ocean is known as Saagara ( of Sagara's),Ganga is variously known as thripathaga (gaa=flowing, thri=three, patha=line), Bhaageerathi ( brought by bhageeratha) and Jaahnavi ( of Jahnu) . This episode is vividly described in the Mahaabhaagavatham and more poetically in its Telugu translation by the great poet Pothana .

Thus Bhageeratha's determined efforts of a very long period brought the divine river to the earth for the benefit of his ancestors and others too.

Even nowadays, we refer to a perseverant and unswerving person as Bhageeratha and a stubborn effort as Bhageeratha's effort.

"After praying to Naaraayana, Nara, Sarasvathi and Vyaasa, then one should read the Jayam."

DEDICATED TO MY DEAR NIECE VYSHNAVI KRISHNA

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